Chapter 9:
New Kyoto, 21 December 3004, Black Cat PMC Main Base.
Morgan Kell
Morgan stumbled back into his room and collapsed onto the bed. The sim session had lasted six hours. Six solid hours of near non-stop fighting, against everything from tanks to ASF to infantry to other mechs. He had fought across three different biomes, with two different lances, and then finished up by having the one-on-one that the Colonel had offered.
Embarrassingly, he was thankful that the fight with the Colonel had lasted less than ten minutes. The fight, and that is a stretch of the word, lasted ten seconds upon making contact with the Colonel in her Gunslinger Mongoose. She had not used her mechs' stealth systems and had run a plain grey, black, and purple paint scheme.
She had still managed to come out of nowhere and gave him a taste of what the other mech pilots on base call the finger of death. A mech finger accurately shoved through your cockpit glass is a terrifying thing. She had done that three separate times, over the next thirty minutes, and he had been unable to defend himself even once.
Sighing into his pillows, he rolled over and put his hands behind his head. His mind rapidly replayed each of the sims and tried to figure out what he could have done better. In the first sim, he did as well as he could. The Archer was a firesupport mech, made to lay on the hurt at maximum range and support the others on the field.
That said, if he had a slightly tweaked loadout, he could have done better. He just needs to figure out what that would be. In that particular sim, aside from the scout lance that the Colonel Cleaned up, he only managed to claim kills on two mechs, a Catapualt and a Thunderbolt, and those had mostly been cleanup kills, Tinman, in the Nightstar, had already mostly hobbled them both and removed most of their armor before moving to take their own kills in the form of the three Dragons.
Wolfhound in the Maruader had taken the other Thunderbolt, the remaining two Catapults and a Charger. As the lance had moved to reorient and take the fight to the last four Assault mechs, the threat board had started clearing rapidly, first the Highlander, then the other Charger, and finally the two victors had gone so close together he was still trying to work out how the Colonel had done it.
All the replay of that portion of the ROM could show was the Colonel breaking stealth, FODing the Highlander, then putting a point-blank triple laser into the cockpit of the charger, and then kicking the stealth systems on briefly and running for the two victors who had grouped up and were standing back to back.
Suddenly, the Mongoose is in a flying tackle on the one while simultaneously firing the six lasers on its arms around the bulk of the Victor and into the exact same spot on the opposite Victor, causing it to slump down. The weight of the flying tackle drops the mongoose and the Victor, who was not expecting it, and then the Colonel is rolling off the Victor with all three of her left arms lasers pointed directly at the Victor's cockpit and firing.
How? He still doesn't know. Mechs just don't move like that from everything he has ever seen or been taught, and yet the Colonel does it time and again. He had used her setup immediately afterwards just to see if anything had been changed in the software to let it happen, but had found nothing. If anything, the difficulty of piloting her mech with her settings was a full order of magnitude greater than just piloting his own mech.
Shaking his head, he banishes the thoughts of the impossible piloting of the Colonel, trying to focus his mind on the other sims, the rest of the training, and the way his lancemates had absolutely made him look like a total rookie.
He drifts off to sleep, contemplating whether or not he is going to fit in here for the next three weeks, waiting for Katrina.
New Kyoto, 23 December 3004, Black Cat PMC Main Base.
The Colonel, Samantha Wylde.
I lean back in my office chair, replaying the day and thinking about all the things I need to get done. The arrival of Morgan Kell is a warning sign that I really would have preferred not to occur, but I will just have to take it into account and move forward with the potential that it raises.
I would honestly prefer that the Archon Designate not come through my wonderful little slice of paradise out in the middle of nowhere, but with my luck, that is unlikely. Chances are far more likely that the second she arrives, a countdown starts for a stepped-up invasion by the FWL, or a retaliatory hit by the Cappies.
