- The Lucky Regiment -[]
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- Chapter 5 -
1.5[]
09:00 Hours, June 11th, 3026
The Artu system, Aurigan Coalition
There was a the usual slow rhythmic thudding as Edmund and his lance gingerly walked forwards towards the canyon. The thick permafrost easily taking their weight, and the imprints showing his plodding path. Behind his lance were elements of the Fifth Guards, all from their First and supposedly best Regimental Combat Team (RCT), snow colored tanks and mechs were moving forward carefully in tactical bounds. They were all hoping that Kamea's identification device would ensure that any surviving automated defenses, or worse a self-destruct system would not be triggered.
The scenery was a mix of dark granite mountainside and brilliant white snow, it was winter and the world was deemed cold versus Terran norms.This part was almost permanently covered in snow, and blessed with periodic light snow showers and bitterly cold winds. It was a natural hiding spot for a secret facility as the area was not really capable of sustaining life. There were no trees, nor any sign of wildlife willing to ignore the presence of a formation of Battlemechs.
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CPT-2K Catapult Heavy 'Mech, PPC variant
He brought his mech to halt about a kilometer out from the Canyon entrance. His newly acquired mech was a Catapult K2, a rare variation that traded missiles for long ranged energy weapons. His on/off girlfriend had left it behind at Smithon after he had crippled its legs, it was a party trick that never grew old, and it had to be said she had been pretty hungover at the time so it had been fairly easy shooting.He still hadn't confessed to her that her mech had not in fact been left behind in the ruins of that space port, and now that she was held by the MIIO it was going to be harder to find an opportunity.
"Any movement or electronic activity?" He was looking through his binoculars as he spoke, studying what looked like air vents in the rock face.
"Negative, Blue Leader." That was Glitch, the fairly sensible member of the company, the one you could always count on to ensure everyone made it home from the bar in one piece. She hadn't had the happiest of lives, a computer glitch had pretty much ruined her twenties. Yet for all her bad memories of the Federated Suns she seemed to have cheered up once crewmen started arriving from there.
"Medusa here, no movement seen either, I see one possible secondary entry point, but it's mostly blocked by a rockfall." Medusa was pretty observant, and as a loyal son of the reach he was pleased the company had signed on with Kamea. He was a great pilot, but didn't always play nicely with others, hence he and his mech had signed on with mercenaries rather than one of the household units.
"Radiowave, you picking up anything?" Edmund wasn't surprised they hadn't seen movement, but he was cautious on the electronic front. The climate was bad enough that he didn't think any external sensors or turrets would still work, but one never knew. Radiowave had come from a respectable militia in the Capellan March complete with his family owned Cicada, not much of a combat mech, but it had a decent sensor suite. The pilot was one of the ones he had been able to do serious background checks on, it turned out quite a few in the trade made a few credits on the side by passing on intel to various parties. Radiowave it turned out had already been used by the MIIO on a few jobs, so he knew to keep his mouth shut.
"Nothing yet, and no signals, we need to get in closer to be sure."
"Sunray, this is Blue Leader, all quiet so far." Sunray was a standard call sign in the AFFS for the operational commander. Sometimes it was Edmund, today it was Ardan Sortek, a legendary figure in the Federated Suns.
"Understood, I'll send in the scouts."
Edmund rotated his mech torso to try to find them, four small unarmed grey and white snowmobiles surged forwards spraying snow in their wake. They were too far away to see clearly, but he knew from the briefing that on the back each carried a pair of jump troopers in their winter gear. They would be carrying mine detecting gear and hopefully detect any security system in a manner that didn't cause the loss of expensive mechs.
Four small man portable UAVs followed them in as the snow mobiles raced across the canyon floor. After an hour of Edmund waiting impatiently the radio came to life again. "We definitely have a likely candidate for the main entrance, no sign of life. We'll need the engineers."
