Lost in Time
Following a misjump through time, the soldiers of the Star League Defence Force, Four Hundred and Forty-Second Royal Division, known also as the Arctic Wolves, find themselves in an Inner Sphere they hardly recognise (AU)
Chapter One: The Orders
[A/N: Don't own battletech. Ballistics would be better if I did...]
...She'd won it, at least in her mind, a mere three hours into the assignment. He'd left his 'Mech, and she could have ended him then. Hell, she could have ended him in fifteen minutes. So far, it had extended to fifteen hours, all because her commander had told her to scare the fear of god into her target. But she wasn't scaring him. Granted, he wasn't moving nearly as brashly as he had been, and each time she'd seen his face through her scope, she never saw fear in his eyes. This time, she saw him in profile, and she lined up her scope, sighting a deliberate miss.
A gentle squeeze of the trigger, and the last two panes of glass on the cockpit shattered.
The next time she went for the cockpit, it would be for the kill...
October 5th, 2782
SLDF Royal Division War Ship Wolves' Den
Hangar Bay Two
General Aleksandr Kerensky didn't generally have the opportunity to communicate with the commander of his best men, General Nikolai Kerensky Jr. of the Four Hundred and Forty-second Royal Division. They were the only unit whom the aging General could place his absolute trust, which said a lot because his best men got that way by being the sneakiest bastards he'd ever heard of. In truth, the Jr. moniker wasn't needed, but given that there was a Nikolai Kerensky that came before himself, the man in question began signing with the Jr. moniker to help avoid confusion.
Most of the time, anyway.
Right now, Aleksandr Kerensky was standing in just one of the hangar bays of the 442nd's War Ship, the experimental Wolves' Den. It was a veritable behemoth designed for the Royal Divisions, and this particular ship was still considered a Military Secret – it wasn't known to anyone outside the military, and penalties for revealing information about it were... Stiff to say the least. The Drop Ship he was in could have theoretically fit inside the hangar – the Styx class Drop Ships they housed were far larger, if not technically less powerful than the Overlord he'd arrived in, but they put the unarmed and under-armoured Drop Ship to good use. He hadn't seen any on his way in, which meant all four attachments were currently out on priority missions. And normally, his most trusted General was out with one of them. It really hammered home how loyal the man was that he turned down fighting alongside his own soldiers for this – the man was on the field of battle more than most of his own soldiers!
One of the advantages of this ship was its artificial gravity generators, something almost everyone had consigned to only ever existing in science fiction novels, and it meant his men could always fight in a familiar environment, though quite why they always had the system set to one-point-two-five gees was beyond him. Oh, he had his guesses, but he ultimately decided he was better off not knowing. It also meant he always had to adjust to the extra gravitational force on his body making him feel heavier. On the other hand, it made him feel somewhat more secure – an attacking force would have to deal with suddenly feeling more perceived weight, while the Wolves were trained to actually thrive in these higher-gravity situations. What that extra quarter of a gee meant for the structural integrity of their 'Mechs, the man honestly didn't want to know.
He mentally chastised himself for his train of thought – he'd come here to discuss something he could only discuss with the man in private; the ramifications of this plan leaking out... No, best not to think of it, lest he goad the universe.
"General Kerensky?" said a well-built man, who looked to be between the normal height of an SLDF Soldier and the towering monstrosity that was General Nikolai Kerensky's right-hand man, "We have orders to escort you to Boss' office"
"Lead on, then" the aged General replied, following behind the armed infantryman and the four men that flanked him, each clad in their distinct muscle suit come power armour, each armed with a standard-issue laser rifle, each bearing the same marking within their unit.
'A Wolf Pack, all to myself' he thought, 'It is not often I see these men in action. Then again, that is the idea behind them...'
Wolf Packs were the Arctic Wolves' infantrymen. They had weaker armour than the SLDF standard, but they had better camouflage systems, were generally more agile than their counterparts and could lift a lot more equipment. They also had very advanced communication equipment, allowing them almost seamless communications on a battlefield, which amplified their performance somewhat and made them far deadlier than the sum of their numbers. It was said that the only thing that outranks their loyalty to each other, is their loyalty to their XO, something General Aleksandr Kerensky was envious of. It was often a chore to get the soldiers under him to the life-or-death situations where they were needed, but these men, these men would take the order and get the job done. Now, if the rest of the SLDF was like that, then maybe they wouldn't be in this mess to begin with. Cameron's assassination would have been avoidable situation if the men he'd have gone to first weren't too far away, and the men he'd been forced to deploy instead weren't up to the task. The post mortems... Weren't pretty.
