The Solaris Irregulars
Part 7: Covert-Ops

SLS Spirit Sight
Nadia Jump Point
System AGE-9762-6947
The Chaos March

Cairo looked at the note-puter the com-tech had delivered to him and sighed. The war was not going well: ComsGuard forces found themselves having to deal with Word of Blake insurgents rather than attacking the enemy head on. The dissolution of the Star League meant that most of the SLDF had been recalled to their home states. Only the Eridani Light Horse and the 1st Royal BattleMech Regiment remained as coherent units, and they where busy holding onto Kathil: if that world fell, and the McKenna Shipyards with it, the Federated Commonwealth would fall apart, like it almost had during the forth Succession War. The orders from Clearwater where strange, but then Cairo thought, nothing made sense anymore.

He called the Irregulars to the briefing room, as well as Star-Commodore Ivan Leroux and the Spirit Sight's navigator. When the last stragglers had finally arrived, Cairo activated the room's holo-projector "This is the world of Rio in the FedCom. Capellan forces, believed to be under the command of Word of Blake, took her two weeks ago. Rio is one of a chain of planets that has two HPG stations, allowing real-time communication between New Avalon and Tharkad, and even as far as Tukayyid. We have been ordered to disable one of the HPG's, thus slowing communication between Word of Blake forces." The image changed to show a massive building, with a huge satellite dish next to it. "This is the HPG we are aiming for. It's the smaller of the two, and Intel says it's not as heavily guarded."

A chorus of laughter came from the assembled MechWarriors. Cairo allowed himself a chuckle "I know, I know: Military Intelligence is an oxymoron, but it's all we have to go on. If we try and land the Star, the Wobblies will spot us and we will never make the planet. So instead, we high-and-mighty MechWarriors get to play at being mere grunts. Now, before any of you start on about how you signed up to be Mech pilots, not ground-ponders, remember this: you joined the Solaris Irregulars, and at no point did I say that this was exclusively a Mech unit."

The hologram expanded to show an area five-kilometres across "We will take one of the Spirit Sight's shuttles and land here." A red dot appeared on the map. "We will then split into two teams. The first team, lead by Lt. Dancer will take up position on this rise here." A second dot appeared "They will be the assault teams back up and fire support, if needed. This team will be made up of the following: Lt. Dancer, Vassili, Rix and his Elementals, Kerry and René. The assault team that will enter the HPG and plant the explosives will be: Elizabeth, Rebecca, Hawk, Akira, Lenny Rodgers, and myself. You all know Lenny, and he knows explosives. Now get some sleep. We jump in twelve hours, and the sooner we launch the surer we are that we have not been spotted. Good night."

The Irregulars shuffled out of the room till there was just Cairo and Sinead, who stood up and walked up to her husband "Why didn't you include me in the raid?"

Cairo looked at his wife "Sinead, your six months pregnant: you were barely ably to fit into your cooling vest on Epsilon Eridani. You can't go playing at being a commando at a time like this. The Doc wasn't happy about you piloting your Mech, and I can't say I blame him."

"So that's it, no more missions for me. I just sit around here looking after the baby, is that it?"

"No, but no combat until after you've recovered from the birth. I know I can't stop you: if I could you'd be on Tukayyid, like Clearwater offered. Is it so wrong that I want to keep my wife and child safe?"

"I haven't had someone care about me so much in a long time." Sinead smiled, "Thank you Steve."

TBC