Chapter One

Enroute to Nadir Jump Point

Harrow's Sun, Federated Suns

2000, 13 July 3020

Colonel Jeremiah Stalwart sat in front of the communications array aboard the Union class dropship Eunomia."Yes your Lordship, I am very glad we could come to an arrangement." Pause "Thank you, your glowing recommendation means a great deal to us and yes it will help us with future contracts." Pause "Thank you again and of course we would be very honored to review any future contracts you may wish to have the Protectors on."

Switching off the array he turned toward his executive officer now that he had finished speaking with Harrow's Sun planetary nobleman. "See Ann I told you leaving those three battlemechs for the militia would do us more good than keeping them."

Lieutenant Colonel Ann Singh gave her commanding officer, old friend and sometimes lover a look of final resignation and simply said, "Yes, you were right but it still hurts to just give away almost undamaged mechs like that."

Both of these two commanders knew that battlemechs, the ten meter tall multi-ton vehicles were the ultimate war machines of the 31st century. However the constant warfare of the last few hundred years had left the warring participants with very little ability to produce new battlemechs. Many the battlemechs fighting today were over 100 years old and had been in the same warrior families for generations. This situation of too few battlemechs for too many pilots and wars meant everyone of them was more precious then their actual cost.

Before this battle the Stalwart Protectors were actually short of a full company of twelve battlemechs because they only had only eight. Forcing the pirates to surrender had left them with eleven battlemechs in various damaged states. As unit commander and owner of the Protectors, Jeremiah had made the decision to leave three of the least damaged for their last employer's militia. Technically since they had no longer been under contract, the Protectors could have claimed all of them.

Jeremiah said, "I've told you before a unit's reputation is just as important to a mercenary company as fighting skill. You don't get the big contracts without the big word being spread around. Besides you know between the Eunomia aUnion class dropship and the Amphitrite Seeker class dropship we could only carry 16 battlemechs."

Ann shot back, "Yes but did you have to give them the ones that work? The Trebuchet, Whitworth, Griffin and Locust are going to need more work then we can give them in route to Galatea. Not to mention who we are going to assign to pilot the Crusader, Centurion, Phoenix Hawk and Valkyrie. There has already been one fistfight about it.

Jeremiah just smiled wider and said, "Come on we'll be late for our own post battle review. I will explain everything there."

Walking out of the communications cabin and down two levels to the conference room neither said anything. Everyone in the unit knew of their relationship and while no one disapproved, by long standing agreement they kept it as discrete as possible. This meant no hooking up while on ship or while in the field. Not talking about personal things was one way they coped.

Ann went into the conference room first. This gave Jeremiah a minute to prepare himself for the meeting. All of his unit leaders were in there waiting for him. All of them were tired after the battle and the rapid departure and still all of them were ready to battle again in the conference room for what they wanted.

This was the one big difference between being a mercenary leader and a regular house military commander. If your soldiers got unhappy they couldn't up and leave. Mercenaries could and would unless their commanders gave them not only good motivation to fight and good financial reward but just kept them happy by meeting their wants and needs. Even after this big victory the unit could still fall apart if this meeting was handled wrong.

Walking in Jeremiah started clapping. Not rapid applause but slow steady rhythmic 1 2 3 4 beat. Most of his people had been with him long enough to know the routine and started clapping with him. Once he could see everyone was with him he increased the cadence until he had them clapping to fast to control and then let out a cheer. Now he was ready to start talking.

"Everyone, I don't have to tell you how great a job we did on Harrow's Sun. I don't just mean kicking the daylights out of those pirates, but the whole mission. We did so well in fact that, yes its true, we meet our bonus criteria."

At this everyone let out another cheer and more applause. Jeremiah let it go on for two minutes and then raised his hands to silence them.

"Also I have just been informed we are going to be receiving all of the bounties on the pirates we captured. Turns out they were rather famous and worth almost as much as the bonus."

This time he let the cheering and clapping go on for a full five minutes. He took the time to wonder the room shaking hands, clapping backs and getting the occasional kiss. He could also see the smarter of his leaders holding back a little waiting until he told them what they were going to do with the money. That would be the most difficult part of the meeting.