"Sunray acknowledges, all call signs standby for taskings." Edmund waited for a further fifteen minutes, studying the canyon walls with his powerful binoculars to pass the time. He could make out a darker inset area at the base of the cliff where the scouts had headed to, it should in theory be the entry point, it wasn't possible to tell from where he was. There was probably a landing pad nearby buried under the snow and ice, but there wasn't any obvious way to tell from his angle.
"Blue Leader can you lead the column with your entry device on hand?"
"Blue Leader confirms readiness to lead, will wait till column is formed behind us." He looked at the old SLDF fob plugged into his IFF device, hopefully it still functioned as intended. A little green light was flashing to show it was plugged in and a second steady green light next to it to show it was operating, apparently that meant it's super secret signal was being broadcast. A technician from the NAIS was nervously strapped in behind him, not exactly thrilled to be out of his cosy laboratory.
After twenty minutes of waiting for the column to form up his 'mech started moving, accompanied by the reassuring thuds of the giant feet on the mix of snow, ice and permafrost. He periodically watched the walls of the long canyon, wondering what was artificial and hid some sort of lethal security system.
"Scout team here, did you just turn something on with your entry gadget?" It was a private channel so they were a bit lax on their voice procedures.
Edmund looked nervously at the device, it looked the same and the technician shrugged. "Don't think so, it looks the same, do you want me to turn it off and on again?"
"Nothing like that it, it's just that we started picking up noises on our sensor device, it's faint but something just activated." He looked again at the device. "S***, new noise, sounds like an alarm."
"Oh Arse." Edmund swore, turned off the mic and swore again quietly to himself before he switched to the main channel. "All call signs look lively something just set off an alarm." He thought about adding it wasn't him, but didn't want that to be overheard.
It didn't take long before movement was detected on the canyon walls, sections of rock turned out to be fake. They slowly bulged out and then and slid down a few meters to reveal defensive turrets. Edmund briefly pondered the odds of them not being hostile as he lined up a shot with his PPCs, when the shots from the wall started it settled the question. A mix of lasers and missile systems, though from what he could tell the missiles were only firing in partial salvos, almost certainly a legacy of being stored too long.
"This is Sunray, All call signs fire at will". He recognized the calm voice of Ardan Sortek. He thought quickly, clearly if Kamea's device was transmitting it wasn't doing anything which meant the turrets might be linked to a different or broken recognition system. As he thought about the complicated technological issues he didn't have an answer to he squeezed off a full strike on one of the turrets, his targeting display quickly adjusted to show what appeared to be crippling damage to one side. The turret still fired off a single shot at the column behind him but it went wild, probably struggling with the disruption of the impact of a pair of PPCs. His lance-mate Medusa followed up with a good hit on the weakened spot with his AC5 and LRMs, the turret caught fire and started throwing out small explosions as the stored LRMs cooked off.
His switched to the Lance communication channel with his thumb."Medusa, Glitch, these things are tough, concentrate on finishing my targets. The rest of you concentrate on another one." He had six mechs on the field today, Victoria's rather nice K2, one rather pathetic scouting Cicada, and the rest were all decent mediums and the recently refurbished Rifleman.
"Medusa here, we may have a problem." Edmund resisted the urge to say 'really' as it was probably something important.
"Go ahead."
"At my two o'clock I can see a section of the canyon opening up at ground level." Edmund looked at the opening and then looked at the opposite wall of the canyon, a comparable hole was also appearing there.
"Focus on whatever comes out, I'll update Sunray." He used the advanced systems on the mech to transmit a photographic file, apparently it had once been a universal feature, but only a couple of his lance still had the hardware in these technologically less complex times.
"Sunray, I'm sending images of a potential threat, do you copy?"
There was an uncomfortable waits as the files transmitted. "Acknowledged, I'm calling in the reserves, there are two more doors opening in the midst of the main formation." As Edmund listened he saw the front of a large hover tank like object emerging from the door Medusa had identified. Seeing his PPCs were fully charged he opened up on it, the bright beams striking home where the skirt should be. He was rewarded by the sight of it slowing to halt as it lost its pressure.It neatly blocked the entrance, though presumably could still fire.