I look over our numbers and check the paperwork that had been left on my desk. Signing off on several refits and modifications to our forces' machines, as well as noting down the levels of our stores and parts. For now, I have enough replacement parts to keep the regiment moving through four or five hard engagements, but I still do not like how limited we are.
I really want to get around to finding a nice, hidden location to set up manufacturing and production so that I can have my folks equipped properly and not worry about losing their advantages every time they step onto the battlefield. I have the ability, heck, I have the schematics and design documents to start, I just need the space and materials to get a factory or two dozen started. Just need to make it through two more years, need to get the company through to 3006, that is all, then I can see about getting us a main base of operations.
I might just actually take the full Regiment out to do some pirate stomping down around the Aurigan Reach. I know for a fact that there is a base on Artru that we can raid, as well as the Argo, which I want. I really want the Argo so that I can set up a small manufacturing facility for all the needed replacement parts. I could also hopefully use the Vehicle tinkering ability that I have to make the MDCS work properly, and not just as one or the other system. If I can get the Argo fitted to carry three 2000t or smaller dropships, then I might be able to get my idea for proper gunships worked out so that my troops have even better CAS.
I still have the plans for DroST IIb conversions in my head that I had worked out for that one story of Battletech that I wanted to write. Those were some mean, nasty and stupidly over-gunned CAS ships that I had designed. They would make an absolute mess of anything if given half the chance, and I planned to make them even better. Unfortunately, it all still came down to the same thing: I needed to get through the five-year mandatory work period of the inheritance and then find a location to settle down in so that I could work on getting us ready for what is to come.
I sigh and take a sip of the drink that has been resting on my desk. Sitting up and cracking my back while stretching. For all the help that the gacha gives me, there is just so much that I cannot do with it until I can focus solely on getting manufacturing set up. I turn and look out the window overlooking the base, the light behind me off and the security measures in place to prevent anyone from trying to snipe me. Yes, I am paranoid. Do you blame me at this point? Even now, as one day moves into the next, the base is still a hive of activity. Techs are working to make refits, run general maintenance, and just generally work on downed vehicles. Guards running patrols and manning their posts. We even have a few of the trainees' classes being dragged out of bed on the double to get to some late-night navigation training.
I stare over it all and take in what I have helped to create. The men and women serving with me, the base that we have built up. The engines of war that we have maintained and readied for a fight, almost all of my men hope never arrives. I take a deep breath and slowly let it out. We will be ready, no matter what comes; we will hold, and we will break our foes.
New Kyoto, 24 December 3004, Black Cat PMC Main Base.
The Colonel, Samantha "Titania" Wylde
The next day was supposed to be just another day in the list of days that separated me and my men and women from payday, a lead-up to the holiday that everyone in Human space shared and that would hopefully keep people from doing stupid things. Unfortunately, I got bad news instead of gifts, and it was going to set the tone for the year to come.
"Repeat that, Lt. Kell, I thought, I just heard you say that the individuals that you were travelling with are headed here?" I say, and if my emotions are dulled, they still blaze hot enough with annoyance that I am sure the young man in front of me can feel it blistering his skin.
"That is the message I was told to pass Colonel. They should be here a day or two before the new year, or the middle of the first week at the latest." He responds, standing at attention and looking over my head.
I stare at him from behind my folded hands, my elbows resting on my desk. This. This is exactly what I was hoping would not happen. I was praying to all the powers that be that Katrina Steiner and her loverboy Arthur Lovic would not come here. That they would bypass us and continue deeper into the heart of the Commonwealth.
Alas, my hopes and dreams for a calm start to the year seem to be dashed. I lean back in my chair, sighing while rubbing the bridge of my nose. "Lieutenant, I hope that the individuals I sent explicitly told them that that was a bad idea and they should head straight home?" I ask, wrestling with the frustration I am feeling, but under control. Hopefully, my team was aware enough to let them know how much of a bad idea coming here was.
"They did so as soon as they heard. They were unfortunately overruled." He replies, eyes still focused on a point above and behind me. Still stiff as a board at attention. Now with a light sheen of beading sweat beginning to form.
