Battletech: The Ghost Who Walks (Battletech Isekai)

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Aquagea
The preacher's name was Reins Mercer. It was a strange name, Yan allowed, but it was strange times. The preacher wore a hand woven shaw over his shoulders, which the Sheriff were asked was incongruous with the uniform and high boots the man wore underneath the cloak. Those like the man's hands were meticulously clean. Mercer's blue eyes were hard...a familiar kind of hard, that of men who had seen far too much of the world.


Yan knew that look... and he expected a problem. The young gunslinger had had a similar look when he'd come out of his heavy BattleMech, Shepherd knew his trade, and young as he was didn't seem to care much at all about religion... which was likely to bring a problem. Especially from the sound of everything he'd overheard about this 'davion contract' that they had just gotten off of, before heading back into the periphery.


He hadn't gotten the whole story... not yet, he figured that would come out the longer they stuck around, especially if there was business to be done. It would have helped though if the young un hadn't gone flapping his gums about what the computers up in the hills said about what was coming down in approach to via Cabellero's surrounding countryside. The sheriff looked at the carefully cleaned uniform shirt, and the starburst that hung from the chain around the man's neck... and then the pistol holstered there beside a knife. "Reverend". He greeted, "I need to talk to you, and need to be on the same page." Yan was willing to excuse that, "Shepherd is a little on the brusque side, he don't truck much for small talk, but he's driven," He was almost all business all the time.


Hank shuffled. The young un threw a look at the holographic display being projected into the middle of the room. The bit of lostech had come out of the same bunker they'd found their mechs in... it had taken some finagling... mostly done by the kids to get the machinery to talk to one another... which was why Darryl's Centurion was tied into the network.


The star field back drop was awash with ships. That wasn't news. His BattleMaster had known that, the telescopes had shown him that. The difference was in the details. "What's the matter son?"


"Uhm... so I," He gestured to the holograms... and Reins looked like he was about to interrupt. "The computer registers 2 DCMS units have come down. One Terran Regiment, and a whole mess of armor Sheriff."


That was an understatement. "Not just armor. Those are Fury tanks, gauss rifles." The Reverend stated plainly as if that should mean something to all of them, but it meant nothing to Yan other than it was an impressive four letter word. Fury.


"There are a lot of them, reverend." Hank remarked half mumbled.


"They're air defense tanks." Reins remarked, "They're networked together to mass fire on incoming aircraft." Yan didn't bother pointing out that they didn't have any aircraft... on the other hand via Cabellero had almost twenty battlemechs to call on... more than the capital of the planet usually had on hand at any given time unless the local hidalgos were in from the surrounding ranches.


Shepherd had them outnumbered substantively if he meant to fight... which he hadn't said he was... but Yan had figured that if you were going to take a planet... those were the numbers where it wouldn't have been hard. "You telling me he expects a fight."


"Terran officers always expect fights, sheriff."


Yan figured he was right, Shepherd had picked a fight with the Zathras goons... and then when Canopus come asking for help for Luxen had dropped down from space against better numbers. There was something though about the Reverend's gaze which... suggested to Yan that the man thought Yan knew something. Yan had been sheriff though long enough to know that trick, and knew also to pick on details, "What do you mean by that Reverend?"


--
Gene watched Darryl dismount from the Centurion. He was impressed... but realistic. The PhosTechs weren't in inventory... and there was no guarantee that Darryl's weapon could be replicated... or exactly how durable the kludge together 'blaster' was. That Darryl had called it a blaster just underscored that it was exactly the kind of experimenting that he doubted anyone in the Hegemony R&D would have done... not the least of which was Darryl had gone for firepower and not range.


The way his Centurion had chewed through targets ... well two medium lasers normally burned through the same amount of standard armor plate as a PPC. Nothing Darryl had done had touched that range advantage, but it also probably hadn't mattered to Darryl. "Did you notice their machinery?" He asked, because while a lot of it was kludged together, bailing wire and duct tape there were other pieces that weren't the things you could buy on Detroit... the computers especially


"I did." Bahar replied. "And the SLDF landing pad wasn't active when you were here last time."


"That's correct." He replied to his XO. When she asked what he was thinking, he tilted his head, and looked around, the truth was he doubted it was anything in particular that he had done at least not directly... "I wouldn't b e surprised if after they came back from Detroit if they didn't start looking around for LosTech." One of the townsfolk had asked if he was a LosTech prospector so maybe there had been people before Zathras who had shown up looking for buried, lost treasure. "They found something," and maybe that had lead to other finds. "Some of their equipment came out a cache squirreled away by Terrans from Lone Star, fleeing the Combine." She glanced away. He felt no regret for not staying... the cold logistics were that he was unlikely to have been able to do much here, especially in comparison to everything they had accomplished. "Yan says there are about a million people in the entire territory." Not the town but the sprawl of just millions and millions of acres stretching across the landscape. Territory was a vast nebulous blob of land... which was why the planetary capital had been willing to talk about land hold rights after Zathras had been driven off, "I don't know if we need to worry so much about pirates, but I am some what curious about the Canopian opinion of Zathras and how that might effect things."


"The locals have put together a rather potent little militia." She observed, "If the mechwarrior can make more of those weapons they could be fitted on the fusion powered mining trucks." Aquagea didn't have the resources to build more fusion engines... but they seemed to be able to do the maintenance... Darryl had said something about having experience on a Nissan 200 engine the last time he'd been on the planet, "That would be potent against any mech that came too close."


"Its an idea." He acknowledged. "I want to look around more, I have questions, but Alavi needs to talk to them about Germanium, and we need to get ready for Kate's Hold."


"Do you believe many from Lone Star escaped here?"


"I have no idea Bahar." Just as he wasn't willing to speculate how many if any of the refugees who might have made it here might have been from the Minnesota tribe... even more so since he had the White Shields wanting him to let him go ask, and he was going to have to explain to Doctor Abner at some point what ... who had been in stasis at Lockdale... except then he'd have to explain Lockdale and its AI and ... and it was a mess.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Aquagea
Gene stepped away from the partially stripped AC 5 in the hangar workshop as the noise dimmed from the Mech as it lowered down. It was a 120mm Whirlwind... it had been dismounted from a Wolverine not a Marauder. The thought struck himthat it was strange that GM had had problems with the Marauder'soverhead mount feeding when the Wolverine's Whirlwind was designed tobe jettisoned and had no such issues. He marveled briefly at it, and then left the issue to rest.


Darryl wiped sweat from his brow, and tossed the dirty rag onto a tool box. "So, like I don't mean to pry or nothing Gene... but why bother come back this dust ball. Not that I'm not glad to see you, but we lucked out not having fights start up after we got back from Detroit. Its been quiet"


Though he didn't mean it that way, Gene recognized that their presence could be misconstrued as bringing trouble back here. "We need Germanium Darryl... and frankly Aquagea mines Germanium... the pirates may not come here, but that is no excuse not to be ready if someone does come looking for a fight. You can walk softly if you carry a big stick."


"You're not planning to stick around?"


"Going back to Luxen, most of those civilians," He gestured vaguely towards the distant river valley and the dropships still visible coming down from orbit, "Are going out into the deep periphery. That will keep them out of the fray," He didn't try and explain to Darryl any more than that. Darryl didn't need to know, nor for that matter did Aquagea need to have explained the reasons that the combine would probably chase the Azami exodites. There was enough going on in the rimward periphery, that more of an explanation probably wasn't necessary. "We just came back in from Detroit, we'll spend probably about a year with the Magistracy of Canopus before heading back into the Inner Sphere." That was for a variety of reasons... "McGirk was targeting HPG stations, Kelly continues that trends, but our best guess is that he's branching out," Or that Command and Control was starting to splintering.


"I don't see how anybody would think wearing the devil's own colors, and then expecting good folks to sign up with them..." Darryl paused, "You really believe them when this Kelly guy says they've got an Amaris on their team?"


"We pulled a Rampage with the correct electronic information for him to be telling the truth. How, why, who knows but its plausible that Amaris managed to squirrel an heir away, That there is some Hidden Army Depot," or possibly depots, "Out there. If that's the case then we will probably find out soon enough."


"To be honest Gene, it don't seem like having ComStar on Aquagea is all that good of an idea... painting a bull's-eye on us... but that'd be for the hidalgos in Leon," The planetary capital, "To say."


"I've talked to ComStar, up until this point their guards were just some infantry and vehicles and that was fine."


Darryl paused, "As much money as they have to make, shouldn't they have more than that though, and ComStar handles stuff for Mercenaries, shouldn't they just hire more guys, get guys with 'mechs. You need those to fight other mechs, if some son of a bitch is running around burning their priests you'd think," The wrench paused, and glanced to his own Mech the centurion crouched.


"Terra is a long way away, " Gene replied, because it was the only explanation he could think of that made sense. The bounty system didn't seem to be working. Too many outfits were either committed to long term contracts, or not desperate enough to tangle with Black Jack.


And Darryl wasn't wrong to respond with how many years it had been, "I'd like to go with you, see the galaxy, but you're right, the bandits could come. While your here could you show us how to fight them off, if Zathras comes back?"


"We can do that." Gene replied. ViaCabellero had land lines, a buried set of deep cables. Gene didn't know how old they were but the phones the actual cradles and the keypads were ancient. They had the ancient dynamo cranks to provide local power... the sort he instinctively associated with fail safes for communication in DropShips not really what one would have thought of in a town... but so much of Via Cabellero as a town was recycled material. It hadn't been so obvious last time he was here, "Don't get in bed with Majesty Metals Darryl, I don't like what the guys we left to watch their backs told me about how the company operates..."Not that Jowett and Andrew had been asked to do anything too shady...Majesty had been pushing people off land on ur Cruinne, and the local miner's union was probably going to try and fight back... and that was a conflict Gene wanted no part of.


"Corporates always try and swindle you, unless they're scared of you. Soft handed fellas probably too scared of you cause you kill 'mechs left right center all day." He shrugged, "I saw the ROMs from Luxen." he glanced to Bahar,"Yours too Miss. I would like to learn. The old folks grew up expecting that the Free World League might come back, but the purple chickens haven't yet... then Zathras showed up. I didn't know what to do. I grew up hearing the old folks talk about how all the families came together, and whooped the invaders... lot of those families died when the dam burst though."


Gene had never gotten a history book, academic accounting of what the succession war had looked like here on Aquagea. He wasn't so concerned about the struggle between the Free Worlds League and the Capellan Confederation. Especially not that historical conflict, maybe the more modern war between the two, but he wasn't operating for either polity nor in their space, "We can talk with Chang when she gets up from Leon, but there was something," Since Darryl had brought up the families who had fought back, "I did want to ask about."


"Bout that place we found, the places we found after."


"I think, and I said this when we found it...it that that was left behind by people who fled what was the Terran Hegemony."


"Because of the combine," Darryl acknowledged, disclosing that his centurion had been built in the latter half of the 2820s, and then the land line phone started ringing, a tinny tone accompanied by the light beside the set flashing. "Ah, that's probably the sheriff." Gene shared a look with his XO.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Aquagea
Gene watched as his forces moved into their position.


"God, that's a lot of metal." Darryl breathed out in shock.

One of the lead machines raised a hand in a mech scale salute. "Highlanders." a new voice, a man's voice that Gene didn't recognize remarked.


He turned to regard the speaker. Underneath a homespun cloak a uniform peaked out, at the collar were the pins of a SLDF Chaplain. He gave an uncharacteristic groan of exasperation, the sheriff had said a lot about their preacher... and a lot of it just sounded absurd, droll, and nothing he wanted to pay much mind to. On the other hand, the man was right, "Highlanders," He agreed. "I shouldn't surprised you were the guys who made it to the stasis tubes."


The older man regarded him, and Gene felt his hackles raise, "LX Corp suffered against the betrayer's minions. I am sorry for your dead colonel, but your parents died defending the light of civilization, the orders to fall back were done to keep that fire alive. Do you believe the pirates when they say they're fighting for Amaris?"


"Some of them." Gene replied through gritted teeth, "Kelly was probably barking up the wrong tree in the Reach, most of them were there for the money, McGirk seems to be fighting over some grudge with ComStar." He stopped, and took a breath, ignored the looks that the sheriff was giving the chaplain "Given the claim I don't think Kelly is lying," It was a stupid thing to try and lie about, and then there was the hardware issues cropping up, and why there was RimWorld equipment turning up, being reported as well.


"How long will you be staying?"


"A couple of weeks, trade negotiations and the 2nd​Light Horse Regiment are off hunting pirates. So we'll be here a few weeks at the minimum." Darryl at this piped up with the discussion about training.


"These people need to know how to defend themselves." Mercer stated.


No one pointed out that before they had mechs it had just been men in light vehicles with auto rifles. Hardly enough to run off a serious pirate incursion. … "From what I've seen you've started,"


Yan shrugged, caught up in between of the situation. "Preacher, you came up from Leon," the planetary capital in the south, "Are there any, is there any chance the SLDF left anything behind down there?"


"In terms of 'mechs?" Reins Mercer shook his head, "No Sheriff, most of LX Corps facilities after fighting the Taurians and Rim World were caught in the middle of the Free Worlds League and Capellans fight over the planet." Yan cursed, but the chaplain continued, "A part of an old Terran division resettled here though, and brought machines with them along with what the people fleeing Lone Star were able to bring."