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Centurion Medium 'Mech
He looked to the left hand side and watched as another large hover tank tank emerged and fired. Medusa's fast moving Centurion took a hit from a PPC but managed to dodge the rest. The rest of the lance returned fire with everything they had and whatever the vehicle was it stumbled to a halt with smoke pouring out of its new holes.
The next few minutes saw several turrets destroyed and the other damaged tank finished off. Unfortunately, as he was cheerfully targeting another turret he saw several fast moving vehicles coming out of the unblocked entrance point, it was reminder that he didn't really know mow many were still in there, only that they seemed to be unmanned. There simply hadn't been any human sized heat signatures leaving the disabled vehicles. It was odd, but very occasionally unmanned vehicles were used and the SLDF surely could have managed to create high quality ones, ideally with salvageable high end weapons.
"Scout team, are you still there?"
"Affirmative."
"Tell me about the door entry panel?"
"Standard SLDF designed key pad, number pad and retinal scanner."Edmund finished off the turret with his PPCs and switched his target designator to one of the smaller hover tanks.
"Is there a Key Fob input point?"
"It looks like it." The voice sounded breathless from running and the chap sounded terrified.
"How many metal pins on the device?"
"Hmmm, Looks like eight." Edmund looked at the technician behind him and pointed at the little fob, got a positive nod.
"I'm coming to you with the fob, my colleague here will help you install it." He saw a distinctly paling face behind him.
"Sunray, I need your forces provide support whilst I get the key fob to the entry point. We might be able to find a way to shut down the security system." Edmund didn't wait for a response and adjusted his direction to head roughly towards the scout team and entry point. He watched two more hover tanks get knocked out by the Davion Guards finest only to be replaced by three more. The 'Guards were doing a fine job of acting as meat shields, but it wasn't a good use of expensive hardware.
An unidentified voice came on the net "Sunray concurs, he is tasking support, you will have an escort and assault teams." Edmund smiled grimly, there were increasingly few turrets but the vehicles kept coming. Repairs were an expense no mercenary company liked, and he had already seen several of his team taking expensive looking hits."Meanwhile we will shut down the other exit points with massed fire and failing that explosives." He liked the sound of that, it was a nice simple solution.
"Copy that." He fired another salvo at one of the turrets on his left flank, as with the others it took a second burst from Medusa to finish it. Then he watched a Vindicator land a hundred metres in front of him, he took that as sign his escorts were close.
It was time for a pep talk for his mercenaries, so flicked the channel to theirs. "All right team, it may not seem rational, but we need to make it to the entry area. I think I can get the main door open and then we can find out what's going on inside and hopefully shut down the security system before does something even worse happens like a self-destruct sequence."
He received a series of grunted acknowledgments, hardly enthusiastic, but the risk of losing the giant payday was deadly serious. Now all he needed to do was plod forwards get the gate open and allow the special ops teams inside to find the off button.
It turned out to be easier than he expected, the combined firepower of a first rate and reinforced combined arms battalion was actually pretty substantial. As the slower moving tanks and mechs got into range the remaining turrets disappeared quickly, then the holes in canyon that the unmanned vehicles were coming out of were soon sealed up.Fifteen minutes later he was standing by the gate with the Key fob in hand and the technician shivering by his side.
To his surprise the key pad was still functional after all those years, and after a little click the light turned green. There was a shuddering sensation then a screeching noise as the door slowly opened to one side, crushing or displacing centuries of accumulated pebbles and ice as it went. He was about to poke his head around to see what was inside when some sort of automated machine gun turret opened and shredded three of the soldiers who had been preparing to make their grand entrance. The rest barely made it to safety dragging a fourth casualty with them.
A Jenner walked up ignoring the steady bursts of light gun machine fire and silenced first the source and then anything else that looked suspicious with its medium lasers. It took a few minutes and the moment it was done scout teams started moving in. It was then that he finally had the chance to look inside.
