- The Lucky Regiment -[]
<<Next Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
- Chapter 13 -
Sirius[]
Aboard the Argo - Primary Jump Point
Sirius system, Capellan Confederation
March 13th, 3027 - 23:00 hours local time
Edmund watched the airlock door and its surroundings on a large display screen in the command room, on the other side of the door was the dropship Phobos. The Argo was carrying a supply replenishment load, essential when campaigning in a hostile ecosystem. Grayson Carlyle was on board the Phobos for a brief meeting with Edmund, a necessary step given the Captain General's desire for secrecy. Edmund as carrying a sealed set of orders with a holographic signature from the Captain General himself, the technology that created such unforgeable seals was practically lostech.
.jpg){kind=link}
Argo Class DropShip underway from JumpShip
//"Looks like the air pressure seal is secure this time."\\
"Check again." That was the voice of the Bosun, already a bit irate that the first effort with the docking clamps had failed. Frankly Edmund was beginning to wonder if the dropship they were trying to link up to was spaceworthy. Damaged docking ports were no laughing matter, zero G repair work was never easy.
"It's good, no leakages." A space suited crewman was inside the airlock testing the pressure.
The Bosun looked at the spaceman and then spoke into the intercom box. "Alright, stay put." then he pressed a couple of buttons on the box. "Bridge, we are good to go on our end." Edmund could see his face on the monitor and he looked a bit calmer.
There was clear response, the benefit of ten thousand C-bills worth of replacement parts to the ageing intercom system. "Understood, wait out." There was a quiet minute of waiting. //"Phobos confirms readiness, you may open the door."]]
"Bosun copies." Another button press. "Open the door." The space suited crewman checked he was hooked to the wall and pulled a large lever down."
The airtight door slowly opened, revealing a similar airlock on the other side.
The crewmen looked at an instrument display "Air pressure stable." Another crewman on their side appeared, similarly attired.
The Bosun looked at camera and gave a thumbs up, then used the intercom once more "Nice work team, we can open the doors now, we'll start with ours." That was a demonstration of trust, though in truth since it was a war zone involving the Capellans Edmund's jump troopers were suited up for combat and hidden out of sight.
In moments the boarding party were slowly walking through in their magnetic boots, Grayson was at the lead and a dozen sturdy looking crewmen were following in behind another man he figured was in charge of their loading process. Darius was there to meet him, he watched them shake hands and Darius led Grayson into the ship. Edmund looked around the others in the room, Sumire was there along with Yang. Both of them were crucial to planning this operation, as was Darius.
Five minutes later Darius walked in followed by Grayson.
"Major, it's an unexpected pleasure, I understand you have additional orders for me."
Edmund handed him a sealed package, a wax seal from the Captain General's office added to the dramatic effort. Edmund had been given a similar package so he was pretty sure about the contents. "Here is your set, you are welcome to make a copy of mine as it heavily involves you."
"I'd appreciate it." He watched Grayson's scanning through the orders, and then the careful inspection of the veriographed signature. "I accept it is genuine."
"You've seen others?"
"Yes, almost impossible to forge and I was given a similar package prior to this campaign."
"Are you happy to proceed with the operation?"
"Orders are orders, we were wondering what he expected next." Grayson was surprisingly calm about the unexpected campaign, it made Edmund appreciate the independence of his unit's current status.
"It'll be a tight turn around." Grayson nodded in response, seemingly unworried.
Grayson looked further at the document, flipping through the pages. "I'm ahead of schedule and assuming no more Capellans arrive it's mostly mopping up operations." Grayson smiled, for what might have been the first time since he had boarded the ship.
"What's your equipment state"
"90% operational, it takes time but my dropships can handle most repairs."
Edmund looked around, that was a satisfactory answer to the key question. "Ladies, Gentlemen that sounds like it'll be a go." Grayson looked at the small group warily.
"Alright, it sounds like you know what I have." He pulled out the page detailing Edmund's force. "Are you guys for real, this TOE looks like something Kerensky would have fielded. I don't want to sound ignorant, but I haven't even heard of some of this stuff." Edmund wasn't surprised, the artillery and electronic warfare kit he fielded had been high end even at the time.
"You'll enjoy the tour then." Darius was chuckling as spoke, "And for the love of god never take a contract against the 5th Davion Guards, that refitting isn't a myth either."
"Noted." Grayson looked pretty serious, Edmund didn't think he was much fun at parties. Grayson looked Edmund in the eye. "How do you expect to handle command, You're a Major and I'm a Colonel, but by equipment value I'm going to be the junior partner."
"We've got two regular infantry companies joining us, in theory one of which is already en route to Helm. I believe they'll prefer to answer to you."
"Probably, but that doesn't answer the question."
"I anticipate you will find and fix the enemy position and we'll come in and come and blast it from a distance. We'll be largely independent that way and there should be fewer command clashes."