His musings were cut short by the leader of this pack stating, "We're here. Boss is waiting inside. We're your assigned escort for your stay here. You don't leave that room unless it's a critical emergency or Boss buzzes you out. I'm sure you can understand the reasons for this."
In any other unit, Aleksandr Kerensky would worry. But not with these men – they were famous for their paranoia, none more so than the man he was about to visit, especially when he was concerned. Then again, if he'd survived even half as many of the assassination attempts as his right-hand man had, then he would probably be at least as paranoid.
He faced the door and it slid open so quickly and quietly he almost flinched, and stepped inside the simply-decorated office. Aside from the thick mahogany furnishings, there was little in the way of elaborate expenditure many other officers were known for. The mahogany actually disguised bulletproof frames and plates. Oh, the table wouldn't be bulletproof for long, but it'd give the man behind the desk a few more seconds to react. And in war, seconds could be the difference between the bullet hitting your position or your former position.
Aleksandr Kerensky did not find it unusual that the general he was looking for was not at his desk. Rather, he walked towards the chair in front of him and heard the distinct click of a handgun being taken off safety. General Aleksandr Kerensky may have been old, but he was still a ranking officer of the Star League Defence Force. He was still as fit as any soldier should be and was still just as, if not trickier than he had been in his youth. And true to these facts, he wheeled round and disarmed his assailant, peeling the gun from his hand through a smooth, practiced motion that left him with a gun and his assailant on knee and staring down its barrel.
"Guess you still got it, then." Said the assailant with a grin.
"Kerensky, if you were any other man I would have you court-martialled for this." Aleksandr sternly replied, taking stock of the man in question. A little short by SLDF standards, but he had to have been toned under that outfit, because the Wolves placed physical fitness as a priority across all areas, while he had mid-length blue hair and bright blue eyes, his outfit was clean, but bereft of the medals and campaign ribbons he had won over his years of active service.
"And if I were any other man, you'd have just shot me and been done with it," was Nikolai Kerensky's casual reply, spoken as he got up off the floor, "So what's the situation, and what's the suicide mission?"
Aleksandr Kerensky pulled out a sealed envelope and handed both it and the gun he'd taken from his subordinate to his subordinate, who then motioned the aged general towards the chair opposite his own, covering his commander's rear as he walked behind him, both men taking a seat – Nikolai laid back, relaxed and seemingly carefree, Aleksandr in a rigid position brought about from more than half a century of active duty. Aleksandr Kerensky opened the same sealed envelope he had not long before given to his subordinate, which had been slid across the table to him.
In truth, such actions were commonplace – the number of tricks spies, traitors or folks who were just that fed up with a particular person would attempt were frankly ludicrous. Which meant it was something of an unofficial policy within the SLDF, that anyone handing over any kind of package, had to open the package him and/or herself to catch out the few trapped packages that slipped through even the best filtering systems. However, General Aleksandr Kerensky had no qualms about what he was doing – everything within the document was material he had inspected and worked with exclusively from beginning to end, and it hadn't left his person since he left his office two months ago for this private meeting.
Nikolai Kerensky, satisfied nothing was wrong with the documents, took the thick envelope from his commanding officer and looked them over. Most of it was summarisations of reports both Generals had come to similar conclusions over, while some outlined a most unusual plan. One that had General Nikolai Kerensky looking over them in shock.
"General Kerensky." Aleksandr stated, staring the man down, "What is the current situation within the Inner Sphere?"
Nikolai didn't even flinch when he replied, "Bad. A lot of fronts are starting to crumble, and we can't be spread out amongst all of them. We can't cut down on our training, or things will just get constantly worse." The man's features turned serious, and he pinched the bridge of his nose, "As much as it pains me to say it, the days of the Star League are definitely limited. Cameron's assassination wouldn't have helped matters in the slightest."
"And as much as it pains me to say this, I would not be here if the situation were anything but irrecoverable. General, I estimate the League has six to eight months left before the fronts become too strained and the lines break – this time for good. We cannot stop the onslaught of the entire Inner Sphere, and if this plan leaked, it would be mayhem." Aleksandr replied, leaning into the backrest of his chair.
Nikolai let out an exasperated sigh and ran one hand over his blue hair before saying, "What would you have us do, commander? My men are generally no more than a few day's travel away. We can gather them within two weeks if need be."