That was important Gene figured since it did confirm their suspicions, hopes, but also, "Is there anyone else who made it to stasis tubes?"


"I'm the last one I should have been woken up at the turn of the century. The people who settled on Aquagea had left the Combine with what they could bring with them, the damage done to the regular facilities here meant some chose to move further into the Periphery, while others would chose to fight for their new home." It made sense he supposed, they'd been surprised by the remains of the old stations being up and running when they had arrived in system, "For the same reasons they did not bring much in the way of hardware."


Gene accepted, "Lets get down to business then. Chang will be coming in from Leon," Via a hop aboard a DropShip, "we'll be here for a couple of weeks, and we can attempt to run through any of your pilots who want the training in lance or even company wide drills. There is no ComStar presence on the planet so Black Jack may continue to pass you by."


In reply to the optisim the sheriff tilted his head, "Or he might not, I know what Germanium costs Gene, we've been talking about buying arms from Detroit on the way back, but people don't sell battlemechs and its one thing to drive a mining truck a tank is a different story." The bald man replied, "And mercenaries are scarce pickings even with the money we have."


"Leon bought those tanks off of quickcell,"Darryl quipped. The planetary capital had bought Scorpions, and Bulldogs as part of the expansion of the planetary defense budget. It was the right move probably, they had done that or started talking about after Zathras had invaded, and then had committed once BlackJack had really started getting active, or maybe even because of more local changes, or further apart … the first battle of Luxen. "That was a start in the right direction I thought."


Gene looked around the room, "That would be a question for the planetary government,"


"Yan nodded, and you made the offer to us, suppose if you made the offer to Leon you'd have to charge for it," He scratched his head, "we've got a mishmash of 'mechs," He jerked his finger to Darryl, "When this knucklehead of a wrench isn't foolin' with his own Centurion he spends his time keeping the other ones fixed up. We have a haul Germanium coming up we were going to take to market we've just been waiting for the chance to have a JumpShip take us to Detroit."
–
Gene thumped back against the couch of his Marauder's cockpit, flashing motes dancing across his command software's holographic spaces. All greens and blues, he blew out a breath. "Outside of time in the stasis tube, I put the chaplain at sixty or seventy. Maybe older..." Now that he thought about it he wasn't sure who was older Reins or the sheriff, "and I've yet to see his Mech."


"Older that guy looks barely into his thirties. I know you guys were built different," Septim paused from within the cockpit of his Merlin as the door in the side of the mesa opened, "Holy shit." The Highlanders were already in place. MacIntyre's Machine was waiting inside the door for them, and waved them forward using the Assault 'mechs hand. "But for real?"


"At least, Terran medicine is strong." Gene quipped, "if he was with LX Corp here when the Taurians came in -"


"The Taurians used nukes." Septim interrupted.


"Only on the ships in orbit." Gene replied, "I don't think they managed to get close enough to use nuclear weapons on the planet, "I can't say anything about Leon, but the Rim World hit Via Caballero because there was a mixed force up this way. From the sound of it, -" He radio squelched as one of the White Shields tapped in. The Marauder II's feed transferred to the surrounding mountain side. "What am I looking at?"


"A weapons cache."


"Excuse me?"


"After the fighting they gathered up most of their weapons and stored them here," The warrior in the assault mech paused, "I expect that they only found this the hard way by looking in the general area, which was how we found it." The magnification expanded. The locals had needed to fell trees, bringing in heavy equipment to clear the brush and dirt, surrounding countryside... and it was an ugly blockhouse like structure. It would have been easy to miss if not for the town militia was still sort of using it, "They need better defenses, the pirates would be able to find it."


Gene grunted to put it on the list... but the truth was he doubted that was the only reason the White Shields had called him up. The man was hoping that even if they weren't mechwarriors whatever Terrans had come in here had been his own distant relations. His computer squawked as the AI of the Facility integrated his Dalban comms system into the secured local conversation that Dante and MacIntyre were connected to, and his Marauder, and Septim's Merlin moved into the Outpost Castle. "We'll start training in the morning." Which wasn't far off at this point if they were going to be up at 0430, "We won't have time to try and run it like we did Luxen, I don't know what they'll be willing to trade for, but if Alavi starts selling them weapons in exchange for Germanium the planetary government is probably going to complain."


Which of course went into what passed for governance in the periphery. He thought about the conversation he had had with Mercer, and about all the stasis tubes that had been within the Fotress Dieron... and how many people here might havepieces of, heirlooms of grandparents or great grandparents. "Could register them with the MRB, say they're mercenaries working for the mining consortium, or the stock association here. It'd be fiction, but it'd be legal fiction boss. We' have to take them to Detroit for that boss, and no offense they'd need a better name Shepherd's Company." He accepted the ribbing from the Lyran, and he wasn't wrong that was an option.

"They're going to need air cover of some kind."

"No offense boss but we need more air cover."

Gene eased his Marauder forward entering the castle's inner doors and the outer ones closed behind them, "Partisan tanks would work as well." He admitted.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Aquagea
Given its position, given the Alavi were going to want to stick around... they might be able to justify leaving a small detachment of ASF, but they would have to be Azami Eagles, the Altair... maybe some of their Sabres... but those would be Azami assets.


Gene suspected that once upon a time the 'Junkyard' had been some kind of Capellan industrial shop... that had through age, and changes in demand sprawled out as pieces of machinery were left to sit in the arid desert. The Free Worlds League had probably blown up any of the heavier industry, but the desert preserved hulls, and pieces of metal, and since then Via Cabellero's inhabitants had drug things out from the sands. Gene was still a little leery about the risk of unexploded ordinance but as far as a muster area went, everyone knew where it was.


Centurion, Hunchback. Wolverine. DervishShadowHawk. Then there were the couple of heavier mechs. "What doyou think?" He asked the Azami man who had walked up to join him.


"They are in good condition, but of all makes, from many manufacturers." The man replied, "The handful of centurions I think came from House Davion's defense against the Dragon, but their warehouse has spare parts. At least one of the Hawks was built by Magistracy of Canopus, probably to fight the SLDF." Haqim spread his hands, "How it ended up here, I cannot say. The Wolverines some are from the Star League, one of the Hunchbacks was originally built Winter, but another was from House Marik's invasion force. If you mean to rationalize the force... you have your work cut out for you."


Gene nodded. "Do you have the tally?" The man extended his hand offering over a piece of waxy waterproof paper from a notebook. The Hunchbacks were in the lead by headcount. Centurions were represented but were all within a few years of each other represented by early production. A much wider gap existed for the other machines. If the master chief was correct then, at least four states had contributed to the pool of Hunchbacks. That wasn't really a surprise given the machine had been sold throughout was sold throughout the Inner Sphere and Periphery. On the one hand... well on the one hand they had enough to make a Lance of Hunchbacks, Bubbles could work with that probably pretty easily. "Lets start with hunchbacks then, get with Darryl and see if we can try and fit them all with the same weapons. I'll talk to Bubbles about setting their pilots aside."


"All of the hunchback pilots?"


"Yes." He replied. The senior non com excused himself. There were no Vindicators on Aquagea, or rather the only ones on the planet were down in Leon. None that he was aware of dated to before the Marik occupation. For the same reason, while there probably were hulks of lighter mechs there weren't any up here. Leon reportedly had a couple of them around, but instead of desperately trying to buy Stingers, or Hermes or whatever might been available had sunk money on Quickcell tanks which had been for sale in Rock City. "If they can buy tanks what do you recommend?"


Alois Hammer had been silent up until then, "More of what the planetary government bought. If your driving concern is logistics and keeping machines running." The armor officer replied, "I'd keep the locals away from our Bandits, or Fury tanks. That preacher is talking up the latter," And those wouldn't fit with what Aquagea needed, never mind what was available, and they could afford. "The locals have more experience with fusion engines than I would have expected," So if the objective was to keep long term costs down, a fusion powered tank really needed to carry energy weapons that didn't need ammunition. In terms of internal combustion designs though, "LRM carriers could provide them with a mobile rocket battery if they could keep them fed and away from whoever they're fighting."


Hammer had a point particularly in not expecting the local 'rubes' away from SLDF cache material. Aquagea was looking at defending the town, the rail line, the mines, but they weren't going to be doing expeditionary warfare as they were envisioned. These were largely twenty year olds looking to protect their homes and families. This wasn't Luxen. They weren't trying to build a formal military structure, or train enlisted and officers of a state military to fight pirates. "Get with the Azami technicians about the fusion power plant." That was their strong point after all, they didn't like being reliant on long supply trains, "If we have to expand the armor we're going to have to buy what's available. We can use this to feel out what's plausible." The conversation died as the hover trucks approached, their blowers coming to vertical and cutting thrust to let them sit there... that meant it was time to talk about what all they had to work with, with the people who actually had to use the equipment.


Gene knew that the Azami had been working with things on Detroit, whether anything was ready, was another story. The Azami would have people here though even after the bulk of the command transferred to Canopian space. He also knew the White Shields Company was pushing to be moved up here. Bardiche under Soren wanted to be involved in 'whatever' this was, and to a less extent that was true also of the Light Company under Akashi. In short of his independent commands only Easy Company under Beau really wasn't objecting to being posted to Leon.


These had not been complaints prior to planet fall. It had only been as Claymore and Curassier had dispersed down that the attention by leadership had begun to manifest. Gene also knew that Hammer wanted a more concrete schedule on going back to the Inner Sphere because in his reasoning the company's association with House Davion's victories on Dieron, and the victory on Elidere were going to attract attention from the other states...and not just recriminations from the Combine though that should also be in the forefront.


The Combine would have been looking to even up just for Dieron. Gene suspected the combine had been pushed onto the back foot but that that the combine was also liable to irrationally strike out over helping the Azami flee out into the Periphery. Not that that was a recent conclusion, but they were out here in the middle of this.


Gene walked forward, and Hammer followed. He had met some of these people. Others were new faces, people from further out in the countryside who while probably had heard of Zathras's attack while it was happening hadn't been able to see it, and might not have come into town until all the scrap had been dragged to the junkyard. Even then, even after the discovery of the underground warehouse most of these people didn't yet have their mechs yet.


Chang was going to speak to them, and anyone else who would listen about responsibilities, duty to one's home, and family. That they were going to learn how to fight back as a community. Via Cabellero wasn't a city... more like a big town but that was at least probably mark of the hardness of the succession wars. The time after the League had fallen.


Hammer seeming to read his expression nodded, confirming he too felt that the locals didn't have the manpower, and on top of that, Germanium mining and a false sense of security could lead to a boom in the region, bring people in from Detroit... maybe elsewhere, but new people could lead to social anxieties and then on top of that, there was still Zathras. Zathras was the threat that worried the townsfolk more so than the pirates ... Black Jack's lot anyway.


"Could always go punch their lights out, sir."


"Why would I want to do that?"


"Zathras has bounty on you, after you stopped their invasion force a few years ago. You destroyed a company of BattleMechs, two ASF, seized the DropShip." Hammer replied. "Frankly if I were them I'd be worried the Company staging here was prelude to you leading an invasion of their so called Empire."

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Aquagea
Mechs stretched across the patchy grass that formed the borderland on the town's 'backyard'. Those machines looked impressive, just as they had looked impressive on parade back on Rock City. He turned away from the window to stare at the holographic map. In 2765 his unit had been earmarked to shuffle off into the periphery, to leave the Inner Sphere. The Taurians, and their Rim World backers had beaten them to the punch. Of course the world he'd been due to post to with the rest of the Hegemony Regiment was in the Aurigan Reach, a world called Artru.


Doubling back wasn't an option. They had a schedule they were on, one they meant to keep, and they were right on the magistracy border. They were going to need to secure the staging rights, trade rights and plans for what the JumpShip would schedule irrespective of how considerate the Azami elders might be of delays, of changes.


His command staff had assembled for the review mostly as a . They talked about the planet, and Aquagea's luck, and how that might or might not hold out. Then there was the Zathras bounty that he'd been ignorant of. The locals had enough for five full lances and a command element. 23 Mechs, a smattering of vehicles, and a bunch of poor bloody infantrymen with auto rifles.

For a million people wide territory it was both simultaneously a pitifully small force, and yet for the succession wars a local militia with that many 'mechs was a lot. And yet to the first point they all but disappeared amidst the swollen Company ranks on assembly.

Aquagea had a few years of peace to buy new mining machines and bring the mines back into industrial operation. Instead of rely in on clapped out machines from the capellan era they'd been able to get newer vehicles from Detroit, and that improved their ore hauls... but the lack of regular JumpShip traffic meant getting back to Detroit was half a year at times. House Alavi would remedy that, make trips more regularly than that... but Hammer was right that that might cause trouble in the planetary government and create further problems with Zathras. The bounty had been a surprise, and even though Gene had been ignorant posting a major company combat command here would look like a political statement in the local periphery at the very least.

"If we had taken LTV and Ignis as salvage that might have been an option." One of Hammer's junior officers suggested. "We might still find them, and ship them back here, or we can ship any salvage we're not keeping to detroit's salvage yards."

The remark prompted a dirty look from the Azami Lieutenant, "We can fit a fusion engine to Quickcell scorpion, and a large laser for testing, give us thirty six hours at least and it will be done."