"Now I don't want to keep all of you to long but I do want you to let my people know this. Everyone will be getting the bonus as per their contract stipulations. The unit's bonus money and the bounty money will go to fixing the captured mechs, refit kits for helicopters engines, new flak vests for all the infantry and complete restocking of the tool kits for all support units."

While they were taking all that in Jeremiah rolled right along, "One thing we are going do right now is announce the pilots of our new acquisitions. We are not going to hire any outsider who hasn't sweated and bleed with us but promote from within."

Seeing the nods of approval Jeremiah pulled out a card and read, "Private Vashti Minx from Support will pilot the Valkyrie and Sergeant Persephone Krypto from 1st Platoon will pilot the Phoenix Hawk both will fill out the Scout Lance."

Jeremiah took a breath and dove ahead. "For the Support Lance Striker driver Melvin Harker will pilot the Crusader and as you know my daughter has graduated from the New Avalon Institute of Science and will be the Centurion pilot. I believe everyone can agree she is deserving."

"I selected all of them based on their records and prior training. Tell my people know if they would like to pilot one of the other battlemechs we acquired when they are repaired, to put in an application and to start hitting the simulators. But they will have to do it quickly. We are not going back to Galatea. Instead we are going to New Avalon where we will spend one week and then leave on our next contract."

Jeremiah knew the unit thought they were getting some downtime while they sought another contract. He had not told any of them that he had been in negotiations for a month using Comstar messages. Now he gave them a true beaming smile and said "Let me tell you about it and then you need to brief my people and get them some sack time. We have a lot to do on our way to New Avalon. And you are going to love this contract."

Meeting Hall at Prince's Residence

New Avalon, Federated Suns

1000, 14 July 3020

Standing outside of Prince Hanse Davion's personal office Dean Michael Lumpkin knew he needed to say it one more time before they went in, even if the mercenary was listening.

"Professor McAllister once we go in and see the Prince please do not say anything unless asked and then please keep it very short. We do not have much of the Prince's time and we have much to accomplish. Mr. Sizemore please do not say or do anything other then stand there."

Professor of Archeology Louise McAllister rolled her eyes very dramatically and said, "Yes Dean you have mentioned that before." Meanwhile she thought, "of course you encouraged all of us to come up with something to get a bigger share of the grant money for the department, now you just want to take credit for our work."

Daniel Sizemore just nodded his head to the Dean. He might be Professor McAllister's graduate student but he knew that keeping the Dean happy would give him a better chance of getting in the New Avalon Institute of Science Archeology Department's staff then the Professor ever could.

Victoria Stalwart acted like she had not heard the latest exchange between her unit's new employers. As a very recent graduate of the mechwarrior training academy at NAIS she was actually quite used to minor squabbles among the teachers. Still she was very happy she could bring such a plum contract to her unit even before officially joining it. If all went well this could go a long way establishing herself as the future leader and owner of the Protector's.

Just then a chamberlain opened the door and signaled the group to enter. The office was not quite what the Victoria had expected. While it had been several years since the death of Prince Ian, Prince Hanse's brother whom he inherited this office from seemed to be decorated more in line with Prince Ian tastes then the current occupant. Then again their Prince had not had much time to spend decorating while ruling the Federated Suns.

The group stopped in front of the Prince and all bowed together. For his part Prince Hanse Davion of the Federated Suns was not seated at the large wooden desk but standing in front of it. He immediately acknowledged the group and said, "Thank you all for coming. I know you are all very busy but I wanted you here because this is not only a momentous discovery but it is also the first major off world expedition for the NAIS. I have a particular interest in your project and would like some questions answered."

Dean Lumpkin stepped forward, he was not worried about the project being cancelled although as not only the Prince of the Realm but the founder of the NAIS the Prince could cut them off with a word. The Dean was just very happy to get to meet the man he admired more then anyone and to who he had sworn loyalty to and longed to help him any way.

"My Prince it is us who should thank you for your unending support of the NAIS. We would not even be here if it were not for you."

"No Dean you and your staff are due the thanks. It is not everyday an entire planet is discovered or should I say rediscovered. How did you ever find it?"

Louise did not move but started speaking before the Dean could, "Just using the scientific method and much hard research my Prince."