"That'll work most of the time." The obvious implication being it wouldn't work the rest of the time.
"Our next destination is Helm, we'll get get some training in with the rest of your unit, I imagine that will allow us to find some common ground and make sure the comms systems work together."
"Ah yes, nothing builds trust like training together." Grayson was scanning through his pack. "It appears you have successfully operated alongside other large formations." Edmund had assumed that was normal. "We've been pretty independent so far, so the difficulties may actually be more on our side." That seemed to solve that thorny issue for now.
"Grayson, it's a bit of an ask, but could you transmit some map details of Helm to us, I'll be honest what we were provided with isn't much to go on."
"You're thinking of planning some training?"
"Yes and for one thing we'd prefer to minimize the time spent extracting 'mechs from boggy ground." Grayson smiled, it was an understandable request.
"My infantry commander, Captain Ramage, has some good locally made maps back on Helm, which I know isn't that helpful for now. I'll transfer the fairly low resolution orbital images we have, but the best thing is to use this." Grayson reached inside his jacket and took a necklace like object with a genuine looking SLDF data stick on it. He handed over it over to Edmund.
Edmund studied it and spotted an authentic looking serial number as well a model number, there was a Marik Eagle lightly etched on it and then carefully painted. "Standard issue SLDF data stick, hardened against EMP and apparently tough enough to survive being driven over by a tank." Edmund mused. "These are pretty handy, they store a huge amount of data and so far none of ours have had any data corruption."
Grayson looked surprised. "I grabbed a few boxes of them on Artru, we use them on the ship and I gave a couple out as a corporate gifts. That place was just incredible, a regimental depot and all in mint condition, we practically rebuilt the electronics on the ship with parts we found there." Edmund smiled, deciding a corporate bribe was warranted. "Tell you what, I'll track down one of these and few bits and pieces so you can prove we're genuine to your team."
"That is too kind, they'll settle for a couple of photos. Anyway what really matters is that the data stick has a full three dimensional map of Helm and includes the geological data, so you can pick some training areas more easily."
"That's most impressive, you must have some very serious survey gear."
"Ah, there is one slight issue." Edmund was puzzled, it sounded like he had exactly what he needed. "That data was recorded before the planet was nuked by the Kuritans, a lot has changed in terms of land use."
"Understood, I've got of a couple photo reconnaissance specialists, they'll be able to merge recent photos with the older data."
"That's pretty much what we do, we also only operate within a 200km radius of of the base, as to be honest aside from the capital there is only really us and and a few scattered towns and villages. The roads are not great and the temperate band is fairly narrow, the off piste skiing is good though." Helm was only really known in the history books for the pointless destruction of the majority of its population at the hands of Minoru Kurita, all because he couldn't find the military depot he had been looking to loot. By all accounts now all it had was a large farming community and a simple economy that was just about self-sufficient to a late 19th century level. Grayson hadn't been granted control of profitable fief, but the military facilities were good enough to maintain a couple of battalions.
"We were assured food and drink can be sourced locally?"
"Certainly can, Helm even has its own cannery." Grayson took out a notebook and started scribbling names. "The data stick is my badge of office and these are the reliable provisioners." He passed over the piece of paper. "The badge will remind them to behave on the pricing and Ramage will help you on that front as well."
"Thanks."
"The merchants will be delighted, the offworld traders have to pay poorly owing to the shipping costs." It sounded a lot like parts of the Aurigan Reach to Edmund.
"Grayson I know this has been thrown at you rather suddenly, I'm grateful you are taking it calmly."
"From my point of view we were expecting another job and the bills don't pay themselves. Janos Marik is putting in a respectable bonus owing to need for a swift redeployment so I'm happy."
Seven hours later in the command room
Edmund looked at the holographic display that displayed the map of Helm as it had been. He'd spent the past twenty minutes looking at the hills and valleys near what was now Grayson's home base. The photos should broadly similar topography, though the wooded areas and cultivated areas had changed a fair bit, Durandel had been a small village then, one that by chance was sheltered from the nearest nuclear detonation by a small line of hills. It was one of the few settlements to have grown since those dark days.
"Sir, you wanted us."
He straightened up and smiled at the pair of photo experts and his best computer expert.
"Indeed, Grayson Carlyle left us a map of Helm pre-catastrophe, and we've got some okay looking satellite images they took recently."
The technician was fairly young and fresh out of the NAIS, the other two were closer to fifty than forty. Long in experience but not quite willing to retire on their military pension.
The most senior of them spoke. "What do you need from them?"
"Training areas, hard ground, for safety reasons minimal human habitation and a water source. We'll be spending a few weeks in the field with our partners and doing a live firing phase."
"You want us to look for salvage?"
"You can try, but I wouldn't get your hopes up. Where I grew up had a pretty similar experience to Helm, it's just the world was a bit more developed beforehand so it somewhat recovered. The reality the easy salvage happened fairly early on, in fact where my family had success was on the edge of the hot zones as the radiation levels dropped."
