- The Lucky Regiment -[]
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- Chapter 26 -
Unlikely Friends[]
Helm spaceport
Helm, Free Worlds League
5th March, 3027
22:00 Hrs local time
Emilio Rachan walked briskly out of the DropShip, relieved to finally be out of that confined metallic environment. The Gauss Rifle harassment had finally ended after the ship was driven off, but the regular movements and consistent low level fear had left him exhausted. Suddenly, a war zone seemed quite appealing.
The Demi-Precentor in charge of ComStar's military contribution was waiting for him, along with several soldiers from the the unit. Their uniforms meant they looked the part as Marik soldiers, but he knew their true origins.
"Good evening Major." He was careful to use the military equivalent title, nobody wanted word to get out about the growing military strength of ComStar.
"Good evening sir, it's good to have you down here. If you'll follow me I'll take you to the Duke." The Duke had decided to boost the morale of his men by landing early on, he didn't really have much practical help to offer, but maybe his minions appreciated the fearless example he was setting. He walked alongside the officer as they headed off to track down the Duke.
"How are we doing versus the schedule?"
"A bit behind, it's been a slog." Emilio had listened in on some of the updates, it seemed to have been a story of one slowdown after another with the occasional report of a skirmish.
"Are the Duke's men delivering?"
"They are doing their best with inferior equipment, but the opposition are pretty active."
"How are our losses?"
"Light damage to our scouts after a skirmish with the Grey Death Legion."
"And the Duke's forces?"
"They lost a few tanks and a 'mech to a minefield, and then ended up in a long running skirmish when they pushed too far in the direction of the cache. Their damaged 'mechs can mostly be fixed in three to four days, but they did lose a pair of fighters going after one of the Marauders mobile artillery pieces." Not a particularly stunning start, and he knew enough about this conflict to know that damaged in this case was effectively lost given the time pressure.
"What message do you need conveyed to the Duke?"
The officer chuckled, no doubt aware the Duke didn't like been told what to do. "Support the General in his efforts to ensure any moves are done in strength, losing a company early on crippled Langsdorf. I'm sure Grayson Carlyle will be looking to pick off isolated units, his track record is impressive."
In orbit over Helm aboard an unmarked DropShip
Helm, Free Worlds League
6th March, 3027
09:00 hrs local time
Duke Ricol, looked at the system and planetary map with much curiosity, ComStar cutting off the world had told him what he needed to know. Officially the world was still linked to network that bound humanity together. Unofficially, the scheduled reports from the lady who acted as the Draconis Combine consulate and also reported to him were suddenly not coming through, which apparently was due to a 'routine' scheduled maintenance program.
Oddly that seemed to overlap with an ongoing military campaign, one that involved at least two regiments and had pulled multiple merchant vessels offering all sorts of services from logistics, healthcare and mechanics to a mobile brothel based out of Solaris. One could say much about Duke Irian's political skill and ambition, but clearly he had no grasp of operational security.
The fascinating aspect about the ongoing campaign was that the defending side who were trapped were not broadcasting the obvious reality that they had found the Helm Cache. If they were truly feeling trapped they would be broadcasting to independent traders to bid for an extraction, instead they were doing their best to keep the Marik forces at bay and been doing successfully for some some time.
He zoomed in on the Grey Death Legion base, numerous Battlemechs were present along with vehicles. He was certain it was more than just the one company, and since some of the vehicles appeared to be of Star League vintage he was quite certain the other company knew how to refurbish Lostech. Clearly Grayson had made a powerful friend, it might explain the rushed effort to frame his company for the dreadful business on Sirius V, and strongly suggested the darker side of Comstar at work.
He panned out and looked at the spaceport, a substantial unloading process was still underway, and his analysts were busy tracking a column of mechs heading towards the front lines. He looked back at the spaceport again wondering what the Marik strategy was, a frontal assault seemed obviously less than optimal. So there had to be another angle being pursued.
"Your Grace."
The Captain had quietly appeared by his side. The man was exceptionally smart and more importantly utterly loyal.
The Duke chuckled. "I was about to send you for you, I have technical question for you and the navigator."
"There is some important news your Grace, but it can wait a few minutes."
"Captain, could you and the command deck crew work out where the orbiting Marik dropships would need to be in order to send in a combat drop of some sort?"
"I would think so, it's a combination of estimating where the drop would take place, how fast the descent is and when."
"I'll come back to you shortly with my assessment, I believe I have determined a likely Marik strategy." He looked down at the display wondering how close to the mobile AA systems a Marik force would dare to go. "Now tell me, what update do you have?"
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Anti-Aerospace Battery
"More merchant traffic, only this time I think one of your JumpShips may have made an interesting identification." Both of them were waiting within the main jump area, a location that was getting busy in relative terms, but in theory safe.
"Do tell."
"One of the ships is a registered independent, but the ISF database suggests it has performed some work for the LIC over the years." Things started to click together in his mind. The Grey Death Legion or more likely their allies had found the cache, realized the obvious problems about emptying a large cache and sought help some time ago. House Steiner was the obvious candidate given their forces were already building up towards a large border exercise and they could pay a very generous finders fee. The other houses were either too far away or too stingy, particularly his own master.
"A scout perhaps?" An early arrival to provide an instant intelligence update the moment the main force arrived, it was a fairly standard strategy. And given the current high level of merchant traffic it was going to be hard to detect.
"Hard to know. The Captain has however notified Helm's port authority of its arrival and is seeking permission to trade, it is following the rules." Duke Ricol looked down at the map as the Captain spoke, he had a company of Battlemechs and a complement of infantry and support equipment based around an extraction mission. He couldn't offer military salvation but he might be able to trade his services for something down there. With four empty DropShips if nothing else he could simply offer transport in return for a bit of Lostech. Indeed he wouldn't be surprised if most of the traders here ended up making that offer.
"I think it's time I had a call with Colonel Grayson." It was the moment to be on the winning side.