Chapter 24

May 14th, 3025

Aboard Dropship Akemi Ayame (Bright Iris)

Suk II Zenith Jump Point

Suk Solar system

"Jump complete, Sho-Sho. You may undock and begin your approach to Suk II." The Captain of the Gure Kujira, meaning Gray Whale, turned off his video transmission to the bridge of his dropship, the Akemi Ayame.

"Arigato Gosaimasu, Dai-i." Though Kuri technically outranked the man, who held the equivalent of a Kommandant or Major in various other military superpowers, he considered the Jumpship captain his superior while he had ensured their well-being. Now that his job was done, Kuri could set the rest of his plans in motion.

Kuri leaned forward and pressed the button allowing him to broadcast to all his dropship captains. "Attention to all dropship commanders. Please begin your undock sequence immediately, and set course for Suk II. Within 10 seconds of him releasing the button, a deep vibration shook the Akemi Ayame as the docking clamps released and the ship drifted away. Within another 10 seconds, the other Overlord and the Vengence had undocked and began lightly firing maneuvering thrusters. One had to go around the entire dropship, and nobody was in any hurry just yet.

Minutes later, feelings of zero-gravity for much of the duration of this trip was lifted for an amount of time that would be considered indefinite for the crew and passengers of the two Overlords. The only exception being the gravity shift as the ships will eventually skew-flip and burn backwards to slow themselves to the surface of the planet. After that, a relatively comfortable ninety-three percent of Terra's gravity and an indefinite garrison duty while defending. The Lyrans will likely want this planet back after they take it at some point. Kuri had no doubt.

He sent the pre-recorded message meant for Alvarez's agents, and along with another pre-recorded message to the general populace of Suk II warning them to stay out of the conflict. With a push of a button, separate burst transmissions were sent to in a tight beam to different coordinates on the planet. Or where the planet would be by the time it arrived. The 2nd Legion of Vega were on schedule to attack in a week, and nothing was going to stop their arrival at this point.

Parliament Hall

Mach 'Beh

Suk II

Orsula entered her office and dismissed her aide politely, giving her some privacy to unwind after the emergency meetings had wrapped up regarding the new arrival of an entire battlemech regiment coming to take over their planet. She had spent the better part of the day keeping her face from giving away the slightest twinge of a smile or anything that might give her away. Now she could relax for a moment.

She let loose the biggest grin she could manage and put her arms in the air and twirled around the office a couple of times.

"That's better." She walked over to her computer at her desk, which had about as many blinking lights on it in a crisis as one could imagine. Numerous requests for her attention. Too many for her to sort through without her aide, so she let it slide.

There was one particular message she was interested in, though. She sat down, and the soft linens of her ceremonial toga rustled on the seat as she pulled up her in-box. She scrolled through all the messages received today and found a recipient she didn't recognize. "Mr. Stanley Cornwell. Let's see what you have for me, Mr. Cornwell…" She opened the message, and a recording came up showing the face of Oka Kuri blinked on.

"Ms. Alvarez, if you have received this message then we are in transit to Suk II from the zenith jump point. By now you've already gone over this with your people. We will not let you know where we intend to land but know that it will not be interrupted by any tricks."

The freckles on his face gave him a more youthful, boyish appearance, but the wrinkles on the corners of his eyes and the almost perpetual frown that came with long-term command told the real story. His English was rather crisp, but still had the tell-tale Japanese accent that relied heavily on annunciation.

"The best course of action for yourself is to create civil unrest in as many different areas as possible prior to our landing, and until we fully pacify the planet for the Dragon. Do not resort to using the camera virus unless we contact you again. Your actions have already given us a wide opening to take the capitol. If the RoughRiders take any action that leave water plants undefended, we will punish them. Any future treatment plant losses should be spun against the RoughRiders to maximum effect, turning public opinion in our favor.

"I know you cannot transmit to me any further, so to show you have received this and will comply with what is necessary for our agreement, you must start a small riot on the corner of Carson and Steiner on the day of May 15. We will be watching news feeds. Our commandos will transmit them. Do not trouble yourself any further with any direct messages until our operation is complete." He looked down for a second, then back at the camera, smiling.

"I've always wanted to say something like this. This message will not self-destruct, but it will remove itself from your computer. That is about as close to the holovids as it will ever get." He gave a slight bow of the head and made a motion with his shoulder that looked like he turned off the camera himself.

She giggled to herself. Always wanted to be a part of something like that myself. As the video ended entirely on its own, she leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes away from the blinking lights demanding her attention, for just one moment of peace.

Soon, everything I've ever wanted and more will be realized.

Selidran Forest

New Syria

Suk II

Emily thought she heard a thousand things and nothing at the same time. She couldn't tell where any of it was coming from, or when. It might have been an echo from hours ago, years or even from a previous life. If she was into that kind of thing.

She heard her name about a hundred times as well but couldn't see much. It hurt to open her eyes, and everything was warm around her. She wanted water in the worst way. Eventually someone offered it to her and she might have promised them a few million C-Bills at some point. When she did open her eyes, there were 'mechs standing over her. From the ground, they felt like they towered like a metal wonder. The only 'mech she could recognize clearly was an Otscout with RoughRider colors.