"Christ on a bike and fuck my life. At ease, Lieutenant." I say as I lean back into my chair and start massaging my temples. I really would rather not have the potentially oncoming shitstorm happening right now, but apparently, that is what I am going to have to potentially deal with.
"Lieutenant, you will be ready to meet them at the Spaceport as soon as they indicate that they have arrived in the system. Then they will be brought straight here. I do not care what she thinks will happen, until I can get the lot of you off this planet and out of the system safely, she will not be setting a single foot off this base." I state, sitting forward again and looking him dead in the eyes. "Should she make problems for me, or decide to hang around, I will ensure that the team I sent originally bundles you all up and has you on a direct path trip to Tharkad using my own lift. Inform her on the drive here that I am exceedingly unhappy that she has put a target on this planet for no reason whatsoever." My voice is still flat, devoid of emotions, but I can tell he understands the severity of what I am saying by the fact that he automatically straightens back to attention.
"You will spend the remaining time until they arrive in a shortened, enhanced CPS course. I expect you to take any threat to them seriously enough to jump between them and anything pointed their way. Do you understand me, Lieutenant?" I finish, still staring into his eyes and trying to will the level of severity into him through my eyes.
"Understood, Colonel," the responds still at attention and now saluting.
"Good, now dismissed, go find Captain Bond and inform him that you are on a two-week intensive CPS regime and that I expect you to pass when I have you tested by his boys and girls," I respond, watching as he turns and marches out the door.
When the door finally closes, I sit back again and close my eyes with a sigh. I really wish people who have positions of power would just do as they are told sometimes. I guarantee that the FWL will be launching a raid the second they find out that Katrina is here. Which will be exactly as long as it takes Kell to collect them from the Spaceport.
I could lengthen the time by having a dropship waiting at both the Nadir and Zenith with one of my jumpers at each. That might actually be the better plan. Have them wait there with my ASF cover. I should probably also ensure that there are a few marine detachments onboard as well. That way, if anything does go wrong, we can intercept the Jumpships before they can charge and take them. Same thing with any droppers without an infantry group.
Yes, that is probably the way I am going to do it. Have my ASF cover in place to lock down any incoming enemies. The Daimiyos' forces can handle planetary intercepts of anything that gets past us. Then we can pirate jump to get the ASFs back in range quickly after that. The main targets are going to be the Daimiyos' place, the capital and whatever factories are nearby.
The charge time would also mean that if I send my jumpships to different locations, I could get all of my ASF support back on target for an intercept before they could arrive. Hopefully, that would ensure that we could capture them all and prevent any actual combat. Lord, I hope that my hunch is wrong and that we get a couple more months without having to deal with an invasion.
I draw up rough plans and send them to my dropships and jumpship Captains, as well as to Major Nox, so that they can figure out a more concrete plan for the deployment, as well as get all the pieces moving. Then I send out a step up on the base-wide readiness, setting everyone to condition Romeo Two, and informing everyone that they are no longer allowed more than an hour from base. No exceptions until the middle of January.
With everything I can do right now done, I settle in for more paperwork and hope to get as much done as possible, so that I can head to my workshop early. I am getting to the point where I am going to need to start moving on to more locations for lift, as well as more surveying for hidden assets. As such, I want to steal the idea for a terrain mapping satellite array from that one Quest I used to read.
If I can get that sorted out and start getting them made, I can look into sending them to other locations throughout the Commonwealth and the FedSuns, looking for more fun things to collect. Currently, I can only really get away with doing that in the Commonwealth, as I am contracted there. Though having them made and ready for deployment when I inevitably move would allow for rapid mapping to occur. I could also make them comms satellites, which should help immensely with allowing planets to communicate more efficiently.
Ideas percolate in the back of my head for the rest of the day as I work, thinking and planning and hoping that things don't go tits up too much before I can stop worrying about losing everything by failing the inheritance conditions.