"Major, Sunray wants you." He turned to face the young officer who was holding a radio handset. "You alright Sir?" He nodded slowly, hoping the sense of nausea would subside. He took the handset, it would be linked to a more serious transmitter in the command APC parked nearby.
"Blackadder here."
"Nice work on getting us in Major, is it inhabited?" He looked back inside after glancing at the increasingly pale face of the young office.
"There's a lot bodies Sir, all frozen and wearing SLDF uniforms, I don't think anyone has been here for a while, no sign of footprints, just corpses." He looked around, the bullet holes on the walls and in the bodies matched the locations of the destroyed pair of small automated turrets. "It looks like the defensive system turned on them, I've never seen anything like it. It's nasty." As he finished another platoon of specialists filed past him, he hoped they knew how to deal with turrets. Something about dying like that chilled him more than the bitterly cold wind did.
"I think that leads to a logical theory for now as to why it was abandoned by the SLDF. Watch yourself down there." Edmund looked around at the growing sense of activity and hoped the teams knew their business. A pair of Wasps were lining up to enter, presumably able to maneuver inside. The radio crackled back back to life. "One more thing before you head in, I thought you might like to know those hover tanks were indeed automated, they are being searched as we speak."
Four hours later
It probably hadn't been a first choice of postings in SLDF, the temperature outside was below zero year round and with a gravity a little over 1.2 it was on the uncomfortable side of things of you weren't born there. But the insides were as nice as they reasonably could be, there had been large indoor garden areas, several swimming pools and decent accommodation. The fit out seemed to match the Argo, which meant Dr Farad, Yang and the team were on the way down to see what could be salvaged to get the ship in better shape. They were also coming down for the even more important task of deciding which of the many mechs in storage he should put in a bid for.
Edmund was escorting Kamea towards the mech storage hangers, they were following a cleared route marked by white plastic mine tape and periodic soldiers. He knew she wasn't particularly happy about her birthright was 'being given away'. He had pointed out that at no point had her house or even the Reach had the resources to make a covert extraction of the cache. And if it wasn't covert it would be contested, and unfortunately the Reach had never really had the capability to stop a determined Capellan or even Taurian assault. He hadn't bothered pointing out that unlike the Federated Suns, the Reach really had no ability to use any interesting memory cores or complex technology, so it would have been a bit of a waste if the Reach had clumsily scavenged the place.
"Edmund, try not to trash the place too much refurbishing the ship, I'm thinking this place could support some new mines. Artu could do with a bit more economic importance." She had a point he thought, odds were she could trade some of her prize share for DropShips and another JumpShip from the Federated Suns, which could open up several trade routes and development opportunities. There was more than had been expected and the original plan to trade her share for something up to a reinforced battalion worth of mechs was looking likely to be insufficient.
"Understood." There wasn't much more he could say to his employer, he knew he could have a fair shot at anything that could improve the Argo's ability to support the campaign, but he could probably delay his plan to build a swimming pool on the ship.
"Have our friends started loading up the ships?"
"Yes and no, they have been securing all the files and data storage devices they can find. They have also started shifting some valuable spare parts towards the exit, but the mechs need the transports trucks to arrive," he looked at his watch. "And those are due to land in about an hour."
"Do they know what the R&D facility studied?"
"They think it was primarily development of those armored drones we encountered and their control system, it looks like it went badly wrong on the software, the security system to which they were linked went haywire somehow." He thought about the bodies he seen at seen around several choke points, it had been a bad way to go. "They are still purging bits of the system, but it seems to have finished trying to kill us, or more likely run out of means to do so."
That wasn't the whole story, the place had also been working on both the space drone program and methods of disabling them, one of which had potentially corrupted the security system. Luckily the security system and life support were on physically different and separated networks.General Kerensky would have probably found great value in that particular research program, which strongly supported the theory that this place had been abandoned just before or even during the Amaris era uprisings by the Taurians and the related reporting lines wiped out.
