Chapter 5:
Another year passed and we are now at the point where things are going to start to get interesting. I had spent a small fortune over the last year gathering data. Maps, logs, journals, rumors and mentions, anything and everything that had to do with the SLDF and their locations just prior to the exodus. My Senior officers thought I was mad, by now everything has been found and claimed, they all said.
I would usually just nod my head and continue spending my funds. I had an entire wall, corkboarded with red string. Yes I had my own conspiracy board, but it was just a smoke screen. It was a way to hide things and let me explain how I had found things. How I might have sussed out the things I planned for us to find.
Our contract renewal offer had come in, and it was a significant offer at that. Three times what we had originally been paid, meaning that I was being offered a cool six million a year to station myself here as a garrison and act as training cadre. I guess the different training exercises that we had run resulted in a highly increased opinion of us for those on the planet.
I could take it, and then use one of my jumpers and a single dropper to gather the things that I wanted. But was it really worth it? I hummed to myself as I considered my options. I could do this a different way, I could hit up a different target, not the Argo first. One that only requires a ground team to find and then someone to pilot it back. That was potentially doable. And it was definitely an easy way to increase my tonnage overall. It would also give me a mixed lift Dropship that would allow me to make a run on the Argo without sacrificing my combined arms doctrine.
Yeah I like that. That is the play, I will need at least a few techs to go along, and a skeleton crew to lift it, so a minimum of ten dropship crew. This is going to be a pain, but I figure if I remain here with the garrison contract, and work on moving stuff around under the radar then we might be able to get this done quietly, or as quietly as landing a tens of thousand ton massive egg on the planet can be.
Deciding that I was on the right track I called for James, Nova, and Victoria. They would be the ones that put together the ground team. I put together the data I needed to convince them, as well as the data that showed my best guess to narrow down the location more than just an entire mountain range. I did remember vaguely from the old Sarna articles that it was located along the northern edge near the southernmost section of the range.
Looking over the map and then reading through some of the information that I had in relation to Epsilon Eridani, I realised that there were numerous mentions of activity north of Trophilly from during the age of the SLDF. They were scattered and more just random complaints about the noise at night and burning streaks that fell behind the mountains but that was enough.
When my called for officers arrived in my office, not the conspiracy room, I had them all sit and got started, "So I am going to cut to the chase, originally I planned to have us not re-up and instead go do some prospecting for a bunch of LosTech." I notice all of them stiffen up as I say that. We had a very good thing going currently and even though my investments and royalties off some of my designs could happily pay to keep us going, not receiving a pay check and being free floating for an indeterminate amount of time would wear on people.
"I have since decided that I don't think that is a needed measure at this time," I continue, causing them all to relax again. "However, that does mean that I am going to have to look into finds that do not require us to be jump mobile immediately. Instead I have a potential lead that is going to require a team to go do some mountain climbing." I say looking over the three of them as my words settle in.
"Whereabouts, Ma'am?" asks James, catching on that I would not have asked for him and Nova if it was going to be easy.
"Epsilon Eridani. Capellan space, meaning the teams going need to be exceedingly good at vanishing from sight, and doing so with a team of techs. They should also be able to at the minimum pilot either large shuttles or dropships, that's why I asked for you James, I know that all of your marines have the needed training at this stage to get a Dropper off planet." I started looking over to the Marine team's leader.
"You think you found a dropship Ma'am? That no one has found in all this time?" Asks Victoria. My Lead Mech tech has really shown that even if she is not, cosmic Vikki Ferrous broken, she is still a wunderkind with machines.
"I think that I have found either a hidden depot, or facility belonging to the SLDF 5th Army. What it contains I cannot say, but I plan for the best and hope for the best, even if all that is there is a hidden facility. On that note, the team will be demolishing the facility when they leave. Meaning I want you to use any unstable ordnance to level it when they leave." I say watching as they all make different faces. Nova is contemplating, James has a happy grin, and Victoria is scowling like someone told her that the sky is now green.