He glanced to Dara, who was the man's direct superior as the Azami elder stroked his dyed orange beard in contemplation. "Explain."

"We can license with Quickcell, Colonel. They are an inexpensive weapon to produce... and the truth is we have experience with them due to how little the Dragons cares for its armored forces." The order of five pillars had accepted the procurement because they were so cheap.

The 125 Rating Fusion Engine was four tons. That was two tons lighter than the standard 100 rating Internal Combustion Engine quickcell used to keep the price of their budget tanks down. "Something you plan to do anyway."

"The brotherhood will require weapons, we cannot rely only on hiding from the Dragon. We must be prepared to fight and even more if descendants of the Satan Amaris remain among men with the intent to bring further chaos to the world." the elder replied.

That was fine, really it was and the Azami had down time, "You can do the work but include the locals when you do it. If they're going after equipment it'll be their decisions ultimately." Given the situation they couldn't really afford to be all that picky. The truth was too many of his commanders, Bardiche certainly were looking at cache equipment as what was the 'normal'... they had become used to the standard of equipment.

Soren's battalion were here to train up, presumably because they had made some deal with House Davion to try and start a rebellion 'rebellion' or such against the Combine and split off the Rasalhague worlds. Dante's current time table was to return to Davion Space, and Bardiche would be positioned probably on Dieron, or Altair … maybe on Northwind for House Davion. That had been the tentative plan they had discussed with Davion High Command before they had left in any event.

What they hadn't said, was the second part of that plan was to borrow the Eridani and Blue Stars and hay off to visit the Nagayan Castle Brian Complex. Rebuild those units to strength and point them in the Combine's direction with what the Quartermaster's Corp had denied to Kerensky... or House Kurita for that matter... given what had happened in the first succession war.

But that wouldn't be next year or probably even the year after, if not later. It would not change the situation with Aquagea, "Remember people we have to get over the border to the Magistracy and maintain schedule." He reminded the growing open table discussion that had opened up. "We need to be leaving soon." He added probably unnecessarily, because they were going to jump the border … but that was in turn where they would bemoving onto to SL era posts. Posts which would have resources... or information about the last years of the Star League in the periphery. They would be leaving Aquagea soon. The objective was to be at Luxen some time in January of the New Year... but that would depend on the journey, and what they could learn.

"Is that why I'm here?" Septim asked.

It wasn't really a question. Septim was going to form the company lead element if they had to send a force ahead. He, Hammer and Bardiche would forward deploy to Luxen with JumpShips to start the end of a circuit to ferry the rest of the exodus fleet there... and to set the stage for having the space to offload the entire company for restructuring.

It wasn't a question, because while he didn't expect Hammer to object he expected protests from Soren about being sent ahead. A battalion of 'mechs though would be enough to secure Luxen while the rest of the force moved up. "We won't be far behind unless things get out of hand, but in the mean time there is this." He turned back to the assembled Via Cabellero Rangers, "These people are going to defend their homes," He looked at the Preacher's 'mech standing in the distance, still painted in a dark dusky urban SLDF camo. "We're going give them help to do that, but also the company needs to understand that if we can stop Black Jack, we need to do so. That also means stopping Kelly if we can find him..."


That hadn't changed per se, except in a sense it had. THe precentor New Avalon had wanted them to put Kelly down... but that had been before.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars

LUXEN.

3020​

Beside him Septim stretched against the planet's gravity and groaned as he looked around the expansive, plush, terminal facilities. Luxen had once been a provincial capital after all, and for modern uses the spaceport hitherto had seemed outsized for its needs, but now all of a sudden its size made sense... and the posh accommodations were a nice thing to have he supposed. "Looks like we're in for a lot of questions."


The truth was Lady Raventhir had sounded impatient when she had called them from the jump point, and then there had been the news. Dressed in sharp pressed Khaki the armor officer wore a reserved expression... but not the worried expression of a man bringing more bad news... they had had enough of that. The armor officer in contrast to his Battlemech piloting brethren had been able to restock the least from the outpost castles they had visited along the way they had received some aid there. Gene breathed in, grateful to be free of recycled air. Luxen was largely how he remembered it, but he and the company were not how they remembered. It certainly didn't hurtthat they had moved on Cate's Hold, and Brixtana whose caches they had moved on after linking up with the last Azami force holding bonavista for them after having wiped out the pirates who'd been nesting there.

Whether or not Precentor Luxen was able to make good on the bounties or not, well that would be a question for later on. It was good to be planet side again... that much he knew for sure. They had a more pressing conversation before they talked to the MRB reps.

He was passed a data slate which summarized the latest. The latest news wasn't what everyone was talking about. "How many civilians are around?"

"The news is reporting is tens of thousands, from the crowds around the star port... I would believe it Commander." Gene blew out a breath, "Has ComStar put up any new figures for civilian casualties?"

"We know that Kelly blasted the water purification systems... we can expect that civilian deaths will be high, but for real numbers no. There is nothing yet, and in six months it was will be worse, but we might not know really until we are back in Davion Space." The Azami armor officer replied, "It is a brazen act that he had committed, the Free Worlds League will have to respond." The man attempted to assure him.

Gene glanced at him, "Make a note, we need to know where the Wolf Dragoons are according to the MRB,"

"Of course, it will be done."

Gene looked across the concourse of the terminal. Half a dozen Triumph class DropShips and dozens of DroSTIIA were spread across the ferrocrete pads in the distance unloading. He wasn't exactly sure Luxen's government were going to be comfortable for the forty some thousand Azami men women and children that they'd be playing host to in that six month envelope but the reality was plans continued to change... the situation while they had been moving through the remains of sldf forward posts in the periphery.

They had been in transit when Kelly had brazenly assault a key Marik world. Which beyond anything else just went to show that no world was safe... but on top of that was Kelly's pronouncement to the whole damn Inner Sphere... and anyone else with an HPG. The pirate had hijacked, probably via an override stick though who knew where he'd gotten that from, the HPG on Kalidasa to broadcast live to the whole network... exploiting the Star League Emergency Broadcast override to do so. That didn't really mater so much as the contents of that broadcast... Kelly's tirade might have come with some psychotic manifesto if only illiteracy weren't such a pervasive bane... but the point stood.

The word was out.

Kelly had launched his attack on Kalidasa and told the whole damned inner sphere he was fighting on behalf of an amaris claimant and to establish a new Amaris empire to bring an end to the tyranny of the Inner Sphere. That was nonsense of course, but... "Boss," Septim called drawing his attention. He recognized the coloring and the uniforms. The Luxen volunteers, "That must be the Mercs they got to replace us," He said with regards to the others.

He made a gruff affirmative noise in the back of his throat. Truth be told the now Captain Short looked a little uncomfortable as she tried to keep up with the taller woman. It didn't appear to be intentional, the other mercenary wasn't trying to run Short ragged but it was still happening.

"She doesn't look happy to see us." Septim continued.

"Play nice Septim."

"I can play nice," The lyran replied playfully, but it was conspicuous that Lady Raventhir was absent... but then again most likely it was all the news media. "And besides I've got a good idea of the kind of stuff going through her head seeing us here... even if she had to know we were coming. Bigger unit, bigger name, more fame." He remarked

Which was certainly true, an Azami merchant caravan was supposed to have left on a much more direct route and should have reached here late last year on the other hand, "I want to find out if they know anything else about Kelly's declaration." Not that he was necessarily expecting they did, and if Kelly was live broadcasting from the Free Worlds League they probably weren't going to see him any time soon. Gene took a step forward, Septim followed and an array of men in the uniforms of the SLDF followed.

… and the really was the change over with both Azami Light Horse Regiments assembled … but that rebuilding from stockpiles here in the periphery... and why Dara, the Azami elder who seemed to be the most influential, was hoping lady Raventhir would accept such a sizable civilian population remaining behind for an extended period of time instead of trying to move everyone across the intervening space. It was probably best to meet Luxen's defenders in the middle.

"Captain Short," Gene came to a halt, and settled for the more generic rank, since he wasn't sure what the other mercenary leader usually went by. Her uniform was dark and modelled on SLDF uniforms but the rank insignia was missing, and he wasn't sure if that was some stylistic flourish, "Commander Volkov." It was obvious that Raventhir had bolstered her forces after they had left, but Kelly had thrown a gauntlet down by striking at some of the Captain General's staunchest supporters. Hitting Kalidasa he had seized the HPG station burned the Precentor of the Class A station at a mech sized stake, apparently killed one of the Captain General's cousins. Then hijacked control of the HPG to broadcast out his message, with all grisly footage included. Kelly was a madman. That he had to be insane was the only logical explanation for this escalation. That was what it was, an escalation... Kelly had been arguing for raids against the Inner Sphere not shoving a stick directly at a great house...

…and so Luxen's public was probably right to be terrified.

And his own troopers weren't afraid, they were apoplectic. That was obvious. "Your men are spoiling for a fight," Volkov observed in a more cordial tone than he had actually expected from her brusque pace moving across the terminal, and that was part of the reason he had started walking towards them to meet them half way rather than making the two company commanders walk all the way over in full view of the cameras.

"They are that," He replied. "Is there anything Black Jack has done before the attack on Kalidasa, any indication of what we can expect combat wise?"

--
Notes: We're back to Luxen, and for reference for Hegemony Castle Outposts this is the kind of benchmark I'm working from https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UUdhNDI1R_Qkl08LhUezgAxyiiVIy1NDnTubLGqH2Kc/edit?gid=0#gid=0 specifically this will be for Artru other castles will have different mech assignments but I thought I would share because I think this is a good break down for 2765. Part 2 of Luxen should be larger looking forward to do this for a while and of course also we get both reasons for the Dragoons to send Widow out to the periphery and set up long term repercussions of what will become the 4th Sucession war

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars
Luxen Contract​

She didn't have an immediate response... there was a lot to think about, so she thought about it. A hundred thoughts raced through her head as the question floated in the air between them.


Battle Rom were the bread and butter of operations planning meetings. Tanks with treads in motion, wheeled vehicles , hover craft different flying vehicles, and various battlemechs striding across the field of past engagements. You could learn things from ROMs but it still didn't change the logistics ofthe situation... Mechs still needed work. They had been inundated by reports, and she knew part of that was her being groomed for command. Even with her new commission with the Luxen Dragoons, Short was envious of the amount of metal on display She also wasn't oblivious that while some were more cut and dried mercenaries here for the job... a lot of the 'mech jocks jostling around the limited space were here for a cause they believed in.


Short found herself stumbling over the question looking at mass of soldiery filling the terminal building as they moved off of dropships.


It was scuttlebutt around that Raventhir had missed the opportunity to bring the then much smaller Shepherd's Company into the Magistracy's fold, and had been criticized for it. Shepherd was in a gray urban battledress uniform stood among similar uniforms as loud brash men talked about the trade... an unnecessary reminder that Luxen hosted a battalion of Highlanders replete with their totem 'mechs.


Short had been briefed on what the Magistracy knew of the vastly expanded, insanely grown mercenary army that Raventhir was principle bond holder to the contract to. It was part of her job to know. Claymore, the Highlander Battalion, was as she saw it, organized similarly to how Shepherd's Company had been expected to operate during its previous time in the Periphery. Mechs supported by infantry and armor... just on a bigger scale.


Scuttlebutt was they were going to talk about it. Talk about deployments and combined arms... and she imagined probably rehash all the things that her old unit within the Luxen Volunteers had been taught. There was a lot of stuff that they were supposed to be talking about coming, including that Raventhir was hoping to sweet talk Mountain Wolf into licensing production of their Merlin Heavy BattleMech here. Here meaning on Luxen from what Short gathered, but things were still up in the air so who really knew.


She knew for a fact that Raventhir was talking to Mountain Wolf because the Dragoons had received Merlin BattleMechs, which couldn't possibly have been cheap. But then, Luxen wasn't paying for it so the planetary government's cries of fiscal conservatism, or wanting to spend money on things other than the defense budget had largely fallen on deaf ears.


A heavy set man in his late fifties wearing the markings of a lieutenant colonel turned, "So this is one of the Vindicator pilots, eh?"


"This is Captain Short." Shepherd stated to the old highlander, and changed the subject. "This is MacINtyre he's interested in the 'mech platoon system." In the ensuing small talk she learned the older heavy set man had been an instructor at a Davion MechWarrior academy deep inside of the Inner Sphere. The Luxen Dragoons were proud of the base six formation because it had worked with Easy company... and part of its popularity was thanks to her book that she'd released. Not that anyone in the Inner Sphere had probably even heard of it.


… except, she swallowed, Shepherd was back on Luxen now... and if he hadn't heard about the literary phenomenon that had swept through the Magistracy he wouldn't be able to miss it now that he was back. Short glanced out of the massive glass facade looking for something to occupy her attention. It didn't do her much good.


Raventhir had built up the Luxen Dragoons into a massive formation at least she had thought so. She had taken pride in her unit, and had written to the public to support the MAF, and to expect... to expect the pirates to come back. It hadn't made everyone happy, there were members of the politically powerful mercantile mining association who really wanted things to go back to normal... and they weren't the only ones.

