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Chapter 29 - A Long Journey[]
17 November 2785
Bamburgh (Federated Suns)
Colonel Harold Tanaka had spoken with Lieutenant General Samuel Mitchell about the situation on Bamburgh using the Mobile HPG that was assigned to his command on a real time hookup. He had given his opinion on the matter and the only answer he had gotten was a simple "Bring them in and I will figure it out and see what I can work out."
He halted the borrowed SPT-N2 Spartan and dismounted a few hundred meters from the grounded Dropships of the Battered Brood. He proceeded the rest of the way on foot, but also under his Regiments guns. He felt this needed to be done in person, even if he was going to possibly bend the truth some. The goal right now was end any chance of a fight and get them back to Mackolla where Lieutenant General Mitchell could deal with the situation himself.
A balding older man moved to meet him halfway follows by several more. When they got close enough the small group halted and came to attention, the older man in the lead rendered a salute. "Colonel Hansen Waiters, formerly of the 11th Hussar Regiment and I assume formerly the Battered Brood. These are my Battalion commanders."
Colonel Tanaka returned the salute. "Colonel Harold Tanaka, commander 322nd Battlemech Regiment. I have spoken with Lieutenant General Mitchell and he is already working on your situation. He has ordered me to bring you all back to Mackolla. I am sure you know that means not armed of course."
"You have our formal surrender, sir. Myself and my senior officers are ready to accept whatever punishment is warranted. The lower ranks were just following orders, they deserve a new life. We talked it over while awaiting your return. It is time to come in out of the cold. My technicians are ready to lock down the Battlemechs and pull the primary circuit boards and hand them over on your command. All small arms have been collected and stowed for processing by your people." Colonel Waiters said
"You made this easier than I expected, forgive my stunned look. I do not plan to lock any of you down, though there will be marines onboard your Jumpship along with several of our naval officers to oversee the move to Mackolla. Yourself and senior officers will accompany me onboard my own ship. Personally, outside of engaging our troops the other day, I know of no other crime you have committed so I am not going to consider you prisoners. That will be up to Lieutenant General Mitchell and the Federated Suns criminal system. I will send over my techs to supervise the pulling of the circuit boards and they will be armed and will provide security of the circuit boards and all equipment for the time being."
"Understood, sir. There will be no trouble, but we are concerned about the people we look after and our families."
"Lieutenant General Mitchell is aware of that concern, I am sure he is already working on that problem too." Colonel Tanaka replied
"How the hell am I going to get any leniency from the Federated Suns court system?" Lieutenant General Samuel Mitchell said to no one in particular
"Why bother them with this? Your troops beat off the attackers, pursued them but lost them when they jumped from the system. Yeah, they went down a wrong path, who has not screwed up at sometime or other. They made a judgement call that I am not going to argue was right or wrong. Then the tables turned on them and there was no going back, so they went deeper down that wrong path. I spent last night digging up everything I could find about the Battered Brood, you know what, it is exactly how they told it. They hit industrial parks deep in the night, stole equipment, usually from storage sites, never from active sites. They stole grain and seed, not from farmers but from whole sellers, they stole farm equipment from dealerships not the farmers. There are only a few civilian deaths that can even be tied to them. Mostly accidental far as I can tell.", Samuel concluded.
"My opinion, bring them into the fold. Rip out their IFF codes, on everything, replace them with something new. Repaint everything and I mean everything. You can tell the First Prince that you beat off the Battered Brood attack and in the process of pursuing them you came upon another "lost" former SLDF command that wished to join us. You can even give the First Prince the damaged Battlemechs from Bamburgh, there is his salvage from the defeat of the Battered Brood. Fold them in and get them retrained back to proper military bearing, I am sure they are rough around the edges on that. What the First Prince does not know, well it cannot hurt him. That is my opinion on the matter anyway." Gerald Mitchell replied
"Pop, you make stuff sound so damned easy. I doubt it will be even remotely as easy as you make it sound." Sam said
"The First Prince has a ton on his plate, all he will care about is you defeated a pirate raid, gained him some broken Battlemechs and the locals lost nothing to the raid. Plus he managed to gain another Battlemech Regiment in the process, well not outright his, but it is another Regiment to help bolster the Periphery border so that he can redeploy his regular AFFS commands to better locations. Outside of a hearty good job, I doubt this even registers on his radar." Gerald replied