DropShip Fitzpatrick, low orbit
Tharkad, Donegal Province,
Lyran Alliance

"You will not believe what I found in a shop in Tharkad City!" Dancer walked carefully across the shaking deck, "In fact, I don't think you're going to like it one bit." He handed Cairo a cardboard folder filled with plastic sheets.

"What's this?" Cairo opened the folder, "MechWarrior cards? I've seen these: kids get them in a foil packet with bubblegum."

"I used to collect them." Patrice Clearwater looked at the cards, "In fact, I think I've still got a mint-condition 3005 Natasha Kerensky rookie card I won in a poker game on Galatea."

"The regular or holographic one?" Cameron asked.

"The holographic one, with her old Marauder in the background." Patrice smiled, "The guy tried to bluff on Ten's over Six's; I had Queen's over Jack's."

"Trade you it for a mint Bounty Hunter with Griffin." Cameron offered.

"Not a chance!" Patrice laughed, "So, what's going to upset the boss about these?"

"Look at the last page." Dancer took a seat, fastening the safety belt, "But don't say I didn't warn you."

"Now I'm intrigued." Cairo flipped to the last page, "What the hell?" Looking up at him from one of the cards was his own face, a publicity shot taken from his time on Solaris VII. He looked at the next card, and saw a copy of the photo from his ComStar personnel file.

"Told you you wouldn't like it." Dancer shrugged, "It's not just you: most of us have them, normally old publicity shot's from back before the Jihad, but others taken from our personnel files."

"I don't believe..." Cairo looked at the card: height, weight, hair and eye colour, planet of birth, everything. He half expected it to give his real name, but it still registered him as 'Cairo, Steven'. "Where the hell did they get this information from?"

"I think I know." Patrice looked at the cards, finding his own, "This has my farther written all over it." He looked at the others, "Trust me; I know how the man operates. He probably did it as a publicity stunt at the start of the Jihad, an 'exercise in morale boosting' as he'd call it."

"Sounds like Simon." Sinade has kept quite until then, her head still filled with thought of her meeting with her mother the day before, "Shouldn't we get royalties from this?" She saw the way the others where looking at her, "Hey, I got two kids to put through collage, OK."

"We should, and probably do: I haven't checked our bank-balance recently." Cairo shrugged, then turned to Patrice, "I take it from your tone of voice that there is no love-loss between you and you're farther?"

"None." Patrice nodded, "In fact, until Tukayyid, I hadn't spoken to him in eight years. We don't have an 'easy' relationship."

"Why?" Cairo asked, "I don't want to pry, but if this could interfere in the running of the Regiment, I feel I should know."

"Back in 3060, my farther was head of counter-intelligence." Patrice explained, "Not a very easy or safe job, with Word of Blake still playing monkey games, and there where several attacks on his life." He's face lost its normal calm facade, "One of the attempts was a car-bomb. But, they got the wrong car: my mother and kid sister where on their way to pick me up from the mag-lev station..." His voice faded off, "I quit ComStar, took passage to Outreach, became a Mercenary. I was on a mission in the Draconis March when the Wobblies hit. Next thing I know, the unit I'm with has a new owner, and we're on our way to Tukayyid. My farther had arranged for my return home. He said he wanted to keep me safe, yet he approved my transfer to the Irregulars."

"The man's a mystery, I'll give him that." Cairo looked at the cards; "I'm going to pay him back for this..."

"Now here this: landing in 5-minuets, stand by for gravitational changes." A voice called out over the intercom, "All crew to duty stations."

Those around the table who hadn't fasten their safety belts did so as the low rumble of the DropShip's engines grew.

"What do we know about Lord Spendlove?" Cairo shouted to be heard above the din.

"Well connected. Missed out on becoming a MechWarrior due to a mild form of Epilepsies: nuro-helmets don't work on him. Has a PHD in militarily history from The Nagelring." Patrice gripped the table as the DropShip passed through a bout of turbulence's, "Generally excepted as being an expert on the First and Second Succession Wars, but that's about it. Not being a front line officer, he managed to claw his way up to Leftenant General in strategic planning. Then when Katherine started playing her games, he jumped on the bandwagon and sung her praises every chance he got. This got him noticed by Nondi Steiner, who knew he was a Lyran loyalist, and promoted him to Marshal and gave him Costa Mesa as a way of keeping him happy and out of the way. He wasn't directly involved in the fighting here at the end of the Civil war, and kept his rank and position because getting rid of him was more trouble then it was worth."

"So we have an armchair-General as our new CO?" Cairo sighed, "Oh well, we've all worked for worse at one point."

"Yeah, you!" Cameron laughed.

"30-seconds to touchdown." The captains voice interrupted Cairo before he could respond, "10, 9, 8, Full power main engines, 4, 3, 2, 1, touch down. Welcome to Costa Mesa, where the outside temperature is a balmy 38-degrees centigrade, and the humidity is, well, let's just say it's a bit damp out."

"Don't you just love monsoon season?" Cameron asked as they all headed for the door.

TBC