Short nodded, and glanced sideways to Volkov. The BattleMaster pilot had brought her company on in order to give the new mech pilots an experienced company to learn under. As soldiers for hire in the periphery Volkov's company had looked normal, and had been about the same size as the Scratch Force Raventhir had hired from Detroit to relieve Luxen in its time of need. They too were dwarfed by the assembled heavy Battlemech formation.

Short's look towards the tarmac drew the attention of the Mercenary.

Her eyes fixed on the machines. The pair of Crocketts of the Highlander Battalion's Ancients Company stood as silent sentinels of the terminals, Volkov had devoured all the information the portly alcoholic cleric at the MRB had been able to give her about their 'relief'. Apparently besides just Tuck's positive opinion, the Precentor New Avalon had written that Shepherd had rescued the Precentor Elidere from the Combine's ISF and so was in the good graces of the highest of Comstar's clerics in the Federated Suns.

She had already observed that the arriving force were spoiling for a fight, Volkovsupposed she needed to provide an answer, "We tangled with a collection of LosTech 'mechs. Lancelot, Guillotine, Starslayer according to the warbook data, backed up by some more typical fare." She wanted to sound confident.. her words felt hollow. They'd driven the pirates off, but not destroyed them utterly Volkov should have been proud of her victory... Black Jack's chief lieutenants had humiliated other more storied MAF formations... the pirates had humiliated the defenders of Royal Foxx while Lady Raventhir had been away hitting the HPG station. Like wise to the embarrassment of the Magestrix Vixen had had its precentor dragged out of the ComStarcompound and burned alive. The truth was it was only a matter of time before Luxen was attacked again since there were only so many HPGstations within the Magistracy. She ended up saying as much. "They struck Lockton two months ago. That was the last HPG station in the Magistracy they destroyed." The precentor there though had managed to escape with his life.

"And then Kelly hit Kalidasa," He blinked slowly, breathing slowly in contemplation. "Well," In a genial tone, "tomorrow we will organize an assembly get started with the refits that Lady Raventhir wanted us to go into. My techs are doing final checks on the engines, and the weapons are set aside."

Volkov had read the report. During the 2nd ​Battle of Luxen one of the mercenaries of the Scratch Company hadbeen killed in action as his Cicada's armor had failed to stopshrapnel entering his cockpit. Raventhir had laid claim to the Ostrocand had it repaired for the Volunteers. The Dead Merc's machine had served as the basis for a variant of the Cicada that had been much talked about but nothing had yet to actually be done.

"Right the Cicadas, we will be talking about that as well," The amber eyes flicked to her as she made the comment, "But also the Charger rebuilds. We'll take those four hundreds out,"

There was chortle, "Aye, use them for something sensible like power defense batteries around critical infrastructure,"

The laughing old man quieted, "As I said though thats on the schedule." Shepherd stated, "Are there any other questions Commander?"

Volkov couldn't stop herself, she was sure that Short would have asked anyway, but Force Major Seghal hadn't said anything about it, "What happens if we're attacked here, if the pirates attack who takes command?"

"I have tactical and operational command, I'm beholden to Lady Raventhir for strategic direction. Your company will operate as part of the Luxen Volunteers Command, functionally filling command and control for the Volunteers. You'll hold the same command rank, authorities as any of my battalion commanders."

He hadn't switched over to calling the Unit the Luxen Dragoons she noted... and also that put her at the coequal status with heavy set highlander who'd wanted to ask about the base six mech system... along with the other units of the command... she didn't exhale... a heavy sigh would have looked like weakness in front of these men, her second in command was going to love all of this... and if she wasn't wrong Short was pretty happy with the situation as well.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Luxen Contract​

–
There were far less debutantes, and pillars of society this time around but the place was familiar. The absence of high society and the presence of more uniformed men aside the holographic suite was the same, and made this presentation, would make this presentation easier. He had been a little worried about the Canopian stereotype that the Inner Sphere had held for … hundreds of years now. Given the situation it would have been stupid to not be at least a little worried about there being some kind of friction... with the scratch company it had been different there had been few enough people personnel management wasn't an issue. He had had Septim, and Bahar to manage administration. Things were different now...


Planning to return to the Periphery had been nebulous after landing on Elidere since they'd been working and hadn't had a fleshed out plan on hiring in the Federated Suns once the I.E contract was completed... and then Elidere had turned into a major engagement, and everything had expanded well beyond just planning to make a return to the periphery... and getting out of the Inner Sphere had suddenly become about so many more factors. They had come into a lot of money and expanded the company significantly but that had entailed being exposed to a lot...


None of which would have been prudent to advertise to the Magistracy. Raventhir seemed to have enough political attention that the 'honorable third party' showing up might not even be the Combine throwing its weight around. He was going to have to issue briefings though about the situation, especially with the Kalidasa Massacre so prominently featured in the news, with the pirates.


He wasn't sure how to go about trying to determine how spooked the civilian population had been before... the captain of the merchant caravan who had laid the ground work ahead of their return had said things were tense... but tense wasn't a solid measurement... and he very likely had been mostly looking at the political elite's reaction to their arrival because that had been the instructions. It had been reasonable to ask questions about how the local authorities might react to the exodite fleet arriving.


The cicada that had been schaefers prior to the man buying the farm, here, and then built back and used by Hanzo until he'd transitioned to a Highlander was on display in one of the piped in feeds. A mix of Azami techs and support staff pulled from the Luxen Volunteers were around the machine. The Cicada at least they had a working example of, but none of the people in the hall were really paying attention to the work... but that was fine he planned to take them out to the gantries tomorrow morning as the techs pulled the big engines out of the things.


The chargers were going to take some work to find the right balance. Apparently the new machines hadn't been here for very long at all. The Volunteers had just been getting used to their new Merlins when the first dozen Chargers had arrived... and as training and familiarization mechs went a mech was a mech. As a fighting machine though, he couldn't help but feel, the charger was just woefully under gunned and over engine-d. It was a sports car trying to be a war machine. Though while he could say that out loud it wasn't the sort of thing he thought appropriate to put into telling Raventhir... mechs were hard up in the succession wars so they would pull the engine and free up space to let the thing carry heavier weapons.


The good news there was the magistracy produced PPCs in house. He looked over the assembled Luxen Volunteers the majority of whom had yet to actually receive the mechs they were going to eventually pilot. Green. So many green pilots, which meant that what had been Easy Company Luxen Volunteers was going to be pulling double duty, both now and after they inevitably moved off again. That was the thing though training meant the students had to be able to walk on their off two feet after.


He activated the holographic projector via a mental command through his thin circlet neurohelmet causing a storm of light to spring to life. "This machine is from Claymore Battalion, it is a Thug series BattleMech." He announced before chattering could start, going over tonnage and equipment, before sending another silent command to bring up the Charger, "The Charger runs off of an LTV 400 series, we are going to pull that engine." He wasn't going to ask for volunteers to test the first run of machines they modified.


Unlike his Hegemony produced Thugs they didn't have DHS to mount to the engines, and they didn't have endo steel... so he was going to let the techs experiment. He'd hand Akashi the evaluation duties for the new pilots to see how she did with new pilots.


Lady Raventhir gestured for him, bluntly, to get on with it. "Most of you will be aware of the base six, and square six organizational table." Four units of six mech icons each appeared in the projector, "This is in ideal terms to provide fielding a company scale force operating in roughly the same bracket of movement. On Luxen this main line of battle were two sixes, platoons, of Vindicator Medium mechs, supported by a Recon Six and another six units forming a headquarters and reinforcing section." He changed 'slides' projecting the familiar aerodyne shapes sitting on a tarmac at the space station. "These are four canopian built, canopian pattern PPC carrier leopards with six mech bays each. It provides the lift capacity to deploy such a company," Meaning you would need two Merchant-class DropShips to deploy such a unit. Or a Star Lord that could then carry two more DropShips. Raventhir owned a Star Lord after all.

The image changed. A single aerodyne dropship icon appeared. Then delineated to infantry, light and heavy vehicles, ASF, and finally a mech lance.

"This will probably unfamiliar to the majority of you." Unless Seghal or some other officer within the MAF had crammed what they could find about the Luxen formation down the new recruits throat, which he supposed after he started might have happened. "This is a Maganac Corp Tactical Group. It is designed to answer a different operational question than the Six pattern and organization. While not employed on Luxen in this full configuration a light version was employed at Luxen sans jump Infantry and ASF assets."

The table broke away into an image of the DropShip Sam Houston on Luxen in 3016. Traditionally the Azami were light raiders, or cavalry specialists, but they were best known for the prior while the agenda was to emphasize the latter.

"A tactical group is a combined arms element." Effectively a battalion level unit at full strength when with infantry and counting the dropship , deploying an ASF lance, two fighters, a mech lance and armor as its main force of advance. "Its intended application is to be rapidly mobile and emphatic on operational art. In its intended role, to arrive, roll off the group push to an objective if necessary without exterior support, fight secure it ahead of relief by a larger more typical force. Whether that is additional Mechs or by tanks and infantry arriving to hold ground."

A map changed projecting the river valley, and winding course near Luxen's capital and the mountains to the north, simulating the fly in of Sam Houston at the final drill context... sans torrential rainstorm.

"On Luxen this created a nice overlap." It was true that, "65 KpH is enough to outpace the LRM carriers of a Tactical Group's heavy vehicle unit, but the Tokugawa used were able to keep up with the Vindicator just fine." Images to that effect appeared in midair dated to the 'second Luxen Contract'. The use of the vindicator while not ideal perhaps as a mech, had been ideal in a logistical situation in terms of having on hand spare parts and a manageable set of ammo requirements as long as there was political. The Vindicators had only the LRMs that needed to be kept fed. 65KpH was the basically minimum speed. The floor. You didn't want to go slower than that for concerns about medium and heavy units. The LRM carriers were something of an exception because they were intended to be kept at range and behind the main line of engagement...

The map of Luxen reflected the original company deployment of Easy and the Maganac Corp units before contact had messed up all the nice planned arrangement.

"Obviously the six works best when you have equivalency as best as possible. Six or Twelve Vindicators can be divided into pairs, in groups of three, or" As the SLDF would have done in it "into three more conventional lances, or they can mass as a unit or fire a whole twelve, concentrating LRM fires as indirect." ...and of course you could do the same thing with six or twelve Merlins. Centurions, Dervishes, etc... which they could demonstrate. He didn't question how Abner had arranged the Merlins that had beaten them to the Periphery by months. He at least knew where the Chargers were coming from.

"The real world being what is, its hard to field a logistical end unit of all the same designs, and there are tactical situations where mixed lances of specialists are both useful, as well as at an operational level easier to keep in the field based on supply situations." The image shifted displaying the two units side by side, "These two formations are different. They're designed to answer different questions, which means that adroitly they serve complimentary roles in battle, and in the course of a campaign."


There was a brief pause in the briefing allowing him to take a sip of water as they began delineate how familiarization training was going to work. That meant dividing up personnel. Prior to up engineering Septim's merlin after the original engine had been cored on Ander's Moon he had pilotted a stock machine. It made the Lyran an obvious fit for the pilots who had already received their Merlins. Beau would take his independent company and manage the medium 'mechs in much the same way as they might have done it before the expansion.


Raventhir had made it clear that she wanted to maintain the base six on the premise that it had proven itself both as a logistical unit and in combat for massing that fire on target.. but that was going to put a higher strain on the platoon leader which meant most likely Bubbles was going to have her work cut out for her when she got handed evaluating progress for each of those MAF officers.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Luxen Contract
Luxens 's public leadership were insistent on keeping the Volunteers here... and the planetary authorities did have a point with only a handful of HPG stations in the Magistracy of Canopus, and one failed attack it seemed likely Black Jack would come a knocking later. The problem with that was that Luxen's planetary government wasn't really the one footing the bill, and Gene wasn't entirely sure that the leadership understood that... but he wasn't all that clear on how the magistracy's command was supposed to work... and their contract was clear on that cadre training duties were their primary contract, and there was a garrison clause.


… and on the MRB side of things ComStar was paying a lot of attention to their security obligation because they were likely to be targeted if the pirates did come knocking. Not today's problem though and he'd deal with that behind closed doors. Preferably where the public wouldn't start panicking the unit was going to go haying off for the unknown... but there were too many civilians crowding nervously around the starport and around the encampments.


Some of the highlanders were cracking jokes about it, but thus far they hadn't actually made good on running up the SLDF banner. Still Dante was issuing out broadsheets and statements to the public relations side of the unit based on the Hegemony's civil service. On that other hand they were being surreptitious about that, Kelly if not necessarily Black Jack seemed to be distributing Rim World revanchist propaganda, and that potentially added a different dimension to their SLDF uniforms even without running up the Cameron Starburst to fly over the base.

A handful of Claymore's 'cadets' started to pick up the paper laden boxes and move out.

The documents for study had been printed up and begun distribution early this morning... and they were running a little late... but the truth was Gene had been working on the documents most of the trek into the periphery from the Inner Sphere... it was just there had been less time for regimental training opportunity than he had originally expected prior to their arrival on Luxen. He had also been obliged to have enough materials printed up for the Azami units as well, even though some would be making the journey to Alamut and others would be deployed to caravan protection duties elsewhere.