"Anything that they can't get out gets blown to hell. Anything that is unstable or unusable gets blown to hell. I do not want dangerous materials being brought back for any reason. And I do not care if other materials from that time period have been fine in use before. If it is made of volatile compounds it remains behind and gets destroyed." I say looking over the three of them.
They all nod along, though Victoria is somewhat reluctant, "The timetable is as follows, they will take three separate merchant jumpships heading there. Once on site, they will send a single message back stating that they have arrived safely and are going to enjoy their vacation and see the sights. After that they have a month to find the Depot, which will be located somewhere in this area." I say circling a section of mountains. "Once that has been achieved, they will have exactly two weeks before the Catbox jumps in at the Nadir point. At which stage they have to extract, regardless of what they have and have not managed to gather. If at this stage they have not managed to gather anything or if the Depot was a bust, they are expected to have sent a message stating that the holiday was a wash due to the weather. Before grabbing a dropship to the Catbox. If not I expect them to be Boosting there at maximum possible speed as they will not have cover once they lift off. Expect Militia ASF but it should be light and they will not chase you too hard past the L1 point." I lay out how I expect this all to go.
The officers pay attention and look over the plan I am laying out attentively. I can see furrowed brows as they try to find problems, which I know exist. I am not a tactical or strategic genius, that is why I trained all of my teams to be adaptable.
"How many people, and what do you honestly expect to find in the depot Ma'am?" Asks Nova as they look over the intended target area. There are a lot of rough mountains and forests.
"Fifty people maximum, Mix of Marines, Infantry and Techs. As for what you are likely to find. The last bit of evidence I have for the area is the landing of at least one large spheroid, if not multiple smaller Spheroids. So expect anywhere from a Colossus, or Lee to multiple Mules, Lions or Unions. Inside the depot itself, I am unsure, I would assume backup mechs, armour, and, gear and ammo. Though it could very well be a large number of WMDs that we will have to ensure are properly destroyed. I just don't know what was the last cargo carried into the area. I do know that we will probably not be getting any more Royal gear, this was not a Royal regiment, though that could also be wrong as the last mention I can find was some time in 2767, and it was a journal log mentioning sending lift for the Second battalion of the 83rd Mech Division. So that should tell you what to roughly expect." I explain as I look to them and them all getting hopeful looks.
An actual journal log from the time stating that lift had been sent, and that it was enough for an entire battalion's worth at a minimum was a good indicator of how big it was. They all looked back at my rough estimate area and tried to figure what would be the best location for a base to contain that much lift and have storage for that much metal.
The next four hours were spent hashing out a more detailed plan, while also narrowing down who would be going and what they would be taking. In the end we figured sending a mixed platoon with a group of our techs who had managed to cross train to at least Special Forces levels would be sufficient for the task.
The techs could all put the mechs into maintenance mode so that they could be moved if any were found, while the Marines and Infantry would run site security and make sure that anyone who came snooping vanished. Between fifteen techs, twenty marines and fifteen infantry, we figured that they would manage just fine.
Once that was organised I sent them off to make arrangements and sent confirmation to the Daimyos office that the Black Cats PMC would be taking a contract for another three years. I would head through to their offices the next day to confirm that with them then but for now I had other plans to set in motion. First was to get a group of my SOG, that I had been training separately and in secret as my Blackbooks operators, for a talk, they had a hotel to get to and an Archon Designate to rescue.
I figured that I would be interfering, if only because Katrina Steiner was the only good ruler to arise in the next hundred years and she deserved to live to see things through properly. So after a brief meeting with the group, they were given their gear, some very nice next gen Hei Gui Stealth Armour, yes I had cracked it and made the next iteration but it was costly and I could only make small batches of artisanal stuff.
I also handed them a bunch of personal weapons that I had had to hand craft. Now were these anything amazingly standout, no, not really. What they were, was fit for purpose. I had managed to find just the right combination of power to weight to make a subsonic that would punch through current generation battle armour at 500m while being videogame levels of quiet. Was it almost tinkertech levels of bullshit, yes, but was it maintainable by the field operator, also yes.
