The Ballad of Cairo

Part Seven: Who Let the Dogs Out?

DropShip Hound-dog,

Inbound, Arboris system,

The Chaos March

Cairo liked his new comrades. The Dog Soldiers Company of the Wolf Dragoons were a specialist anti-pirate unit. They spent most of their time in or around the Periphery, taking down pirates who either got too bold for the Successor States to ignore or attacked independent worlds with enough money to hire Mercenary units to go after them.

Cairo's 75-ton Orion was bigger than the 35-ton Panther he was replacing, meaning that a Phoenix Hawk from the Command Lance had been swapped to the scout lance, while he took it's place.

The Dragoon techs had, with the consent and help of McCoy's small team, swapped out Retribution's old Kali Yama AC/10 for a almost-new Imperator Code Red LB 10-X. Cairo had read about LBX technology, but had never thought he would pilot a Mech armed with it. The Dragoon techs had been surprised by how well the old ON1-K Orion was maintained, especially when they were told about how Cairo had acquired it.

Cairo sat down in the briefing room to find out what exactly he had signed up for. Captain Cameron walked in, followed by the other two lance commanders. The room fell silent as the lights dimmed.

"Ok people, as you all know from reading the briefing material, the planet of Arboris has been in a near constant state of war since the end of the 4th Succession War. Capellan forces, planetary militia units and a "People's Army" have been fighting for control". Cameron pressed a button on the desk in front of him and a map of Arboris appeared on the screen behind him. "We are tasked with hunting down a group of pirates who have been using the confusion to stage raids on all three sides. They have agreed to pay us to hunt down the pirates rather than risk trying to send a joint task force out as it is most likely that they would end-up fighting each other".

One of the lance leaders asked the question that most of the MechWarriors had been thinking. "What's the reception going to be like? Are our employers going to consider us neutral or are they going to attack us?"

Cameron looked at the all of the warriors in turn. "I don't know. There may be some trouble with hotheads and small, independent units of the People's Army, but the Capellan forces and the planetary militia are thought of by Intel to be trustworthy. Neither of them wants to upset the Dragoons, given that Outreach is only a few jumps away and the thought of a regiment or five of angry Elite mercenaries dropping on your planet is enough to quell any ideas of attacking us for our Mechs".

The screen behind Cameron changed to show a close-up map of a city. "This is the city of Yorvic, which has the closet spaceport to the area the pirates seem to be operating from. We land tomorrow and begin a search pattern in the hills to the north of the city". Again the map changed to show an area of hills, a river, and woodland. "The scout lance will take the woods to the north, the battle lance will stick to the area around the river where the ground is most level. The command lance will take the area in-between the two. We will sweep from east to west to start with, just getting the feel for the land and looking for any signs of the pirates. They are known to have several heavy Mechs, as well as a Battlemaster assault Mech. That monster is heavily armed and could take out the scout lance on it's own, so be careful. At the first sign of trouble - you call for backup. This is not some bunch of low-life scumbags from the Periphery". Cairo gave Cameron a look that could have melted Ferro-fibrous armour. "They are more likely to be rough mercenaries or a house unit who have struck out on their own. Any questions? No? Ok then, I suggest you all get some rest…you're going to need it".

To Be Continued…