He had been given the Eridani's logs of how the RCT had evolved as the succession wars had worn on the unit and those impacted some of the revision he had made o the documents. Things that only further highlighted that doing what the Coordinator couldn't was going to be a high priority once they made it back to the Inner Sphere whatever political implications that would have, they needed to secure Nagayan Castle Brian on Helm to build the Eridani and the Blue Star Irregulars.

That was all in the future, for now well in the here and now there were talks about how their RCT would act in conjunction and in advising the training of the Luxen Volunteers. Gene ran his hands through his hair as he blew out a breath looking down at the master copy. The Azami Regiment under Taisa Bey had already begun the planning and process for offloading their original equipment for their own white shield program. He supposed after a minute that that was in a sense wrong, the passing of machines, of BattleMechs and ASF from father to son was common was defining of the succession wars where production had dwindled to a trickle.

He had included a statement that terms for Battle and Horse units terms like Ranger and Chasseur continued to be used by regiments even though the units no longer reflected n many cases what composition under those labels would have entailed in the time of the Star League. But the truth the documents had originally begun as a way to provide school room instructions to the massive expanded force... they were just a larger force to be included in that instruction than the Battalions aboard Hidalgo and Presidio now.

Bardiche and Claymore had been the original target audiences for the writings. Their officers were already on the assembly point, and it wouldn't have been off the mark to say that no one wanted to be left out. So today they needed to cover a broad base of material, and also to avoid overwhelming anyone, he glanced sideways, "There is a liaison from Majesty Metals on site?"

"Yes sir." The ruddy faced highlander officer replied, "Is it a problem?"

"No." He answered, and he hoped that he was right. It was unlikely that Majesty Metals would be a source of intelligence for the pirates, but, "I do want to know what they have planned for Luxen though." The Magistracy did produce domestically its PPCs which was useful, but like with the first contract it was ammunition that was going to be a concern, "I assume there here about the charger and cicada refits." Then perhaps unnecessarily, "As long as they don't cause trouble, we need to get going."

It was a short ride to row of hangars and it was crowded. Crowded was an understatement, maybe there were less people overall than at the Highland faire on Northwind, but it was the mass of technicians and mechwarriors in the space and the sense of urgency even as the wrenches went about that work which made it feel that way.

It reminded him of the initial days on Robinson just crammed together. Part of that was the noise from the working techs scrambling to connect hoists or unfasten the reactor from the chassis, which the first step of everything going on. This was larger in a way than the Robinson contract to train DMM mechwarriors for the then tentative invasion of the Combine. Certainly the Company had more staff now, and more experience... but also there were the implications of a Rim World resurgent able to field Star League era 'mechs and their political aspirations.

He idly observed that they had their work cut out for them. Gene noticed immediately that it was more than the Azami paying attention to the modifications being done to the Chargers and Cicadas, the latter of which as a result of the Star League had been a common enough medium mech in the armies of all member states. Attrition had worn those down, the basic cicada mounted only four tons of armor, but that would change since as with the Charger the engines were being pulled out for a smaller engine, which would allow more armor.

Gene didn't expect that Majesty Metals, or any Canopian manufacturer would start producing new Cicada... but they might be approached to produce the engine for the standard Cicada to be put into new production Chargers. Akashi's customized, giving it an ornate samurai armor esque appearance, Griffin was crouched nearby. "Are they ready?"

"The Luxen Volunteers should be fully assembled in another minute," She replied.

He nodded, having seen on the itinerary that one set of the Vindicator pilots had been on morning drill practice, "Then you're up." He stated, giving her time to make sure she was ready. In the comfort of closed doors with just the company staff Bubbles had mentioned that the academy she had attended had used was the Cicada, but since they were doing extensive modifications her limited experience with the '2B' model wasn't likely to do much good. So even with that information he was comfortable with her planned assignment. And, of course it hadn't stopped Chang from suggesting that since at some point in the future Raventhir would have more of the otherwise mediocre eighty ton scout 'mech being produced maybe some could be refit with assault auto cannons.

One thing at a time though, but he didn't oppose the suggestion. The machinery on Pioche left in stasis after the rock had been dropped on the bread basket agricultural colony was black boxed so all it really needed was to be fed material. Still, from what Raventhir said she'd only managed to build up a single battalion thus far, and that while Pioche was working on more machines the bottleneck would be engines for the Chargers after they arrived at Luxen.

Silently to himself, he decided it was something he'd talk to Majesty Metals about, he decided, if it hadn't already been brought up. If it had, well then presumably it was being worked. He gave a final nod, and let Akashi go over the Charger, and Cicada modifications to the assembled MAF pilots.... all too aware that every so often the eyes of the assembled flicked towards his direction, and that included his command, Akashi among them, and the MAF personnel.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Luxen Contract


Lady Raventhir watched the work. The Straios on her staff was a little leery of how readily the Terran Colonel in her employ handed matters over to his combine Ronin. On the other hand she also admitted that the number of officers who were female would help prevent issues with more conservative MAF unit commanders... if things went badly and lead to a mustering of units to attempt to sally in defense of an important coreward world.


The Azami techs seemed to be modelling the appearance of the chargers after the woman's highly customized Griffin. She was content to leave them to their work though. There was the fact that even with eighteen machines to heavily overhaul Shepherd's support personnel weren't meaningfully strained. The Azami provided an abundance of technically skilled labor, and were excited at the work in front of them.


The Azami's noticeable presence was darkly amusing for other reasons. MAF observers, not really official intelligence personnel had relayed color displays that showed Azami troops, who were almost certainly rebels, and even if they weren't the Rasalhague battalion certainly was up front about it, identified with SLDF with Star League era Combine units... which just brought the MIC and the Straios on her staff back to the issue that Shepherd's own publications treated the command, explicitly spelled out in its general orders on unit discipline, and the training material, as if it were a Star League unit. That wouldn't have been unusual if carried out in the methods and traditions of the Eridani Light Horse even out here in the Periphery... but here there most likely opposition were to be pirates who were using SLDF weapons... and no pirates who increasingly advertised themselves as revanchists of the Rim World Republic.


She had no more idea what to make of that than Canopus did. There was a slight cough from her aide de camp to callher attention away from the view of the window, "Force Major Seghal is here Lady Raventhir."


It was that time, "Send her in," they exchanged the customary salutations and other formalities expected of their situation, and Lady Raventhir immediately pushed forward to the topic at hand, "are we expecting any developments?"


"I wouldn't know what to expect at this point." The other woman replied, which at least an honest take... they had expected a large force to appear whenever Shepherd arrived at the Jump Point... not the massed formation that had arrived. "I've spoken with Colonel MacIntyre over the Highlanders they plan to establish a second 'mech Battalion when they return to the Inner Sphere. From what he's outlined its similar in arrangement to the," Luxen "Dragoon's new Battalion."


"What do we know?"


"The core of the unit will be a dragoon weight formation of base six built around Crockett Assault BattleMechs,"The machines had apparently been left in the care of the Highlanders 'home clans' back on Northwind in preparation for the unit's return, but the machines themselves had a similar provenance to the machines that the Azami themselves had recently received. Magistracy Intelligence had already drawn comparisons to the now legendary Wolfs Dragoons mercenaries ability to repair damage sustained in battle...with Raventhir aware that, there might be pressures to find caches, "Colonel MacIntyre was remarkably open minded regarding our successes defending Luxen." Seghal sounded unsure of that, to an extent Raventhir herself wondered exactly how open minded the Highlander would have been if his own commanding officer hadn't been present at Luxen. "The current plan appears to be amalgamate Claymore's two cadet companies with Easy Company and the new Dragoon pilots."


As Raventhir understood it the Ronin was even now supposed to be evaluating which of the pilots were most suitable, "And what are your expectations?"


"The new pilots are largely green, my Lady,"Seghal replied, "Shepherd's contract for training the unit is based on what we already knew he was capable of. By all indications, from material that went out this morning, he's more than prepared for that." It was a stronger endorsement than other officers might have given to other leaders. "The educational material is thorough."


Raventhir nodded, but that was no surprise. Her father's notes, and the biographical work up from the MIC Shepherd had probably been groomed by the Hegemony for a command, that he had been posted out to the periphery to cut his teeth under more experienced terran gunslingers. The psych profile for his near single minded focus was that for all intents purposes Shepherd lived, and breathed his profession... that that focus on his war fighting capabilities might be what was keeping him together in the face of the Hegemony's destruction while he'd been in a stasis tube. She turned back to the window... "Do the Azami have a time table on when their work will be completed?"


"They're working in batches, the work entails pulling mechanics and Mech Technicians from both Azami Regiments."


She turned back to the Force Major, "What does that mean in practice?"


"They're working on a platoon of Chargers and a platoon of Cicadas side by side." There was a pause, "They've agreed to bill the Magistracy for the additional Pitban 320 Engines. As for an actual time table. Approximately the end of the month for having the machines put back together." That was roughly a company of 'mechs a week. "My understanding is this won't effect the first Company -"


She raised a hand to stop Seghal, "Are you confident in the process?"


"Yes, ma'am." The Force Major stumbled the sudden interruption, and Raventhir's motion of turning on her heel towards her aide de camp didn't help that, "I-" Her aide was handing her the packet.


"This a request, we expect a fight with the pirates, and we need recommendations and also the ability to have the support staff refurbish machines we take from the pirates." In short it was an under the table method of getting around procurement bottlenecks. She wanted to rebuild 1st​ Battalion of the Luxen Dragoons but to do that they were going to need 'mechs that would have to be taken from the enemy.
–
Gene watched the techs work. This was a manpower intensive project, and it also required taken a significant portion of machines offline in order to facilitate the work, which if the company hadn't expanded so significantly he doubted the Magistracy could have considered signing off on the program.


A mech was a mech, any mech was better than not having one, and it would have been the expectation to just make do. At least the chargers, anemic as their firepower would have been, could have taken a hit, the cicadas on the other hand well that was a different story.


Colonel Bey approached wearing the SLDF mechwarrior cooling suit in khaki, "We have a development." He remarked, "We have finished processing the battle rom footage from Kalidasa, Kelly fielded a number of late SLDF designs hitherto not present among the pirate forces, which was flagged for review. In addition to 'mechs like the Grasshopper he also field Crabs, and King Crabs, Dante stated that this detail was important."


Gene bit down a curse and maybe he was making unwarranted assumptions again but... The Grasshopper had no business in cache of any sort, it had been developed as an endurance campaign machine. The Crabs, and King Crabs were largely extinct in House Armies, and had been relatively new 'mechs at the time of the Amaris crisis kicking off. "Do we have confirmation that he's heading back to the periphery?"


"We do not. I have however spoken with the precentor regarding a live transmission to the Precentor New Avalon, and that of the First Prince. The Precentor Luxen has already given confirmation that they will be informed and a time for the communication set down with all possible alacrity." The Azami Taisa stated solemnly.


"Good." A live transmission was going to be drawn out by the light speed lag and they couldn't have a long conversation but this was important. "They'll already know since Kelly was veryclear about what cause he was fighting for," But it still raisedthe question of where the mechs were coming from, something to look into but probably some time after Kerensky had left, "You said the Combine still produces Lancelots?" He'd been surprised by that since he had been under the mistaken impression the design had largely died out.


"They are not well regarded given the decline of our means to craft the weapons of war." There was a pause, "From the what the Canopians relate to us, the machines to which are engaged still possess the efficacy of the technologies of humanity's golden age." Which by itself just meant that the components hadn't been attritted by centuries of warfare without resupply because most of the factories had been blasted to smithereens, "Further, the MRB representative comes vouching for hirelings," He meant basically green mercenaries, "That he has vetted as of upstanding character, and moral justification to battle the pirates."


"Friar Tuck?" Gene asked, thinking of the drunk.


"The same, he was caught understandably off guard by the the Company's, great expansion, but has been trying to find recruits based on the hiring preferences you left for him when the Company departed Luxen."


"Did you look at them?"


"It is only a small group I am afraid, as I said the Company is now substantially enlarged, but he had some success with pilots as that was your principle aim." At the time of the First Luxen contract, he hadn't had any ASF and the small craft aboard the Sam Houston's operation would have meant stripping people from the DropShip it'd been one thing on Pioche, but using it as anything more than a launch had been chancy. "I may have overstepped and volunteered Captain Pasha to speak with these men on your behalf while we prepared the Canopian troops."


"Yeah, we have a lot to do," Gene replied, "Did Tuck say why the Magistracy hasn't hired them on? I was under the impression that everyone was hiring who they could."


"The MRB on Luxen was given dispensation to hire additional security, though I suspect that that was only months after Black Jack's forces were shown off, and those funds," His tone implied that he didn't think well of the penny pinching of ComStar's terran based hierarchy in regards to the periphery "allowed him to keep them on retainer sweetened with the promise of introductions."


"So they've been here this whole time?"


"Since at least last year I believe, the year before perhaps."

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Luxen Interlude: 3020
The Phone Call​

The Charger in front of him was further along than others. The Azami techs dressed in khaki coveralls were presently fitting a Holly SRM 4 launch into the machine's torso, while the one that would be mounted on the other side sat resting beside the machine. "You pilot a Marauder."