"Sounds like not much possible benefit to the Reach." Kamea sounded downbeat that the special key handed down through the generations hadn't quite delivered much in the way of economically valuable lostech. It didn't really surprise Edmund, the Hegemony worlds would have been the more logical place for civilian research.
"Just the trade value I guess, you'll have the firepower to take the offensive though, we barely had that before." She nodded. "And a few of the trophy mechs from here will terrify the Directorate, there aren't many heavies let alone assault mechs in these parts."
"I know, it just feels wrong trading all those away for a temporary gain." Such has been the way of life for the Inner Sphere since Amaris he thought morosely. They were walking down a long tunnel, one that could handle a couple of assault 'mechs walking abreast. Large insulated pipes ran along the walls and the emergency lighting cast a pale light across it all. She paused to look down a large hallway, as with most of the others it looked clean and tidy. There were direction signs for the accommodation blocks B and the tertiary maintenance facility.
"This place must have been huge, what happened to everyone here?" Edmund realised she hadn't seen the bodies being removed.
"It looks like there was a company of 'mechs with an infantry company as the garrison, a support company and at least several hundred civilian personnel. It was designed to accommodate a regiment though and provide a fallback point in the event of a regional uprising or a depot of per-positioned equipment for a local deployment." He wondered how many others like it had been built, the idea was sound, instead of shipping out complete replacement units it was possible to just ship out personnel. "Initial impressions are that the malfunctions killed over a hundred people, the survivors fought their way out to a rear exit and they probably made it to Turian space in time for most to be killed during the uprising." They both knew the ugly story of that, plenty of nukes had gone off and the Taurians had abandoned several of the systems that later became part of the Reach. At some point during that time the key had ended up in the hands of her ancestors.
"If I can I'll get this place back in use when this war is over, perhaps that will be my father's legacy." Edmund figured that was better than the civil war being all he was remembered for. They walked quietly for another hundred yards, past the busy entrance to a vehicle storeroom. Ardan's mechanics were studying the parked vehicles and had the engine areas open on a couple of mint condition flatbed trucks.
Finally, Kamea broke the silence. "Edmund, I'm sorry about Victoria, I know it must have been awful fighting her, and that she died alone of exposure makes it even worse." He nodded trying to look sad, not wanting to admit he hadn't really minded kneecapping her mech for the second time. His real guilt was that despite her probably being the better pilot she had suffered embarrassing failures on both occasions, she deserved better. "She's as much a victim of her father as anyone, she was a good person when we knew her, her father turned her into an extension of his own will and it wasn't right." That was pretty true he thought, but to her credit she had resisted some of the pressure."Remember her for the person she was, not the one she became." She looked like she wanted to say more so he stayed silent for a few moments. "I just want to say if you ever need to talk about it I am always here
"Thank you, I've made my peace with her, Kamea, and I had to accept some time ago her family weren't exactly big fans of our relationship." Kamea laughed gently at the understatement. Kamea had found Victoria's inappropriate relationship funny at the time. She obviously knew it would end when he shipped off world, but the manner of the parting was a bit of a surprise to all concerned.
"I remember, she was quite pleased at their reaction when she told them about you." Reminiscing was cheering up Kamea, those had been happier times for both of them. He had slotted into their social circle surprisingly naturally, he wasn't an a heir to anything but he was of the right background.
"It's odd though, I thought her father would have found her a dynastic marriage partner, instead she was secretly sent off world to manage their weapon imports. An important role for sure, but I'd have expected a more public one for his first born."
"Perhaps he feared her assassination, there are plenty of powerful families with just cause." It sounded perfectly logical he hoped, Victoria's actions had indeed made herself a target. The reality he knew was that she had been getting drunk too often and thus was becoming a political liability as well as one who knew a bit too much. She hadn't said what, but something serious had happened that had also severely strained her relationship with her father.