She knew the Dean was scrawling at her and could just make out Daniel stiffening, but she continued, "Our Dean encourages us to search the extensive records we have collected. I found several references to a planet called Quenfax. It did take a lot of cross checking and some assistance from Comstar but we were able to verify the planet existed."

Actually it was more then a year's work in her spare time with Daniel and his photographic memory that she had come across the references. Comstar had not really helped since they had never set up a station there but the quasi-religious intergalactic communication agency had found records of a plan to do so which confirmed the other records.

"Yes Professor McAllister but how did we lose an entire planet in the first place?"

Dean Lumpkin smoothly moved his arms and body to block Louise and said, "Quenfax had only been discovered and settled for about 50 years before the First Succession War had started. Apparently it needed atmosphere convertors to be made livable. These were hard to maintain and supply during the Amaris Uprising but after the Star League Defense Force left it became impossible. The population was evacuated in quite a rush and the planet forgotten."

"Ah I see. Those were very trying times. But if I may ask, what do you expect to find on an abandoned planet that you are taking," reaching behind to the desk Prince Hanse took up a folder and opened it, "let me see 400 staff, students and support personnel to recover."

This time Louise let the Dean answer, "My Prince the planet was abandoned in much haste. Only the people were taken off. As I do not need to tell you, we have lost a great deal of technology in the centuries the Succession Wars have been waged. We believe this planet is a frozen window of a Star League world. We are hoping to learn not only a great deal about that time but to recover many different examples of the many different technologies. Our main goal is to examine the atmosphere convertors, if they are still viable they can help us a great deal on other worlds which were not abandoned but whose equipment has failed. If all else fails we can use the ones on planet as spare parts."

"Yes, hopefully we won't have to do that. Now I understand this planet is fully within the Federated Suns borders, only one jump away from Rochestor. Why then do you feel it necessary to take a mercenary unit with you? Wouldn't Armed Forces of the Federated Suns unit serve you better? I could assign one to you."

Upon hearing a possible loss of their contract Victoria broke her silence, "Prince Hanse if I may, the Stalwart Protectors is a very different unit then any of your AFFS regiments. We specialize in security work in the first place. We are also a mixed battalion of battlemechs, light armor, infantry and helicopters. This versatility allows us to respond to any threat we might face not just one type. We have also agreed to perform double duty as transporters and laborers to assist the expedition, which we have done this many times before on other contracts."

Unknown to them both Dean Lumpkin and Professor McAllister thought the same thing, "And I'd be damned if I let you saddle me with Buckaroo Bonzai and his pack of yahoos." Daniel had some contacts in Team Banzai and was disappointed they weren't going.

"Thank you Miss Stalwart. I have heard of your father's unit. You have not taken any contracts outside the Federated Suns but have never taken any contracts from the AFFS either."

Victoria faltered a little and said, "My father has always been able to find work for the Protectors and prefers avoid attacking. No one is better in defense." Victoria knew her father well enough to know the real reason was he was appalled at the careless disregard for life and property many soldiers showed. He had left the AFFS to start a unit that protected life.

"Yes but his record in the AFFS showed he could do both equally well. Let him know if your unit would like to become an official house unit I would be honored to have them."

"Thank you your Highness, I will convey your offer to him, personally." And watch him refuse it in person.

Dean Lumpkin did not like the way the conversation had changed since he wanted the light shining on the NAIS not mercenaries. "My Prince, since the Protectors will be working for me perhaps I could provide you with an unbiased report on their capabilities." Glancing at Victoria he continued, "And since this will only be the first of many expeditions to not only Quenfax but other worlds for archeological research then the NAIS may be using their services many times in the future."

Turning back to the Dean, Prince Hanse said, "Yes we are expecting quite a lot from your expedition. Hopefully you will find not only many hidden secrets from a better time, but a new home for many of those left without one because of these never ending wars. All of us here await your reports with great hopes for the future."

All of them knew they had been dismissed and performed a bow and then turned and left. As they did so Dean Lumpkin thought the interview had gone well. He did wonder about the look in the Prince's eye as he talked about the unending wars. It seemed to the Dean that the Prince had been thinking of some plan to end them. Maybe whatever they found on Quenfax really could help his Prince. Well then Dean Michael Lumpkin would make sure his Prince got everything he needed and more from the expedition.