"Yes," The MAF officer had asked him a lot of questions. She was someone on Raventhir's understandably expande dstaff and given the situation he could understand the need to ask questions. "Its mainly the command software." As people here and now told him, such as in relation to the Charger a 'Mech was a 'Mech. The Magistracy had been looking for Marauder pilots after his first action on Luxen because of the impression but...


"But the combine dueling etiquette dictates a preference for ranged engagement."


Well that was true, he was willing to admit, "The Marauder is a frontline combatant, but that software is meant to insure the whole formation is kept abreast of the situation," Gene had to stop and sign off on transferring the LTV 400 series engines out. They were going to be moved to serve as permanent, or at least in fixed position stations for local ground based turrets. The MAF officer had had a lot of questions about what they were doing, and in particular seemed to expect there would be potentially issues with the Luxen volunteers Mercenary Commander... and Gene wasn't sure what to make of that, there times where well he was looking at a puzzle with pieces missing and other people could see the pieces, "I don't expect much dueling."


"No? You savaged House Kurita in your recent campaigns for House Davion."


Well, that was true. Would the combine spare the resources? Could they, probably not in the grand scheme of things but would they... yeah maybe. "Commander," The Azami mechwarrior was one of a dozen Ali, and there was a lance worth of them just piloting Pheonix Hawks. The man gestured to a moderately drunk and cheerful rotund man in the robes of a ComStar adept. Friar Tuck had dismounted an olive drab hover 'jeep'. The ten ton vehicle was open topped with a medium laser that wasn't currently manned by any one from Hammer's people.


"Ah I have other questions." The MAF officer stated following after him as he began to walk towards his original Luxen MRB liaison. Perhaps against his better judgment Gene decided …given how fucked the situation was it wasn't going to hurt anything to include a member from the Canopians when he told the Davions the bad news about the situation out here. Her comment about the Kuritas was... well he'd ask if there was any sign that had reached them about it... and dreaded the possibility of what the optics of that would like given the situation.


It took the better part of an hour to get to the ComStar facility which housed not only the Luxen HPG station but also the MRB facilities of well what had originally been fairly minor up until a few years ago. It was him, Friar Tuck, Ali, and the MAF officer plus the driver of the vehicle, though he waited with the ride even as the Precentor Luxen came out to usher them in. Defending the HPG station were a lance of assault battlemechs in blue and gold with the crossed pikes of Bardiche from Sigurd Company. If the pirates came close the Pillager Ds defending would make Black Jack's people regret the decision.


Their prescence clearly helped sooth the nerves of the ComStar personnel. Whether or not leaving the mechs in parade colors rather than an appropriate camo pattern for their environment was debatable but it demonstrated more security than most stationsin the periphery seemed to be able to call on... and the atrocities on Kalidasa were all the news could seem to talk about.


The Luxen Precentor, Labarbera, had rarely had reason to have a live transmission, and made several inquiries to the Adepts to make sure things were ready as Gene flipped through his notes as those final checks were underway. "Is this in regards to Kalidasa?"


"Yeah," He replied to the MAF officer's question not glancing up, "Kelly had been on the Capellan border... I don't know if he had a circuit," And this era that was a lot of JumpShips for one pirate to have, which raised still other questions, "ready to take his battalion to the Free World's League but he had been trying to stir up trouble there." He said avoiding name dropping the reach, "He had made some claims about Amaris..." He trailed off just as the hologram flickered. It took a few seconds to coalesce into the familiar features of the Precentor New Avalon, Huthrin Vandal, and also the Prince's Champion Yvonne Davion appeared. They exchanged a somewhat tedious, for the lag in communications, round of salutations. Even as they made them, Gene accepted the greetings passed on from the Eridani, and the Blue Star Irregulars and others... he remembered Elidere, and Tristan's security precautions, "Its good to see you both," He said, "I need to ask something," And for that he really was glad they were both there, even though he wasn't sure ComStar's neutrality would necessarily stop Vandal from answering him even if the PNA didn't know why he was asking, "I need to know where the Wolf Dragoons are, they're in contract with House Marik... so they could come after Kelly?"


The two on the other end of the line glanced to one another, "About that, yes we are aware of the news from Kalidasa. Originally Jaime Wolf had intended to rebuild the unit after losses, I assume to move onto working for House Steiner,"


"Yes?" He prodded against the light lag of Yvonne's statement, which she probably didn't receive before she continued.


"We made contact with the Dragoons as they moved the border shortly before the atrocity on Kalidasa hit the news, so they're aware of details. Colonel Wolf is going to rebuild his forces, he said he would be in contact soon... but I'm not sure about a time frame."


What exactly would constitute soon in this case... in this cluster fuck of a situation. "So they won't be coming?"


"The Black Widow Company under Natasha Kerensky detached from the Dragoons main body of force at Northwind." Yvonne stated, Gene noticed that Vandal happy to allow the Prince's Champion the opportunity to answer these and thus probably save his image of neutrality from further criticism. Gene nodded, "Are these claims by Kelly credible?"


"most likely." He replied, "Its not the sort of thing that makes sense to lie about... How are things?"


"On Northwind, tense. The Highlanders officially invited the Dragoons to attend the winter Faire while the Eridani and BlueStars were in attendance, when the news broke about Kalidasa things became increasingly strained. We had hoped Jaime Wolf would agree to garrison a few worlds but he was adamant about returning after he had rebuilt the Dragoons to strength... not that he said so explicitly but that was the read."


There was a pause, and the Precentor New Avalon coughed slightly, "I was asked, or rather that the MRB liaison for the Wolfs Dragoons was asked to pass along congratulations for your victories Colonel. I think the commander of Gamma Regiment was particularly impressed by your application of historical tactics on Elidere." He gave another small cough, "Those regards aside, I am afraid that I can't tell you when the Dragoons would be back, given previous behavior I would hazard that the Commonwealth is the most likely contract they will take up, though Janos Marik did send a request to the MRB for the Dragoons to rehire after Kalidasa, which was done in a very public fashion." He remarked, but Captain General's actions were largely par for the course in responding to a problem in the war torn succession era...


The tragedy at Kalidasa had coincided with unrelated raids by the Draconis Combine's Arkab Legions. Kelly's screed across the Inner Sphere had far further repercussions than he could imagine, and that the Dragoons had been wintering over in the near terran corridor had already put pressure within ROM to find out more about their origins, and if they were going somewhere potentially to try and follow them... or to locate where they had come from originally. Such things were removed from the scope of the conversation, and the long distant conference call could not predict the scope of what was to come.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Luxen
For Short the first indication that something had happened was Ancient Company's officers pulling away and moving towards Shepherd and what followed were a hushed series of conversations. That drew more attention given it had pulled the Highlanders away.

"Its got to be news from home." An Archer pilot remarked.


"You think?" One of his fellow Northwinders remarked. Shepherd must have heard them because his head snapped in their direction and the two 'cadets' fell silent under his expression.


The trip to the ComStar station was not the sort of thing he hoped to make a habit of, but it had needed to be done. There was no word on whether or not Kelly was headed back this way, but it was considered obvious that the man knew his way around theFree Worlds League routes, Yvonne Davion hoped that this wouldn't effect, delay, returning to the Inner Sphere but the transfer of news went both ways. He was glad for the time the company had spent on Robinson when he'd been transiting to and back from New Avalon. They had experience even without counting the former instructors from Northwind comprising Ancients Company.


"Put the unit in formation." He looked to the heavy set kilted man. He ordered deciding to side step the question about what they should expect regarding if / when the dragoons showed up... because he didn't know other than that Kerensky could reasonably considered a loose cannon. "We'll tell them now the last thing we need is the rumor mill getting out of hand." and the truth was because it had been Yvonne Davion passing the information along there was no way to know how the Dragoons had reacted to any other news that the Highlanders had relayed to them over their sabbatical on Northwind.


The Dragoons had almost certainly, Gene was willing to bet money that the elders had gone ahead and told the dragoons that Amaris had been fed information on SLDF movements by the coordinator... and Jaime saying he was taking the Dragoons to rearm probably meant phoning home as well... which given the Kalidasa massacre, and the political screed being released alongside the footage … was just a mess... but those were details that couldn't be disclosed.


He let the Highlanders wrangle the formation aware that as officers gave orders, and NCOs started moving mechanized infantry in that the broader MAF presence was watching, which meant that the civilians crowding around the base would know something was up. Luxen's government wanted the civilians to calm down, but they also didn't want the public relations backlash of making the civilians clear out.. and really Luxen's population was largely harmless. It having been a few days most were just scrambling for a view as their home units underwent training maneuvering with the newly arrived mercenary command.


Gene's eyes swept the array of vehicles, fusion and internal combustion powered alike. This was a lot of metal... a lot of metal in plain view. He could buy a little time by stating that there would be a formal note going out this evening, but also, "House Davion, and Northwind are aware of the massacre at Kalidasa. Kristofur Kelly has proclaimed his support for a New Amaris Empire." This news went over as could be expected, chatter breaking out in packets across mechwarriors, tankers, and infantrymen. He kept from scowling and continued, "The Eridani Light Horse, and Blue Star Irregulars were on Northwind at the time as were the Wolfs Dragoons who were passing through to return to their own kinsmen for resupply," There was a larger rumbling of chatter at this, but he didn't address it, this announcement was informal but he needed to make it clear that Northwind was unlikely to be attacked, reassuring them of this was important... but it also allowed him to surreptiously tell people who knew that well Kerensky's exodus would almost surely become informed of the Combine's betrayal of the Star League... and given the situation that was likely to have very large repercussions. "Our objective is to preserve civilian life, the exact obverse of Kelly and conspirators we will remain on Luxen in order to continue the mission."
That was the boiler plate of the short speech since they were in the open he continued a little longer outlining what they could expect in training terms over the next few days as he suggested they would increase the pace of operations, but also to signal he was not going to entertain questions or caveats from the ranks or the staff.
–
As the day had pushed on it had become windier plant debris, even sand and dust were being kicked up... and even if it hadn't been windy the star port had enough activity going that that would have been happening. There were pallets everywhere, being loaded, and off loaded to distribution all the while sensor platforms watched the sky. Waiting for an enemy that probably wasn't coming today or next week, but Gene understood that even though he didn't have a lot of control over the universe around him, he could insist that they be ready for a fight if it did decide to come. Gauss Rifle ammunition was easy to fabricate. Each round was large, eight rounds was a ton of ammunition, and thus relatively bulky to store but it also had far fewer safety hazards than missiles or auto cannon ammunition. The Fury tanks, closer to his position, outweighed the platoon's worth of Vindicators but nearly double... and truthfully most tanks outweighed the Medium 'Mechs for which had taken up the base six organization... what seemed like a long time ago now.


The vindicator was almost spindly in its lines, but outside of issues with the ejection system the Vindicator wasn't a terrible 'mech. At least for the Luxen volunteers purposes. Platoon as a designation was to reiterate that it could be subdivided... and with the Vindicator that meant being able to mass LRMs onto a target.


Septim scratched the back of his head, as they both watched the distant forms of the round head machines maneuver on a 'patrol' of the perimeter... really it was about showing the crowds beyond the star port that there were MAF troops here too, "I mean I guess when you boil it down, its not that different than last time...Black Jack still has a ton of Star League metal to throw at us, and we've got a bunch of green pilots."

That was true, and Gene was thinking about how to best address that.

The Merlin pilot wasn't actually talking about the Vindicator pilots, but that was part of the problem. Both Bardiche, and Claymore had relatively young and green pilots who having fought on Dieron considered themselves comparatively elite to their periphery counterparts despite by this point all of the Easy Company Luxen Volunteers to have had several years of service with the MAF. That was a potential scratch point for relations. It also didn't help the dispositions that Claymore and Bardiche were fully fledged battalions built around much heavier 'mechs... but that was a facet of Star League resources, and also the generosity of House Davion in response to Elidere.


"If they can survive they can train other pilots, something I've told Raventhir. The base six system is great if the machines your using are all the same that's good for the field and for logistics," Gene wasn't sure if he'd want to try and organize six tanks into a platoon but he supposed being able to subdivide to two groups, sections, of three would work for armor "That and well she did have the Vindicators in their numbers. The big test over the next week is going to be those Chargers." Re engine-ing a BattleMech was a lot of work and that was why they had pushed so many 'techs from the Azami regiments over to the work. Still once, they were sure that what they were doing would work, well...


"Raventhir seems to think if it works that Pioche should be able to provide lots of them... I mean that factory is basically Star League era tech. Very little like it left in the universe."


That was true... for both the good and the bad that went with it. Gene was also glad that the Magistracy produced its own PPC even if it meant shipping them in from Canopus proper... which of course was probably plenty of excuse ot have observers come check on their progress. Gene more than once had attempted to wrap his head around how trade was legally supposed to work in the Magistracy, the nobility had apparently rather strong economic privileges.... which even though he wasn't an economist he suspected might account for some of the problems with the Magistracy's own industrial position. But even if he had been here to fix that, which he wasn't he would have had no idea where to start. "Then we protect it, our job to fight pirates, and prevent them from rampaging around as they like. If we need to defend Pioche, then we will... but realistically with an HPG station here Black Jack will probably come to us."


"Do you think he'll come in person? He's got a big bounty on his head, ja? You think he'll chance tangling with us?"