So off went my Black ops team, on their way to Poulsbo, and hopefully they would be in time to prevent the bombing. They had their orders, preventing the attempted assassination of the Archon Designate and her Fiance and cousin. Failing that they were to escort them offworld and remain as guards for up to six months. They also had two messages to deliver. One to Katrina, and one to Arthur. The first would be a reminder that if she plans to go poking around in ruins and planets that had been hit by WMDs, she needed the right gear, and the other was to mention that Alessandro was aware of his ties and that he had been the target not Katrina. Both letters also mentioned that they should receive Quarterly health checks looking specifically for cancers and that the team's employer had means to deal with anything that came up if the doctors on Tharkad couldn't.
Was I giving away a lot, yes potentially. Did I care, honestly, not really. At this stage I was running around with a full RCT, and short of a directed attack by the toaster fuckers navy, or a great house deciding to invade and drop twice my number on me, I was safe as houses. Was I worried about Spook bullshittery, yes, could I do anything about that, also yes. I had my own spooks, in fact I had had them start developing our own network. Nothing fancy, just a passive network that was slowly creeping through the Lyran commonwealth and starting to grow inside the FWL and Fedsuns.
With my teams headed out to do their thing, I decided that it was probably a good time to do some planetary surveys and prospecting, so it was time to head back to my workshop and put my nose to the grindstone. A Quest from my last life was still tickling the back of my brain, and I was looking forward to re-enacting everything that had happened for them, without all the drama.
En route to Epsilon Eridani, Merchantship The Longhaul
Sergeant Gibbs was wary about his mission. His unit had been attached to another from the infantry teams to serve as advanced scouts on the Lostech hunt that the Colonel had decided they should do. Undercover, and in Capellan space. This was a recipe for disaster, and he was not looking forward to having to play guerrilla survivor if things went pear-shaped.
Thankfully, his team was among the best at infiltration and scouting, made up of Scout snipers, Saboteurs and his team of bull-headed Recon Marines. He could at least count on them to have his back and to get through things thick and thin.
The trip would take another week as they had arrived in system recently. Then they had to find a way to acquire transportation and then head for the mountains, while losing all surveillance. Truly the Brass never gave easy assignments in this outfit. At least the pay matched the difficulty. They were each being given a bonus of fifty kay, or a choice of one item from recovered materials, after the company had gone over everything of course.
Leaning back in the bunk he was in, he thought over the plan. Four teams, different arrival times and ships. Rendezvous was in Trophilly, then on to the mountain range. They had a month to search for a hidden depot in an area roughly three square klicks in size. That was far smaller than the Colonel originally had apparently. Some last minute intel had finally arrived before she made her decision, good for them, but also made things more interesting as it was looking like there might be a dropship or ships present. Getting them off world would be the true challenge if true.
A month was not a long time, they would then only have a further two weeks to get anything else sorted before their ride would be in system and waiting. Hopefully they could pull this off. He really would rather not end up in a Capellan prison. Though the Colonel had promised that she would drop the regiment on the planet to get them back even if it meant breaking the contract.
That was one of the good things about their commander. If you were one of hers, and had moral and ethical high ground, she generally backed you to the hilt. You were never left out to dry, unless you fucked up by the numbers and broke the core ethics of the company. She had bailed more than one of the company out of the local lockup when they had a punch up with some of the locals who had prejudiced views about life and people. That had made the whole company understand, along with her putting the beatdown on a bunch of misogynistic twats, that in this company you stand on your merits alone. She does not care for social climbing and comes down on it hard. Your personal preferences are your own until it causes issues from your side, then it becomes a problem.
Gibbs had to chuckle at the memory of the squad that got their shit kicked in and then PTed into the ground for having issues with a female recruits preference of the fairer sex. Truly the commander is more than happy to dish out abject lessons in how things are done. Getting comfortable he starts running the cover stories again, no need for sloppy work and bad acting to screw the mission.
Epsilon Eridani, Trophilly, July 26 3004
Gibbs had just left the HPG after sending off the message stating that they were all safe and accounted for. Immediately beelining for his rental and the Corporal that was waiting for him. McGee was a tech, who had gone through basic and then Special Forces boot. Apparently he wanted to prove that the techs were just as capable of holding the line as any of the rest of the company.