"That makes some sense, her brother is still on Coromodir, so he's still got an heir nearby." Edmund had met him, he hadn't seemed too bad then, but since the coup the younger brother had apparently taken to torturing his captured opponents with considerable enthusiasm. He'd probably have been quite at home in the service of the Capellan secret police. Victoria hadn't been happy seeing the change, and her efforts to curb it had simply weakened her standing in father's eyes. She realized belatedly that her brother had decided he could edge her out of the way to become the primary heir, that sort of thing was rare in the Federated Suns, but it was probably common in less civilized places like the Reach.
They approached the agreed upon meeting place near a junction in the long tunnel and as they turned into it they caught sight of Ardan Sortek standing by a small doorway chatting to a staff officer, he was clearly awaiting them as Edmund knew that behind that door was a set of stairs leading to a balcony that over looked one of mech storage areas. It was a hell of sight, the sort of thing that hadn't been seen much since the first succession war.
"Lady Arano, thank you for coming." Edmund had heard Ardan was very much the perfect gentleman in court, as well being the text book role of an officer. It was somewhat infuriating that he could be so perfect, but it made him ideal for managing Kamea's bruised ego.
"I'm keen to see what we have found." There was a subtle emphasis on the 'we' part.
"The best is in here, but the other store rooms are far from insignificant." He ushered them through the doorway and beckoned them to go up a flight of metallic stairs. They both headed up , Edmund already aware what was visible from there.
It was a dark but the shadows of the giant Battlemechs made clear what was in the room. Kamea leaned forwards onto the railings, clearly awestruck at the sight. Ardan gave the nod to one of his men and a switch was flicked, the vast chamber was slowly lit up as the lights sequentially lit up towards the rear. A battalion's worth of heavy and Assault class mechs appeared, Royal models of famous designs such as the Atlas II, Highlanders, Marauders and Black knights stood facing Kamea.
"The other storage chambers contain the light and medium 'mechs along with supporting vehicles."
Kamea looked speechless, admittedly she had no way of properly maintaining or transporting them, but it was a force large enough to crush the Directorate, and Edmund knew she was trading most of it away.
"It's at the upper end of expectations, so assuming safe extraction the First Prince will be required to provide what you feel appropriate from the expanded list." The deal was actually quite a fair one, Hanse despite his superior position had wanted it to be clear that he would be generous to anyone who helped him recover a Star League cache. Thus up to a certain threshold he would trade operational Battlemechs and vehicles on an agreed formula, after which a JumpShip and dropships were available. Edmund had guided Kamea towards looking to acquire more transport capacity, he was hoping she followed up on that.
"That is good news, and what of Edmund's share?"
"The Argo can maintain a reinforced company of these." Ardan looked over the vast chamber. "We'll ensure he has one, it'll give you you an elite company and the First Prince will foot the bill."
Kamea was somewhat naive, but could still see the obvious catch. "I assume the First Prince is looking to take them on afterwards?"
"Yes, they are not that cost effective out here, and they and that ship will need spare parts that need the NAIS to source or build."Kamea hadn't been entirely excited to learn that the spare parts that had made the Argo habitable and functional had not in fact been sourced on the open market. The Espinosa family had the only facilities in the Reach designed for refurbishing the smaller to mid sized DropShips, and could do partial repairs and maintenance on a Jumpship, but even they would struggle with a rare design like the Argo.
"Do you expect to recover any useful technology from here, Colonel Sortek?"
"It appears to be all specialized military design work so far, and for things we can't build. We may able to use some of it in the years to come, that is if the files can be safely opened. I therefore suggest the Federated Suns initially looks at what civilian technology it can provide you as a trade, that will have the advantage of not upsetting the long term balance of power with your neighbors."
"There is wisdom in that, but I had hoped to hear better news on that front." Kamea was learning about fast about the realities of being a small power surrounded by large ones, survival was a balance of being not worth conquering and not threatening to any border worlds. An arrangement approaching an alliance with the Federated Suns would be disastrous, as several of its neighbours would instantly look to annex it.
"So hoped the First Prince as well, there are many lost technologies that would revolutionise our society in a way that better lasers cannot."