Gene remained silent for a moment. The bounty wasn't really the issue. It was all the questions that Black Jack might be able to answer about this whole mess. "He's also escalated," Precipitously so, that might be hard to account for but this was no longer just attacking HPGs on the fringes, and it very well could have been that after fifteen or so years of rampaging along the periphery he was starting to lose his hold on ever increasing pirates numbers... "We still don't know how connected Black Jack is withthe Rim World and Amaris claims," But that mattered less and less as things mounted, "Kelly invading and attacking both the Capellans and the Free Worlds League is upping the ante even further." And before that there had been attacks on the Fed Suns frontier worlds. "I don't think it matters if Black Jack shows up in person, but some one will show up. If there aren't spies here already," Which who knew how could the MIC was, but they couldn't be perfect, "They will be with all the news going out."


An ICE powered cargo truck pulling an ammunition trailer slowed a stop in an adjoining parking lot... artillery shells for Hammers howitzers. Raventhir had apparently given some speech to the nobility of the Magistracy asking for greater domestic industrial production.... which sounded great but even if the money were there you still needed the tools to make the tools.. "You've got that look in your eye." Septim observed...


"Raventhir is getting a lot support through the Lyran Commonwealth."


"Her father, Doctor Abner might have abdicated but he's still wealthy and well connected."


Gene cocked his head, "Do you know much about that?" He asked, then shook his head, as he decided that it was going to probably be better solved by asking Abner directly the next time he crossed paths with him, "Don't worry about it, we have enough on our plate as it is." and if Black Jack didn't come in person... well there were other targets he could lead the attack on... and there was always the possibility he might try and hit Canopus.


"Wait, boss what did you have in mind?"


"Something that would be trouble for us." He replied shoving his hands in his windbreaker as he glanced upwards tracking towards the horizon and the ASF on patrol as they began to move around the river to the south of the star port. He wanted to help, but the member states might decide that stealing from their neighbors particularly their periphery neighbors was going to be easier than anything, especially if they thought there was Hegemony tech involved, "We need to focus on what we have to do right now." They walked on through the assembly area past various other flat bed cargo haulers, and the spare parts, and the engines that were supposed to reinforce the Luxen Volunteers defensive position. Hammer's artillery would remain parked in the vicinity of the Star Port. .. but unless Raventhir decided to begin moving the command...or realistically potentially had that decision pushed on her from Canopus they were going to start distributing the Company's expanded ranks into the field, "What do you think about the Merlins?"


"The 'mechs are just like mine was," Septim responded, "The kids piloting them aren't bad, just green. They're heavier than the Vindicators but a lot of the same strengths, and I figure since the TTS and Comms system are produced domestically we might consider letting the Azami try and fit Vindicators with Magestrix built systems."


He took note of the suggestion, but zeroed in on the reiteration of the green comment again, "About that, the Chargers and Cicadas are going to need work, how do you feel about taking the recruits through their paces on the Crocketts we have with us? Let them practice gunnery on those?"


"It won't hurt anything, but they're going to be different than what they end up piloting."


"You're the one who keeps telling me any mech is better than no mech. I just want to make sure they have as much time driving one as we can give them."

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars


Gene was all too aware of the pervasive nervousness that seemed everywhere in Luxen's capital. He was also aware that the civilians were looking for reassurance... but that didn't mean he had time to talk to news crews... and he wasn't sure his employer wanted him to address the public. It wasn't as strange as he might have thought it was after Elidere that the local media did want to interview Captain Short... he could recall the Robinson press, and Elidere's press as well, fawning over Sutton and his Dervish for their heroism both on Elidere and on Ander's Moon.


He looked over the hologram to the Canopian captain. "The Crockett was developed by the Hegemony as Training 'Mech. Its not perfect but in term of preparing 'mech warriors to walk and shoot, it is hard to beat." He informed the assembled MAF officers in total, "While the Chargers and Cicadas are being rebuilt we're going to start with them. This won't effect the Merlin pilots, or any of other pilots with combat ready machines but you can expect the pipeline tempo to potentially increase as the situation develops ."IN short anyone whose machine didn't need the Azami to go over with a fine tooth comb didn't need to worry about the Crocketts per se. As it was the Azami were optimistic about the Charger project to the point that given Chargers were relatively common in the Combine's ranks that they'd potentially be making refits of their own once they reached Alamut.


The pilots watched a short introductory video, scrounged from the Hegemony's archive of learning material of familiarization. It was a safety brief... being done just to cover the bases. For most part most of these pilots had between twenty and thirty hours in a BattleMech since they had gotten to the Luxen Volunteers. That wasn't a lot but they knew what a cockpit looked like, and which sticks were used to maneuver the machine.
Most of these pilots had been tried using light mechs. Things like Stingers and Wasps which were thin skinned but if any machines could be considered common well it was bug mechs. Still they had arrived on Luxen before there were enough 'mechs for them all to be assigned machines hence the limited amount of time they had in their mechs. They had had time in simulators... much as the original Easy Company pilots had had. There would be further simulator, mech pod, based training as well... the difference as the video concluded was that Gene could recognize the difference between five years ago and the tensions now.


He spent several minutes as Septim, Bubbles, and Ronin divided up the cadets to run questions by Hammer about the best options to employ their armor contingent. That ultimately ran into a number of other issues. As they moved outside as the pilots started their first walk up on the Crocketts that conversation diverged to the internal divisions within the Magistracy government. "We will have to take steps to reassure Luxen's civilian authorities. As for Lady Raventhir, her plan such that I read it is to give the Magistracy room to build up, if she can get it through the nobles who control trade."


"Even if we had enough troops, which there aren't enough of the poofs," Hammer remarked, "We certainly don't have enough engineering assets around every potential target. We're putting a lot on that the pirates will come at the HPG. That isn't a gamble the planetary authorities are comfortable with taking even if they don't have a choice." It was part of the reason so many civilian were crowded around the starport. "But I can already hear the bitching if we start telling the MAF PBI to start digging fighting positions in without the enemy being in front of us," And frankly that would probably be a wasted effort.


"I understand that, I still want the engineering assets we do have to go out and conduct surveys in the field with the MAF." It was not truth be told the maneuver warfare that Hammer wanted, or for that matter that the Scotts Cuirassier wanted to do, but it was the job that needed to be done. If Raventhir wanted to deal with the big picture of interstellar politics within the Magistracy that was fine, they just needed to make sure that nothing happened. He turned towards the throng of young pilots around the machines, and nodded. "We need to plan for a hasty defense Hammer, as if the enemy will jump in at any moment, and we need to be familiar with how we can best exploit the terrain to keep troops alive in contact with the enemy." He also wanted to suggest broader civil defense steps, and evacuation and shelter in place orders...but that expressly fell under the auspices of the civil authorities not Raventhir so he was sitting on the idea for the time being.


As concerned for Luxen's civilian population being caught in the cross fire he understood that if he pushed things the local government was going to protest. They were here to help, and part of that meant knowing when to not do something. "Unfortunately they built the HPG station right next to the hospitality quarter. "Hammer reminded him, "We won't have an easy time defending it."


They had been lucky the first time, the 'second battle of Luxen' when Black Jack's pirates had attacked the first they hadn't come in as significant of a force as Kelly did moving a whole battalion of most heavy battle mechs of star league vintage. That was part of the reason Kalidasa had gone so poorly for House Marik they had been caught completely flat foot even though the thrust did seem to have come in from the Capellan side of the border rather than directly up from the periphery. That wasn't entirely crazy since Kelly couldn't possibly have been tearing across Marik space without being caught before that since Kalidasa was deep in the Inner Sphere being relatively close to Terra as far worlds went.


MacIntyre moved to join them as the Crocketts began to power. At 85 tons the machines were identical to the ones left on Northwind for Battalion D. It wasn't intended as obfuscation it was just that Azami had been told to pull the weapons, and replace them with equipment so that there was as much commonality across the formation as they could manage... that was still a work in progress. "I think Bubbles and Ronin have it from there." He remarked coming to a halt. Septim had already lead the pilots who had Merlins towards where his Cavalry waited with its factory stock siblings. "That being said, we do need to talk about the Dragoons coming out."


Hammer shifted his weight. They had read him in on plans including a revised case black given what they knew about things. Hammer had already been briefed along with the majority of company grade officers on the ISF archive on Dieron and its contents. That allowed them to disclose Amaris-Kurita collaboration with additional evidence to support it. Having the ISF's own internal bickering was well nice, it helped a lot. It didn't meaningfully change things. "There is that," Gene remarked, took a breath and pushed on, "We can expect the Dragoons to return at strength, and if they don't show up with some eager new mechwarriors in tow I will be surprised. Whatever the case Kerensky is probably going to go chasing after Kelly, so" Kalidasa from Northwind was half a dozen jumps, and there was no way that Kerensky's company would catch Kelly that way he'd be long gone by that point.


"What are you thinking, colonel?" MacINtyre asked.


"We did the math," We meaning Dante had doubled checked things. "Kelly has to have some kind of help. He hit Kalidasa after we know he was near Fjaldr when we dropped with the Aurigans. Even if he'd been gone longer than we believe its eighteen jumps without anyone stopping him, across two Successor states to hit Kalidasa on the Lyran border, and then get away clean after humiliating both house Marik and ComStar. On top of that, Pasha had the JumpShips we seized under the letters of marque, most of them are immaculate. He thinks, and I don't know one way or another, but that they're from a cache supposedly like what the Dragoons found, but that still doesn't sound right to me."

The highlander frowned, "The battle rom footage... they were attacked by someone with no skill to speak of but with pristine royal mechs. Black Jack won, he got lucky in the roms but they were trying to drown him in numbers, which meant they didn't care about their pilots or about the metal they were losing. No successor state would do that."

"And its the descendants of Kerensky because they are conclusively good pilots."

"Aye... and Black Jack didn't start espousing this shit about Amaris until recently. He wasn't doing it fifteen years ago when he was raiding the Lyrans."

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Luxen
It was just before noon and he had been planning for the upcoming after lunch briefing of the MAF personnel at large... he had not expected to have one of Seghal's senior company commanders show up. The woman was local nobility of some stripe and had likely been short listed for a battalion command slot as the LV expanded. She had questions about how they were doing things. "The principle reason for the Crocketts," Gene found himself explaining, "Is that it was designed as a training 'mech."The answer was in response to questions of why they were using them instead of the Marauder II or its variants. The truth was the transit from the Inner Sphere, to the Periphery, and the roundabout journey through the Aurigan Reach across the rimward periphery to the Magistracy had meant that the unit had trained as much as he might have liked.


Crocketts were not a standard fixture in the battle line of the unit, where as Marauder II Assault BattleMechs were. That was probably why the question had been asked. There were different tactical solutions to problems. It was why he had originally hoped to build up along a slightly lighter faster model for the unit... but that had been formulated from lessons of Elidere, and Dieron against the Combine who had a greater prevalence of light BattleMechs. A hussar regiment would have been still heavy enough to turn the combine flank, but potentially capable with its hovercraft to pin them in place.


Except that this was the periphery and he was as far as possible from the Combine facing an enemy with a predisposition in weight that more akin to his own. Some of the more embarrassing defeats delivered to the Magistracy and the near periphery had been by companies worth of Orions, and Black Knights defaced with obscene symbols of Amaris's Rim World Republic and his imperial delusions of grandeur.


That footage was concerning... but only because they were seeing an increasing number of all energy boats which itself could have been selection effects. "The Crocketts will provide them some experience with auto cannons." He stated to the MAF officer, "If Raventhir thinks its in the interest of our training mission to practice on the Marauder II series we can adjust for that directive, but the Crockett was specifically developed as a training 'mech. The pilots who we are largely working with for the most part have little to no experience driving heavier machines. The modifications to the Chargers, or for that matter even the Merlin pilots need the experience in particular, but functionally the entire regiment," He paused... they could do with whatever extra hours they could manage to cram in, Such that it was, "Needs time in battlemechs not just the simulator pods." This was not, Gene underscored the same as the last contract where they were in a place where the simulators were really their only good option in terms of time usage "If Raventhir is at all serious about this being a new foundation for the MAF then their training needs to start on as strong a foundation as we can, and that means the crocketts should be suitable learning aids." Those pilots didn't need to learn bad habits.


After the officer had been shown out, MacINtyre scowled, "She could have directed that complaint to me."


"Try not to take it personally," Gene replied. "We're operating in a friendly country, but there is just as good of a chance that this kind of thing would happen in Davion space as here." The old highlander grumbled all the same... and Gene didn't disagree but also he had to nip it in the bud. This was their first major contract since leaving the Inner Sphere, and it would have implications towards how things went on. "We're going to be in the news a lot," He informed the larger man, "Local news, and ComStar's interstellar broadcasts Dante already places us at a higher risk of foreign intelligence challenges due to Dieron, but now with Kalidasa having happened we can expect that the Capellans and the FWL are going to be looking at us."


"We're the largest mercenary army in the periphery, it comes with the territory."


