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A Long Journey (Chapter Cover Art)

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Chapter 105 - A Long Journey[]


25 December 27888
Mackolla (Federated Suns)

On the continent of Minami's Hole, the eruption sent plumes of ash high into the atmosphere. While uninhabited, the vast ash cloud was quickly spotted by low orbiting ships and reported to the planet's capital. Mackolla had no planetologists or volcanologists currently on the planet itself, but HPG messages were sent to New Avalon requesting them to be sent as soon as possible.

Lieutenant General Paul Jefferson had been awakened with the news and after getting dressed he had pulled a ring binder that General Samuel Mitchell had left with him before he had departed. He had only glanced at it, not really reading in depth into the contingency plans inside it or the corresponding numbers for the sealed envelopes in his safe. But now, he was reading them all in depth so that he could prepare for whatever bad news could be delivered by the experts when they arrived.

His eyes scanned the cover sheet and he found no plan listed to cover a natural disaster or even a cosmic disaster, all covered or seemed to cover various possible invasion plans, plans in case the AFFS tried to forcibly absorb the unit and industry, all except for the very last one, titled Second Exodus. He flipped to the listed section and read the overview before moving to the safe and extracting the sealed envelope. He placed it on his small bedroom desk and stared at it for several minutes before finally picking it up, opening it and pulling the pages from it. He began to read.


Second Exodus

If you are reading this operational order things have gone wrong in the most extreme way possible. As everyone who would possibly have access to these plans are former SLDF, they will fully understand what this means just by the title. In short, these pages cover my thinking and plan for a second flight from the Inner Sphere. I can only imagine what has transpired that this particular envelope been opened but since it has, it must be very bad indeed. I have chosen the only area relatively nearby for this Exodus, the Tortuga Dominions. They are only 100LY away from Mackolla. We already have a foothold or should I say control of Morgan's Holdfast. While no industrial buildup or even mining operations have been placed there, the system itself is fully under our control as of this writing.

For this plan to be successful, the Dominions must be fully secured and all pirate activity terminated. Morgan's Holdfast is not an ideal planet, though it does have vast mineral deposits, the lack of vast reserves of fresh water and the soil conditions prevent the system from supporting anything above a population over one million. This information was gleaned from DoME records we managed to pull from the files during the first Exodus. We also have access to the DoME survey's of the remaining systems inside the Dominions and quite a few more, but they are much further away, too far really.

Before we did not have the forces needed nor the support of the Federated Suns to take control of the Tortuga Dominions, but now, it would seem our hand has been forced in some way. With the 322nd deployed off world, this makes the task of securing the Dominions much harder to accomplish unless the entire border region is stripped of troops, which will alert New Avalon and the AFFS that we are up to something and they will move to prevent that from happening. I can only assume AFFS naval vessels are still being serviced or waiting on repairs, which is an added complication and will prevent this operation from moving forward if they are alerted. Morgan's Holdfast has two corvettes stationed there along with a mixed Regiment of troops, while the warships can secure the orbital plane, there are not enough troops there to accomplish the mission.

I am obviously not there to assist in this operation, but I know you are capable of accomplishing the mission in some creative way or you would not have access to this envelope. But I will bore you with my thoughts or ideas on how to accomplish the mission, use what you can or want.

Use the Conestoga Transports along with the Drop Shuttles, they should all be operational by now. These can move along our garrison locations and pick up parts of each garrison, it should enable a force of several Regiments to be accumulated without much notice being taken by the AFFS. While not ideal, they will work for this operation. No move should be made on moving any established industrial site until the very last minute, no matter what my father desires. As I saw what my father was putting together, I made arrangements with Trimble Precision Machinery to manufacture spares for most of the production stuff, enough that we could rebuild if needed, but at a slower pace if we could not pull our existing stuff out. As completed, these were shipped out to Site 222 for storage.

When I was studying the DoME survey's, New Port Royal would make an excellent capital. While the water is even less than what is on Morgan's Holdfast, it is at least drinkable without extensive purification plus there are extensive aquifers which will need to be drilled and tapped before use. New Haiti has the greatest fresh surface water on the planet itself, but needs purification before it is safe to drink. The last survey conducted in the Dominions was in 2764 and established a estimated population total of 18 million spread over the six systems. But with all the "forced" migrations of the Amaris War, Periphery Uprising and other wars, who knows how many people are there.

These are just my own thoughts on the matter, it is you that must make these thoughts a reality. On this I cannot help you. I just pray that you will have time to put this plan into action.

General Samuel Mitchell


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