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Chapter 31 - A Long Journey[]
25 November 2785
Mackolla (Federated Suns)
At precisely noon, Colonel Harold Tanaka led the senior officers into Lieutenant General Samuel Mitchell's office. Coming to attention before his desk Colonel Hansen Waiters said "Colonel Hansen Waiters and the 11th Hussar Regiment reporting for duty, sir."
Lieutenant General Mitchell returned the salute before replying "Then you have chosen option one. Welcome to the family then. Before we go any further, outside of families on Morgan's Holdfast that need to be brought over, is there anything at all I need to know about."
"No, sir, it is all on the table already. Except there has been questions on how retirement can be handled. I do not believe it is an immediate request, but I do have some people with over 40 years of service." Colonel Waiters replied
"Five years, they have to pay their dues. Give us five years of exemplary service, with no black marks and they can retire from military duty. BUT, their pension is going to be pretty low end and with option one came silence on a certain matter, they will be staying with us. The risk is too great to too many for open travel. I am sure you can understand that." Lieutenant General Mitchell said
"Understood, sir. Most are technicians and spacers." Colonel Waiters replied
"Those we can easily slide into our civilian business ventures we are in the process of getting up and running. So there are options for them, workwise." Lieutenant General Mitchell said
"Very good, sir, I will relay that information to those asking. I prepared a full list of our equipment for your review." Colonel Waiters said as he pulled a set of papers from his pocket and handed them over.
Lieutenant General Mitchell accepted the papers and looked them over.
11th Hussar Regiment
-28 Phoenix Hawk, PH-2
-26 Whitworth, WHT-1S
-30 Guillotine, GLT-3N
-8 Zephyr Hover
-11 Heavy Track APC
-4 Track Coolant Truck
-1 Mobile HQ (HPG)
-2 Wayland Mobile Base
-12 Prime Mover
-1 Star Lord Jumpship
-3 Dictator Dropship
-2 Triumph Dropship
As he read the list, Colonel Waiters continued filling in the other areas he suspected General Mitchell might need information on. "We have taken some losses over the years, but we always tried to recover our own downed machines instead of taking on different designs, the maintenance headaches would have been too much. It would be nice to get those downed machines back from Bamburgh."
"Unfortunately those machines are going to have to go to the First Prince, I can try to buy them back, but I doubt he is going to let me do so. Plus, it would be a little obvious that you just so happen to have the exact same machines. We are just going to let them be." Lieutenant General Mitchell replied
"Very well, sir. For the equipment we have, we are at 90% effectiveness a few machines are down on some replacement parts and such. All weapons are operational though. Ammunition is a little low but we have enough for one good fight if need be. What is not listed is what we have on Morgan's Holdfast, there is a full Infantry Battalion, 2 Company are former SLDF and 1 Company is home grown and trained. There are another dozen APCs, a couple dozen cargo trucks and about 200 tons of assorted spare parts for our equipment. Oh, and one MASH unit. We are a little antsy over our families and those we care for there. It is about 20,000 or so in total. Normally we would already be on our way back from a raid, too long and one of the other pirate outfits might decide to take us over and we cannot have that happen." Colonel Waiters said
"I already have two Czar specially outfitted that can easily haul all your people back here along with all your stuff, but you understand I cannot let you all go on that operation." Lieutenant General Mitchell said
"Trust, we have to earn it first. Totally understand, sir. Major Jameson can take a few folks with him and help convince everyone to pull up stakes and move out here." Colonel Waiters replied
"He will need to stress the deal to those over there, all have to agree or they can take their chances with the other pirates. No exceptions." Lieutenant General Mitchell said
"You know, sir, the easiest way to protect this border area would be to sweep the Tortuga Dominions clean of pirates. Very few of the pirates even have Aerospace fighters. There are only about a dozen Jumpships in total operating from there. We should just go take the place apart, buy us a few years of peace along this border region." Colonel Waiters said
"It would be a tempting thing to do, but we have quite a few irons in the fire right now. We could be looking at several years of fighting." Lieutenant General Mitchell replied
"Something to consider, sir, would make our job much easier in the long run." Colonel Waiters said