"You have seen the plan, Nikolai." Aleksandr calmly replied, "We both know what I need you to do. I need you to recon new, habitable systems for us. The Star League Defence Force is leaving the Inner Sphere."
Nikolai Kerensky, as a rule, didn't believe things unless he had a second witness to the fact. And General Aleksandr Kerensky was one of the few men whose word he trusted absolutely. He wasn't the kind to lie to the few people he could intimately trust and Nikolai had never been given reason to doubt him. So while he didn't believe the slip of paper, he believed it when his commanding officer told him to do it.
"But sir!" he snapped back, eyes going slightly wide as his slack posture straightened a little, "The Great Houses will tear themselves apart! Without the armada holding things in place, the fighting will come to a head! It'll be a Battle Royale more than a Civil War!"
"General, I like this plan less than you do. But I see no other choice – our armed forces are weakening and if we don't leave now, all we shall accomplish is making the death toll that little bit higher. With this plan, we can return – not us, perhaps not our children, or even our children's children, but someday, we will return. And we will bring about an end to whatever squabbles they may still have."
Nikolai eyed the man for a moment before saying, "And if they have no need for us? Do we simply leave them be, continue as a separate colony? Or what if they completely destroy themselves? What then, General?"
Aleksandr sighed for a moment before replying, "If they become peaceful, we will ask to return. If they do not want us, we will leave them be, return to whatever home we may have and build our own society from there." He pursed his lips in distaste, "And if all that is left is far more primitive, then we return to them as saviours, and mould them into a people reluctant to enter a state of war. The Star League will survive somehow. But not like this, not with all that has happened. There is too much hate, too much bad blood between us. This League has died, and it was terminal far before you were born. All we have been doing these past years was simply staving off the lighting of the Pyre."
Nikolai's eyes closed and he nodded grimly at this before replying, "Which direction would you have us take, General?"
Aleksandr thought for a moment before replying, "Whichever direction you so choose. Once you leave the Periphery, leave behind reconnaissance beacons. I already have a chit for enough for tens of thousands of your jumps, and these models can maintain contact with one another. The data we receive should be no more than two months old at any time."
"And when will you depart with your armada?" he asked, opening his eyes again
"When we have gathered all who will follow me, General. Though that will take far more than two months. I assure you, we will not be far behind you."
"And if you perform another miracle? If you save this Star League?"
Aleksandr scowled slightly at the other man."We will contact you through the probes. Any distance up to two thousand light years should be coverable in about a day if a simple, "Incoming Message" alert is sent. I would have thought you would know that I do not make half-baked plans, General."
"Can you blame a man for being too cautious in this day and age, General? It's the job of a subordinate to question the plan – we are, after all, the ones who could be killed by it." Nikolai cracked his knuckles and sighed. "Though I'm convinced. We'll do this task for you – I just wanted to make sure we wouldn't be lost if you no longer had to leave."
"I thank you for this, Kerensky. I doubt I would get many to follow me if I did not have someone blazing a trail for me first."
Aleksandr Kerensky got up and began to walk to the door, stopping and turning around mid-way, "General Nikolai Kerensky, I assure you, the Star League will live again. We will return one day, this I promise you."
Nikolai grinned and replied, "If more than ten years pass with no response from you after we find a suitable system, we shall rebuild under the assumption your task suffered critical failure. Through your descendants or mine, General, the League will rise again. This I promise you."
With that, Nikolai buzzed out his commander and set about working out the best way to relay the worst orders his men would probably ever receive. After all, the Arctic Wolves did not like to run away. But there was one thing Boss did know. And that was that if they stayed, they'd die alongside the rest of the Inner Sphere.
It takes some serious firepower to one-shot a cockpit. Unfortunately for the pilot, that means they're often left hearing the bells of Notre-Dame for some time afterwards, and many have a slight ringing afterwards that never quite goes away. Sniping a cockpit is generally a kill shot because even if the cockpit area isn't destroyed, the pilot is disorientated for several seconds, during which subsequent salvos can be used to further damage the 'Mech.
[A/N: So here it is. The re-write. Much of it will stay the same, and I'll keep using my... I dunno, I'll call them chapter ends, throughout the story. The first one will be relating to the history of some Arctic Wolf or another, past or present. At least, that's the idea, while the bottom will be personal quips and quotes or sayings from other stories or famous people and the likes or the occasional gag piece. Before any of you say, I'll be taking my own spin on the warfare here, so if it looks a bit non-canon to you, keep note of this fact. I have a plan. ]