They analysts looked a bit unsure, so he continued. "The place got overgrown and forgotten, so a systematic search often found things. The problem is basements and underground storage facilities tend to flood, but who knows maybe you can find a bank vault." Precious metals and gemstones had some value and the engineering platoon had digging equipment.
He got a respectful pair of nods. "What about the Helm Cache legend?"
"Day job first team, but it is an interesting story." Edmund had to admit Artru had been a pretty awesome moment, on the other hand Helm had almost certainly been visited by treasure hunters who had actually done the research. "Look, you can still see the craters from orbit, so if it was on the surface it's gone. But I do understand that you'll have downtime on the way there, and once we arrive we'll get some orbital survey work done."
Edmund looked back at the holographic display and zoomed out to the stage where one could the curvature of the planet. "It goes without saying the bonuses are pretty good for a bit of salvage, but not if we don't get the real work done."
"Got it boss." Edmund nodded in response to the acknowledgment of his orders.
The technician had a bored look on his face. Edmund looked over at the guy he still saw as a student at heart. "You're wondering how you are involved?"
There was a nod. "Yeah."
Edmund pointed to the data stick still attached to the display. "This is all on a data stick that dates back to the last days of the Star League and belongs to the head of the Grey Death Legion. It would be unseemly if we broke it, since we have a fair few of that model I suggest we clone it onto a fresh stick."
"Should be doable."
"One other thing."
"Of course". Formality wasn't a forte of the NAIS graduate, luckily IT skills were.
"The stick just plugs and plays with the map display systems, which is nice, but I want you to take a look and see if anything else on there, particularly navigational charts for the system." Edmund couldn't help feeling that Helm was even more of a backwater than most of the peripheral worlds he had seen. The problem with that was that he didn't particularly wish to encounter a debris field at high speed, and he doubted Helm had a particularly sophisticated radar system.
"It won't take long to clone the drive, and once that's done I'll root carefully around to see what's on there."
"Really carefully, Charlie, I don't want to be telling Colonel Carlyle we tripped a security system and wiped it, got it."
"Got it."
Four days later aboard the Argo
Edmund walked in through the open hatch to the fairly small room that had once been Victoria's prison cell and was now the intelligence room, four desks were set against the wall, three usable and one currently covered in printed out images. The photo team were in their bunks but the NAIS grad was keeping a different schedule as he preferred a quieter workspace.
"Alright, Charlie, what have you found."
"Okay, the memory stick is a standard issue one, and the memory capacity is almost filled with the map."
"Alright that's sort of what I expected. I figured the map was data intensive, it's pretty impressive to study."
"I've got two things to report. There are other files and I've found fragments." Charlie looked at him earnestly. "So you know data isn't usually truly deleted?"
"Not really."
"Unless you purge the system and randomize the memory the old files are still there until something new gets put in their place."
"So you have some old files?"
"Sort of, I think this device previously saw use in the administration of an engineering unit. Because I only have fragments of files they are largely gibberish, and I'm not sure I've even worked out the exact file type."
"But you found something?" Edmund was curious, but not feeling optimistic.
"I think it backed up their regimental office procurement and administration system, we don't have that system on board, but this ship used to have a related package. So now I can generate some words that appear amidst lines of gibberish." The description reminded him of how a teacher had once described an essay he had written.
"Anything usable?"
"The names of various models of digging equipment appear and I think they disputed an invoice relating to a platoon BBQ."
"Interesting, even then regimental clerks were malicious pricks."
"Some Golden Age."
"Anything else?"
"There is another read only file on there, it looks like it's supposed to automatically execute like the map does. Only it's tiny and I can find nothing it responds too, I reckon it's a custom made file."
"Grayson Carlyle has a sort of manorial fortress, it probably links to something there, perhaps when he arrives he'll let you explore and see if it plugs into something." Edmund had a funny memory of the electronic key on Artru. "It'll probably open the door to his undiscovered wine cellar."
"The file size won't let it do much more than that."
"So no navigational data."
"Sorry, nothing like that so far."
"It's alright, I had also hoped it might list any orbital facilities." Edmund figured there might be some abandoned orbital mining or orbital military facilities that the Argo could empty. The nice thing about orbital facilities was they didn't tend to suffer water damage or erosion.
"Hmm, I can look for coordinates amongst the gibberish, but I'll need to ask Sumire what space ones would look like." Looking for a needle in a haystack was tough when you didn't what a needle was.
"It's worth a try, I won't even pretend to I know what to look for, so Sumire's team is the best bet." Edmund chuckled. "Alright, I'll leave you to the graveyard shift, Darius followed by Glitch are on the bridge if you find anything operationally urgent." Bed beckoned, and the JumpShip wasn't going to be ready to jump for another twelve hours.