Blood on the Horizon
- Chapter 53 -[]
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Looking among the long-dead[]
Location: Artru, Taurian Concordat
Date: February 28th, 3004
"Moment of truth here," Sheppard tied his Beagle Active Probe into the systems of everyone around him. "You think we'll find anything important here?"
"I'm thinking we won't find as much as we're hoping for," Hull replied. "The Star League left behind a lot of stuff. The problem is being able to use it properly. We've lost a lot of knowledge due to the Hegemony black boxing stuff."
"Access is granted," Rook reported as he moved through the snow back toward the APC. "Doors should be opening now."
The massive doors began to creak open, revealing a handful of turrets that immediately attempted to lock onto the APC that was scrambling away.
I didn't even have to give the order, and I, along with twelve other vehicles and 'mechs melted the twin turrets that had opened fire, leaving the bay empty of all danger. For now at least.
"You seen anything on your scopes?" I asked Sheppard.
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Mongoose Light 'Mech
"Negative," The man's Mongoose did a small lap of the 'bowl' that we were in. "I'm not seeing anything else. But I'll hold position out here until the facility is secured."
I plowed through the snow and eventually reached the bay. Stepping inside, I began scanning the inside of the doors, flipping through thermal and night vision modes to make sure that no more turrets were waiting to attack us before powering down.
"Disembarking, send in Peterson's group," I ordered before popping the hatch and throwing down the ladder.
"Major," Peterson greeted me as I dropped the last few feet to the ground. "You're going to want to see this."
There, beside the internal door controls lay a series of well-preserved bodies.
"Poor bastards," I crouched and wiped away the frost from their uniforms. "We'll see if there's anything on their corpses that relates to this facility and then we'll bury them."
"Copy that," Peterson gestured for a few soldiers to begin going over the bodies. "That's just what we saw when we disembarked."
"Have squads begin going through the rest of the facility," I ordered. "See if we can find a map of some sort. It'll help us figure out where to search."
"Whelp, there's pretty much nothing here in terms of gear," Sheppard handed me a clipboard with the details of what we'd found.
"Load the lance up onto the recovery vehicles, and strip all of the data from the terminals," I glanced at Rook. "Full information security on these. I want them locked down," I then turned to our lead engineer. "Doctor Rogers, can we remove the repair bays and install them on one of our dropships?"
"It'll take a couple of weeks to break them down, but we should be able to get them relocated," she blew a piece of hair out of her eyes. "I'd like to get a look at that data sometime though."
"You'll get access eventually," I replied. "But first Dunham has to make sure that we've got our information security settled first."
"Fine," Adamina sighed. "I'll get my team working on the repair facilities."
She then left me and the rest of the senior staff behind in the headquarters of the derelict facility to take charge of the team that was breaking down the automated repair facilities.
"Dunham, we're going to have to figure out how to feed the spies misinformation," Sheppard sat down in a nearby chair. "How do we hide something of this magnitude?"
"In plain sight," Dunham shrugged. "We reveal that we found a facility, just like how we revealed that we had found the crashed Argo. But we also tell the truth, but only part of it. We found a small cache of Star League materials and 'Mechs. After all, a lance of heavies isn't that big of a deal. And neither is some Ferro-Fibrous armor. We can hide the repair facilities as having been stashed on the Argo, and the data from these systems can be attributed to the ship as well."
"So we just hide things in plain sight and take refuge in audacity?" I raised an eyebrow. "That doesn't seem too safe in the long run."
"We're not really taking refuge in audacity," Dunham replied. "Instead, we're altering the information that we release to the unit as a whole. Trust me, in the short-term, it will work to disguise things, and if we're on a combat contract after this, both us and whatever spies are around will have more pressing issues to deal with. And that'll muddy whatever reports they try to send."
"I'll trust you on this," I shrugged. "I'm not an expert on this sort of thing," I narrowed my eyes at the intelligence operative. "But I really fucking hope that you're right."
Sorting out whom we work for[]
Location: En route to Valexa, Federated Suns
Date: March 16th, 3005
"Lady Cunningham, I was under the impression that this was a garrison contract, not a public display," I argued with the Federated Suns Mercenary Liaison. "We're not a parade unit. There are other things that we need to do once we make landfall. We've got to secure food sources and discuss ammunition with the requisitions officer, there are too many tasks for us to stop and go on a parade."
"Mister Hull..."
"Major," I cut the liaison off, glaring at the woman and her glittering jewelry and fancy hair. "I've earned my rank through combat and the work of my hands and that of my unit. We're not a parade unit, and we might be green compared to most, but we've been fighting pirates for the last two years."
"Major, Hull," She corrected herself. "The governor of Valexa has personally requested this. It's to show the people that they're secured from the advances of the Capellan Confederation."
"No, I won't be a part of security theater," I raised my hand to stave off the woman's protestations. "My unit is here to perform the required job as listed on the contract. I'm not going to give any Capellan spies a look at what the makeup of my unit is. That's a good way to get my people killed, either in an assassination or in combat."
"I understand," Cunningham sighed. "I will inform the governor that you will not be amenable to his requests."
"I'm not here at his request, Lady Cunningham," I stood up. "I'm working for the Armed Forces of the Federated Suns. I'll be drawing my supplies and resources from their logistics chains. I answer to them. If there are any issues with that, you can take it up with the AFFS."
I began to leave the room, glancing over my shoulder before I did so.
"I'll let you know when we make landfall on Valexa. After all, I'd hate for people to not feel secure."
Parting ways[]
Date: March 20th, 3005
"Thank you for your service," I shook Katrina Steiner's, Morgan Kell's, and Arthur Luvon's hands each in turn. "May you three have a profitable future. And if you ever need a home, the Marksman will always have a place for you."
"It was a good year," Katrina smiled. "My only regret is that we cannot stay for a longer amount of time."
"I might come back for some advice," Morgan grinned. "I'm thinking about a mercenary career in the long term."
"You know where to find me," I replied. "I'll see you around…."