Allowing for that being the case in normal situations, "We're not in a normal situation. The Dragoons left for wherever up North Kerensky settled. 3rd ​RCT, and the BSI," Blue Star Irregulars, "Are in Davion Space...I'm not going to lie I'm concerned what McCarron and the Highlander force in the Capellans are going to do." And he didn't even know where to start in terms of what the Free Worlds League might have available. "And our size," Was misleading... and was probably going to raise more questions than less, "Is accounted for by the Azami, and that means we are responsible as a unit for a large volume of dependents." Everything came with trade offs, and their manpower did give them a lot of advantages. "I understand that both you, and Hammer are eager to get back to Davion space start recruiting drives," And Hammer realistically was going to do what hiring he could out in the periphery but the current crisis here meant slim pickings for him. "And I think the Magistracy knows as much."


"You don't plan to send us ahead?"


He shook his head, "No, given the situation, and the likelihood Kalidasa makes the situation so much worse I need the full force of the unit, we're going to lose enough manpower with the units leaving for Alamut, and the troops deployed in the near periphery with the merchants, but that is another thing if the RimWorld objective is a new empire they're going to need to disrupt or subvert local governments that means keeping trade from operating."


"Speaking of trade, Majesty Metals is interested in some face time."


The short briefing continued before both men moved out of the operations center of the Overlord class DropShip which was the Battalion Headquarters for Claymore. The DropShip was surrounded by Bandit, and Badger vehicles protected further by kilted troopers from the Scotts Cuirassier. BattleMech presence were a lance of Thugs assault Mechs, given the time of day most likely from the 2nd ​Cadet Company pulling QRF in the even someone attacked, unlikely as that was, during the meeting or during the one they were now moving to.


Across the starport was another operations center, this one for Hammer and more importantly the coordination point for both their space based assets, and the artillery park. Hammer's mechanized infantry contingent centered on the men who had been with Hammer when Gene had hired him after the last Luxen contract were on perimeter security. They were in turn backed up by a company of Azami Phoenix Hawks proudly painted in an arid brown SLDF desert warfare camo... officially speaking they were now apart of the 12th ​Light Horse Regiment originally apart of XIV Corp, 14th​Army SLDF whose colors had been placed near their dropships. Their sibling regiment had taken the colors of the 139th​Light Horse Regiment, VIII Corp, who had likewise been destroyed during the Campaign to liberate the Hegemony from Amaris.


The ostensible reason for those units was that two centuries earlier the forbearers of certain Azami officers had been pilots in those regiments that had been apart of the SLDF's DCMR nearest to Terra. Those ancestors, who had been Mech Warrior officers, had been some of the last to be able to claim the title Haji because of course Amaris had destroyed Mecca. Though not enshrined in law, conveyed on their descendants special status within the Azami community. 'Blood of Martyrs' as Hammer liked to quip.


That actually created another potential problem for Gene. The Highlanders, their elders, had already been preparing MacINtyre to raise troops to form an eventual new Regiment of Highlanders. The Azami adopting the colors of dead SLDF regular units or just being there even would likely push the Rasalhague political backers behind Soren Holmgren, CO Bardiche, to agitate for a similar expansion since they knew there caches to provide metal for that kind of force. It also wouldn't have surprised him if House Davion liked the idea of a full blown rebellion against the Combine exploding in the Rasalhague Military District to keep the Coordinator off balance... and in theory whatever Soren's backers back home wanted it wouldn't come into play any time soon, but he was aware that was a potential matter.


The force deployment here was relevant for the almost hundred twenty MAF MechWarriors plus other personal in the Luxen Starport facility that served as a centralized briefing facility. "Lets begin with our problem," He belted to the assembled as he strode forward. A mental command through his ever present neuro helmet circlet triggered a map of the Magistracy of Canopus. "in SLDF doctrine we would address this by escalating the level violence against Black Jack. We can't do that this isn't like those campaigns. To the best of our knowledge Black Jack has no support within the Magistracy and is fleet based operating, his last known basing was in the Tortuga dominion."


There was a zoom out, and a pan of the map to show the distance... and the truth was Black Jack had to have a base nearer. Raventhir's other mercenary commander, Volkov, crossed her arms over her jacket but she was listening.


"I've already informed," He had almost used the word warned, but caught himself at the last minute, "Lady Raventhir there is a sizable chance that Black Jack will make a push on either Canopus or Farandir since they hit Royal Foxx," That was just due diligence on his part to present to her the options... the last thing he wanted to do was to be caught flatfoot if the capital of the country they were in came under assault and well some idea came to try and relieve a siege as such. He'd also gone so far as to push those concerns down the ladder to his battalion commanders this morning, whether or not Volkov had read her copy yet... well that he didn't know. "This information is to be understood by the entire command."


Chatter immediately began, as he had expected it would... but he let it continue as the Magistracy soldiers the mech warriors he was expected to train got it out of their system. He decided he wasn't going to mention, at least not today, that given they were supposedly at least dealing with pirates that they shouldn't expect a strict chain of command... though probably already knew it, but the implication from loose associations the way pirates tended to operate meant that if command and control was lax they could be seeing attacks that might have nothing to do with Black Jack, and Kelly's, vendetta against ComStar. Gene suspected from what they had understood after dropping on Fjaldr, and Axylus that smaller pirate gangs were being contracted with carrot and stick to support that vendetta in exchange for loot opportunities, and kept in line by threat of force.


Gene tapped the physical controls as much so that the motion caught the attention of those paying attention as anything else. The Magistracy did not have a lot of HPG stations, and from what he understood ComStar's outlying stations in the independent rimward periphery space had been hit already... for whatever reason Black Jack was dancing over the borders with increasing regularity now.


"This to me looks like Black Jack is going, or wishes to give the impression of moving into the Free Worlds League or Capellan Space." The interruption came from another of Seghal's contemporaries." That she had allowed for the possibility that it was obfuscation was a good sign... it meant she wasn't completely wedded to the notion one way or the other.


"Its possible, though it raises the question of where Black Jack wants to hit most." The 2nd​Battle of Luxen had involved one of Black Jack's lieutenants but not really one too high up in the chain, enough of a shot caller to wield all SLDF metal, but not one with anything truly special, and the bounty while nice had been a gratis not anything like what the Precentor New Avalon had offered for work out here.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars


Gene cracked his neck as the mike crackled and the Marsden II tank platoon leader checked in affirming that her platoon was in position at the way point. Back at the command post Abbas, an Azami tanker in a Fury acknowledged the receipt. Further back the data from his Fury was filtered to an actual fixed command center filled with MAF personnel watch and hopefully learning from the exercise in progress.


Hammer's original company of men were there 'baby sitting'. The 'White Mice' were not happy about it, but it needed to be that way. Dieron had the potential to support mechwarrior chauvinism over combined arms application and he needed to prevent that. His job was to help the MAF build up expertise and to protect a provincial capital as glamorous as 'mechs were they were one combat arm out of several.


He also knew that the Magistracy had a slew of officers who for a variety of reasons didn't like the disposition of their own 'mech forces. The breakdown of this maneuver was modelled on the ones they had operated on Robinson with the Draconis March Militia... but the difference which was most keenly felt was the lack of established facilities to support the exercises.


Right now, Ronin was currently tasking her light company with an attached lance of modified Chargers to advance on a separate waypoint. Septim had the Magistracy Merlins in tow. Beau currently had easy company and was liaising with Volkov as the two hopped towards another waypoint moving to secure a critical river crossing. Lady Raventhir's 'wolves' were currently far side of the river, which was what Volkov had volunteered for.


They were making good progress, so Gene wasn't surprised that the call came in signaling a priority communique. He reached over and keyed the display, eyes narrowing as the packet unfolded... there weren't many HPGs in the Magistracy. Black Jack was trying to destroy all of them it seemed, and had been even before Kelly had entered stage left to join the performance.


Bahar's Highlander transmitted a single click acknowledging she had gotten the video package as well. His Marauder remained still even as he worked his machine's command equipment. The Magistracy of Canopus was or should have been several months from Kalidasa, but after Kalidasa ComStar had apparently decided to summon its 'first circuit' to Terra to do something about this, while Kelly began to move back rimward.


ComStar had a monopoly on FTL communications, or at least public communications Gene had his suspicions that Black Jack might very well have access to fax machines or worse, and was now being pushed to use that. They seemed to have recognized that they were being backed into a corner and were now doing damage control in the face of a panic sweeping the Inner Sphere; or at least that last bit was what was making the news. Carefully weighing his options Gene made the decision that cancelling the exercise would be a mistake.... Kelly on the way out of the Free Worlds League burning all the way apparently but that didn't make him close enough to action on.


More than anything this showed that ComStar was serious about relaying news of attacks now... though the cynical part of his mind wondered if costs were going to go up as a result...rebuilding an HPG station couldn't possibly be cheap especially given the technological backslide. Gene exhaled drummed his fingers on the display and brought up the star map as the exercise continued... it was a only a matter of time until the Magistracy at the base were informed and one of them called in, but he had overall command... and they needed the Luxen Volunteers to be confident moving like this...and the plan was to expand from there to eventually encompass everyone.


Or nearly everyone the truth was he was probably going to given Hanzo command of the units defending the starport during the first major exercise, for which this was a test run, but that would be weeks from now. Weeks to finish making sure all the chargers and cicadas worked. After that... in theory from just a materiel standpoint all the mechs would be combat ready even if the unit was still green as grass. Defending Luxen with the Volunteers as a green force with the company at strength wasn't a difficult proposition. The problem was trying to use the unit offensively supplying the unit defensively was a limited logistical burden, but moving the unit off planet was a whole other problem.


The problem was that the Hegemony, and the SLDF as a result of the Hegemony's machinery had largely preferred heavyweight battlemechs to do the heavy lifting of any fighting. Hussar and Dragoon independent regiments had probably contributed the machines that Black Jack and Kelly had been given and or looted to fight with. There were lighter machines, and there were more contemporary machines, but the MAF was going to have a hard time of it when things dropped into the pot. His job was too do his best to prepare the MAF to fight that.
–
Two hours later Shepherd stood in the expansive departure bay of the Sam Houston. The DrosTIIA had touched down specifically so he didn't have to cancel the ongoing operations. The combat vehicles were still on their maneuvers their advance forward covered by Hammer, Bardiche , Claymore and the Cuirassier as the Maguanac corps of his first battalion formed a base security around the landed DroSTIIAs of their force. They were still within the envelope of Hammer's artillery park at the starport but the dropships allowed LRM clusters to be fired in simulation while the officer force congregated here.


"When we move back to the star port we're going to need to re examine what we know of Black Jack's movements."


"What are you thinking?" His XO asked


"That he has a star map that has worlds on it that aren't on the commercial charts."


That wasn't new, "We have discussed this before... it is worse than that?"


"The Rim World built hidden army depots stocked with machines they were allowed to buy from the Hegemony," The idea had been that the Rim World Republic was a lot closer to the Inner Sphere than the other territorial states... and that had bit everyone in the ass. "None of the JumpShips that we've seized had such facilities noted but its the only explanation I can come up with for not finding him... but..."


"Save that," Bahar acknowledged, "his man Kelly avoids the Free Worlds League with impossible guile."


Yeah... that, he resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. Something was very very off about this whole situation. "Then on top of that if Kelly is coming directly this way we will," He was sure, "Going to be potentially facing amassing of pirates on or towards one of the major Magistracy worlds... and they had already hit Royal Foxx. If they hadn't already negotiated over using Luxen as a staging ground then they might have been pushed to moving to Royal Foxx but they had no ties to that planet, and Luxen's HPG was still intact. "But that is another thing, I don't know how much control Black Jack really has over Kelly." Krisotfur Kelly wasn't one of Black Jack's original men...he'd shown up later... and Pasha had admitted that maybe this was a case of whoever had been supplying Black Jack had thought to try again with Kelly but that didn't make sense given that who that had been seemingly had tried to double cross Black Jack... none of this made sense from a logical standpoint and the whole neo Amaris psychobabble just gave him a headache trying to wrap his head around.


It was like Kelly was going out of his way to piss respectable people in the Inner Sphere off. That seemed especially the case with storming through the Capellan Confederation and the Free Worlds League and now heading back towards the Periphery at best possible speed. "We will be ready."


"We better be." Gene replied immediately. "Kelly, and Black Jack have to have some place safe off the maps we have to resupply..." And it would be very hard to disappear from Luxen to try and even things up.


"And our own re equipping of the units has drawn attention."


"I know. We're going to have to talk to both Raventhir and the Majesty Metals Rep." and Friar Tuck, the jovial drunk had a list of people he'd been keeping on his personal payroll to keep him and the Luxen HPG station safe while Volkov had been hired on to fill in in the Company's absence which the Friar had had to defend to other MRB offices and his own precentor apparently...but probably not too strenuously to his own boss. "We're going to meet Tuck's team when we wrap this up."


"Do you believe that this Crystal Palace of Amaris that Doctor Abner mentioned is real?"


"Probably real, whether or not its intact …I mean I wouldn't be surprised. Has kelly or black jack found it …"there was no way of knowing with what they had, "If it were this far rimward I'd be surprised... logic would say putting it rimward would be too close to the Taurians I would have expected it under the oceans of some near commonwealth republic periphery world.... I personally wouldn't want it anywhere near the Taurians or the Combine but Amaris gambled a lot..."

--
Notes: The Battletech Junkyard will be getting semi regular updates going forward there are things that canon-ish going up in that thread but that I'm not sure are exactly canon to the main timeline for Ghost mostly from other characters perspective.