That thought made her laugh. On the inside. Outside was painful. If Jean LaPointe has come to rescue me from the big bad whoevers, he's going to be sorely disappointed he's not my type. She closed her eyes and kept them there, trying to separate all the different sounds from each other. She wasn't under as many trees as she remembered, and there was a deep, steady rhythm of whum whum whum whum that seemed to shake her soul. Maybe a VTOL, LC said he was handling the medevac. Man, I really have to stop meeting him all beaten to hell and my 'mech half-busted.

She shook her head, and it made her see stars. Ugh. Nope. This time it's all busted. All the trees seemed to be on one side of her vision, when she was brave enough to risk having any vision. She could smell and taste salt in the air, which made her almost as thirsty as when she did that alpha strike on the Phoenix Hawk.

She could hear the sounds of two men, on either side of her, counting. Then she was hoisted up and then she realized she was laying on a stretcher of some kind. The whum whum whum whum became louder as she jostled up and down horizontally toward it. No really, I'm fine, no need to be gentle, boys, she thought sarcastically. But she wasn't feeling much anyway. Just a bigass headache like she drank an entire tanker of Timbiqui Light.

She passed out after a medic shot something into her arm when the VTOL lifted off.

When she woke again, she was in a hospital bed underneath the top of a familiar-looking tent. She defiantly felt better, but still like hell.

"How's that head doing, Major?" She looked up and sitting near her between two beds was LC LaPointe, more chipper than the last time she saw him before the mission.

"Oh…you know. Just felt like someone body-slammed a dropship on my head, that's all." She apparently over-rested by her standards, but her head was the only part of her not agreeing with that. At least the tent was quiet compared to last night. So peaceful, she thought.

"Docs said you were due to wake up any time, and I was around so I thought I'd give myself a generous thirty-second break while waiting. Normally I'd suggest a little of whatever you were drinking last night, but this time I'll just give you the quick recap of last night. Minor concussion for you and dehydration, but the docs said you'll be ok in about two days. As for the rest of the fight…you ready?"

"Hang on…" She forced herself to sit upright if he was going to drop the bomb on her right this second. "Then I gotta pee."

He chuckled and was actually smiling. Apparently, any battle summary that has him smiling had to be good for loot. He held up the datapad in front of him then handed it to her. The images were difficult to look at, but she forced herself to concentrate.

On one column of the screen was a list of various states of salvage, in red. The others, in green and yellow, were a list of captured 'mechs, personnel, and miscellaneous. She guessed the yellow ones were in half-decent shape and made herself read the worst part aloud.

"Destroyed/scrap: Shadow Hawk, Fire Javelin, Firefly, Phoenix Hawk." She blinked. "Wait, that's it?" LaPointe simply nodded, letting her take it all in. She blinked again, struggling with the small lettering but continuing the best she could. She used her fingers to zoom in further on the other two columns.

"Salvaged: Trebuchet, Locust, Warhammer, LTV-4."

Okaaaaay…her skepticism grew.

"Captured: Marauder, Locust, Rifleman, Jagermech, Lancelot. Unknown tonnage of various minerals and gemstones. Number of various service and salvage vehicles: nine. Approximately six MechWarriors and fifty-seven infantry and support personnel from enemy compound." She said nothing else, just staring at the sheer amount of 'mechs in this the captured and salvaged columns. And the Coyotes rate half of this. In exchange for two lights and one medium. "Davion's Dunlop's Disease, we captured almost twice what we lost! And bigger 'mechs, too!"

He couldn't help but grin at this one, though he probably heard the exclamation before. "Overall I'd call the op a rousing success. The only KIA's were a handful of infantry on their side, but we've got a lot of people in various states of banged up. Especially you, two of your pilots, and that LTV crew. The RoughRiders took almost zero damage once the 3rd Cav came behind them, thanks to your plan, complicated further by the downed trees and a disgustingly good alpha strike from one of of 3rd Cavalry's lances on that."

There was a little twinkle in his eye. "Though I wager my son is probably going to take a little bit more credit, asking both our Unions to put his guys directly behind them instead on the shoreline and came in on jump jets. At night. Gutsy move, and that makes…if I'm remembering right…" He put his hand to his chin, mocking deep thought. "I forget, but it's well over one hundred twenty-seven jumps in a row, now.

Then his face darkened for some reason. "There's another reason I'm here, Major. This might take a little more time to sink in, but it helps to get the info early while you're recovering at this point."

"I'm here to ask you to renegotiate your contract with the Militia. To a wider area of operation."

"LC, just give it to me straight. My brain can't handle huge words right now. How big an AO you talking here? What's going on?" She put her hand on her forehead, thinking maybe if she punched the headache hard enough it would go away.

LaPointe stood, putting the data pad in his pocket slowly. He locked eyes with Emily and his usual scowl returned.

"The entire planet. We're being invaded."