"It's done, get in and let's take a drive." He says as he opens the driver's side and slides into the seat. With no hesitation McGee slides into the passenger seat and belts in.
The next forty-five minutes is spent on a meandering drive through the streets of Trophilly. Before then turning off onto the roads to the mountains and the outlying rural settlements of the planet. "No tails, but that doesn't mean much at this time, figure that they will probably follow behind us and ask their informants in the villages that we pass." McGee comments as they make their way down a dirt road to the rented Farm complex that they were staying in.
"Expected, we should lose them as soon as we make it into the mountains. Should not take long and anyone who follows will just so happen to have some climbing accidents." Gibbs replies as the car pulls into a parking spot among a number of other off road vehicles.
"Hope the Colonels' intel pays off. If it is half as good as she thinks we could see a bunch more growth coming for the unit." McGee says as they step into the central Farmhouse of the complex.
"From what we can tell, no one has found the base, or if they have it never made it into a rumor, though if you ask around enough then you will find that there are more then enough hints to there being a secret base on the planet." He replies looking over at the gathered people. Everyone is armed, watch is in place covering all the approaches and the surveillance and counter surveillance gear that the Colonel had sourced was already set up and running.
"Alright folks, look alive, time is now T-44 days to lift off. Let's not screw around. I want this done by the numbers and without issues. Torez, get the first group ready to leave at 0300. They will locate a good area for basecamp, until we can find this depot. David, you and your lot are going to be running perimeter, so you're out of here at 0600. McGee and Denozo are following behind you at 0900 and my section has cleanup and rearguard. We want to vanish into those mountains and become ghosts until we light the drives of whatever dropship is there according to the Colonels Intel. No fuckups people I do not want to have to explain why we had to call the unit to come bail us out." he orders looking over the assembled group of individuals.
Salutes and replies of "Yes Sir" ring out before everyone moves to start getting ready. Torez's section immediately heads for their racks, knowing that they will need the sleep, while everyone else moves to start breaking down their gear and checking over supplies.
Gibbs looks over everything one last time before moving to check his own gear. It is going to be a long month and they have to ensure they remain entirely hidden. There is no chance that they survive getting captured, and he would rather that the Colonel did not have to attempt to raid the planet for a bunch of corpses.
Shamus Mountains, Epsilon Eridani, 10 August 3004
They had apparently set up right outside the entrance to the depot without knowing it. It had honestly been luck that it was found in the end. A simple overhanging rockformation, creating a break in the surrounding mountain forest and providing a dry location to set up. All it had taken to find was a couple of the marines looking for a discreet place to perform the horizontal tango deep under the overhang.
Honestly, Gibbs had no idea whether to reprimand them for the idiocy or to put in a suggestion that they get a bonus. But they had found it. The access panel being hidden behind a false rock facade, and the doors for entry being the same. Thankfully the panel also opened the sallyport, which was sized for infantry and not mechs, as opening the mech sized doors would have drawn attention from the noise generated and also the destruction of the exterior camouflage.
Having everyone pack up and move in before sealing it behind them and disguising their presence had turned out to be the right play as the interior facility had been perfectly mothballed, and barely needed the engineers to get the reactor refueled and reactivated to get the lights and other utilities online. Granted they combed the entire base top to bottom with sensors the Colonel had provided to ensure it did not blow up on them.
Once everything was running again and they were sure nothing would kill them they took inventory, starting in the armouries and working out to the Large Dropship hangar and attached Mech Stables.
"Well shit sarge, I think that the Colonel is blessed by the lady luck herself. This is a find worth its weight in germanium for us." Whistles Denozo. Looking through the Hangar control windows out over the massive bay.
"It is only worth something if we get it loaded and it can leave, otherwise it is going to be part of a crater Denozo, get McGee and the other techs working on it, same with anyone with the required cross training. I want the entire place stripped and our orders followed." He replies looking at the view out the window, truly Lady Luck smiled on the Colonel, now they just had to hope that she kept smiling.
