"Lieutenant Sorenson, Your unit's reputation precedes you." The man wearing nondescript but formal clothing said. "Am I to assume that you are the commander of the Black Widow Company now?"
"Acting commander." Lewis Sorenson corrected him. "And who might you be?"
"My name is Peter Coetzee, and I represent the government of the Capellan Confederation." The man said. With the exception of their CO, the Black Widows all sat facing him in the small briefing room. Everyone else lay silent with the exception of Clavell, who uttered an occasional loud burp as he slowly began to wake up from his alcohol-induced swoon.
"You are not with the security liaisons, Mr. Coetzee." Sorenson said. "Yet you were somehow allowed into our maximum security barracks. Is this an official Capellan request? Don't you have to go through SLDF High Command first?"
Coetzee smiled. "This is unofficial."
"I see." Sorenson said. "Does this have something to do with Captain Kerensky?"
"Yes. My apologies for not bringing this to your attention sooner but it was only in the last forty-eight hours that we were able to pinpoint the location of the final batch of delegates for the Conference." Coetzee said.
"You are not with Star League Intelligence, Mr. Coetzee." The Monk said. "Yet you have highly classified intel reports. That could only mean you are with Maskirovka."
"Bravo, Mr. Monk. You are observant as always." Coetzee faced the Monk. "Our sources concerning you have still come up with a blank in regards to your background prior to joining Star League Special Forces. You are a true enigma."
The Monk smirked. "I like to keep my private life private."
"And you have succeeded, so far." Coetzee then turned his eyes towards Pale Rider. "Mr. Rider, you gave us quite a lot of headaches on Carver V, you killed both Jason Cho and Colonel Renard in single-combat, if I do recall."
Pale Rider said nothing as he just sat back, crossed his arms and smiled.
Coetzee then faced a compact, dark-haired woman who sat near the door. "MechWarrior Ravin, Considering that you left the Twenty-First Centauri Lancers in protest because of their capitulation in Operation Odysseus, I'm sure you would like a chance to get back at the Blakists, yes?"
"Get to the point, Coetzee." Sorenson's temper was getting the better of him. "Where is Captain Kerensky?"
"We believe that she is located in an uninhabited system in Free Worlds League Space." Coetzee said as a hush fell over the room. "Captain Kerensky, along with the delegates, is under attack by a WOB unit."
Sorenson was aghast. "What? Why?"
"Well, we actually had an operative traveling with them that was carrying something rather valuable and ROM found out about it, I'm afraid." Coetzee said.
"What is it?" The Monk asked.
"It is a datadisk. That is all you need to know." Coetzee said brusquely. "We need that datadisk before the Conference ends."
"You knew about this? Why didn't you warn Star League Intelligence Command then?" Sorenson said.
"We didn't believe that ROM could have executed a mission of this magnitude in so short a time." Coetzee explained. "When the delegate transport group missed our last checkpoint, that's when we knew there was trouble. It took us precious days to pinpoint their most probable location."
"So you knew about it all along." Sorenson was getting angry. "You took a risk with your operative acting as a courier and the whole mess exploded in your face and now you want somebody to clean it up."
"That is pretty much it, in a nutshell." Coetzee was clearly uncomfortable in admitting his bureau's mistakes. "From what we know, the delegates are outnumbered and outgunned. There is a very high probability that they may have all been killed or captured already, but since we have not heard of anything from the Blakist channels, we are assuming that WOB has not yet succeeded in retrieving the datadisk."
"You Liao bastards." Johnny Gundam said menacingly. "Our CO could already be dead and all because of your politics!"
"Cool it!" Sorenson told Gundam without taking his eyes off Coetzee. "Why us? Why not commit Capellan forces for this mission?"
"Because if anything goes wrong, they have plausible deniability." The Monk said as he looked at Coetzee who just smiled slyly. "Your great leader, Sun-Tzu Liao could deny any involvement on this if we screw up, on the other hand, he could claim a great victory if we succeed."
"You are very perceptive." Coetzee said. "We could not go to the SLDF for help and neither could we use our own forces. The FWL is a member-state of the Star League and since they are heavily influenced by the Blakists, if we had approached them, then WOB would have stymied us until it would be too late."
"And if we agree to this, we will be disobeying direct orders from SLDF Command." Sorenson added.
"Yes." Coetzee said softly. "That is the price you must pay for rescuing your CO."
"You seem to have thought of everything." The Monk said.
"That's why I have been promoted recently." Coetzee said. "Will you do it or not?"
"What have you got in mind?" Sorenson said.
"We have a command-circuit: a string of JumpShips that will hand your DropShip off after every jump until you arrive in-system. They are standing by as we speak and you should be making planetfall in less than twenty-four hours. We can give you some aerospace support but once on the ground it will be up to you. We need that datadisk." Coetzee explained.
Sorenson frowned. He hated these Capellans, they were always scheming to get ahead and now it seemed that the Widows were going to be at the short end of the stick. They probably didn't even care about the delegates nor did they give a damn about Natasha. To them, it was nothing more than a means to an end. But then again, when was it ever different?
"We need to talk this over." Sorenson said as he got up from his chair and faced the Maskirovka administrator. "Get out."
Coetzee was stunned temporarily but then realized that Sorenson was just letting off whatever steam he could. But that was all he could do. "I'll wait for your answer outside, then." He kept his cool as he got up and left the room.
Almost immediately, a furious discussion started among the Black Widows. Everyone began to air his or her own points of view with the exception of Sudden Smith, who just sat there, and Jimmy Clavell, who kept on dozing.
"Capellan frakheads!" Stilicho Jones cursed. "We oughta take Sun-Tzu as a hostage and use him as a bargaining chip!"
"You wanna deal with his Death Commandos, then?" Gundam said sarcastically.
"I took on a few Death Commandos on Carver V, they weren't so tough." Pale Rider added.
"I don't mind the Cappies myself," Chris MacLaren said, "they did provide the unit with stealth armor for our customized 'Mechs, after all."
"That was because of General Cox, he 'appropriated' a shipment of stealth armor that was destined for the First Royal BattleMech Division. The Cappies would have never given us anything if they could help it." Stilicho explained.
"Let's do it!" Tara Ravin said. "I wanna get me a few Blakist heads."
"If we do this and not get it done, we could get stranded there by the Capellans." The Monk explained. "They hold all the cards, but we are the pawns."
"Alright, everybody! Listen up!" Sorenson shouted as everyone began to pay attention. "If we give this a go, say goodbye to your SLDF careers. General Cox will not sanction us on this one nor do we have the time to even tell him about this. We are gonna be lapdogs to Sun-Tzu Liao and his political machine. I just wanted you all to know this. If anyone refuses to go I won't hold it against you. But the Captain needs me and that's why I'm going. Make up your own minds. Anyone who wants to back out, raise your hands."
No one did.
"Alright then," Sorenson said, "Black Widows, mount up! We got a lady to rescue!"