Nadir point, Epsilon Eridani, Tramp-Class Catbox, T-1 hour
The jump into the system occurred without error. The sensors showed no other vessels at the Nadir point at this time, though that could change at any time. All Captain Morgenson could do now was wait.
"Sensors, sweeps I want combat sweeps at all times, but keep it to passives for the moment, we have no idea if the teams made it off or not yet. Comms, keep an ear out for any vessels hailing on our channels, we need to know when our boys and girls are due for pickup. Everyone is on readiness condition two until we know what is happening in this system and our people are back safe. Get the sails out and start the charge process. If we need to we will jump from the battery but let's not push our luck." He barks out, his crew moving with a well oiled precision.
Looking over the readouts he has displayed and watching the space around them he can only hold fingers and pray that the Colonel's intel was good. And that the teams on the ground didn't get caught. He would hate to have to repel boarders before jumping home.
They had made good time, and honestly were just a touch early, but better that and ready to leave quickly then late and having to risk a hot jump of the LF. settling back into his chair he got comfortable, as now, they waited for a sign.
Nadir Point, Epsilon Eridani, Catbox Bridge, T+1 day
"Captain, we have movement, and lots of chatter. Apparently terrorists stole three dropships and detonated large scale explosives in a secret Capellan facility. All jumpships in the system are to immediately leave the system." The XO says passing over a noteputer with the logs.
Looking them over, Captain Morgenson has to whistle, "Hotdamn, those boys and girls managed to level part of the Shamus mountain range, we picked up the momentary flash from here even." Looking up from the logs he looks to the comm station, "Comms, are we getting any other messages on any of our frequencies?" he asks hoping that the groundpounders had done things right.
"Message came in ten seconds ago, decoding now Captain." The comms officer replies as they start punching in more commands trying to make things go faster. A minute later they pass a noteputer to the captain with the decoded message on it.
Morgenson starts to read the message and smiles wide, apparently the Colonel really is born under a lucky star or blessed by Lady Luck, because this is the find of the century Lostech wise.
"Alright folks, make sure our collars are ready and bring us to ready one, start plotting micro jumps between us and an intercept from the planet because we might just have to jump in front of our package and grab it up all fast and smart before booking it on the LF battery. Furl the jump sail and start slowly trickle charging from the reactors, we are not hanging around. We struck paydirt and the Colonel is going to be sharing bonuses galore with everyone once we get back." He says smiling happily at the thought of what he was going to bring home. Maybe for once their unflappable leader would finally show some emotion that did not have you walking around like you had eggshells under foot.
Nadir point, Epsilon Eridani, Tramp-Class Catbox, T+5 days
Captain Morgenson stared out the bridge window as the three large Dropships came into view. Honestly he had to marvel at some of the ships the SLDF had built. These were truly some amazing machines of war, though the fresh armour scoring on some of them and the one missing weapon mount on the Trailing Titan did mar the image somewhat.
They had been slowly trickle charging for the last four days and they were ready to jump as soon as the dropships were securely docked, which would be not a moment too soon as there was a rapidly approaching set of Militia dropships that would be here in just over two hours. Hopefully there were no issues with getting the collars mated and they could be away with an hour to spare.
He had had his crew pick only unsettled and uncharted systems from here back until they were a single jump from New Kyoto. There they would jump into Algorab and then on to New Kyoto. His eyes left the view of the large dropships as they drifted past and returned to his bridge, "Alright people, our package is here, let's get them secure and then leave this place on course ASAP. We do not want trouble with whatever that Dropship is and definitely prefer not to deal with having shots fired near us. So making it fast and clean." he barks out, the command ringing across the bridge and snapping everyone back to work.
He does the same, rechecking the plotted jump coordinates and checking that all his systems are showing green. The hot charge they did on the drive was apparently not heavy enough to do too much damage, but they would be taking the slow way home from here on, sail charges only and nice and slow. Letting the engineers check everything over as many times as possible. No point getting this far only to Misjump at the last second.