Sigma Mercenaries 0001R: Initial Public Offering REVISED

by CSS Stravag

Sigma Mercenaries Mainline story beginning, REVISED EDITION. When an unknown train lands on the vegetable garden of an American Militiaman, and the happenings in the train are revealed to be wildly messed up, four Americans swing into action to save lives and bring order to chaos. Along the way, they will meet a very odd and diverse cast of peeps from all over Existence.. (Rated M)

4. On Discoveries and Decisions

(Sigma Mercenaries, Story 0001, Chapter 04: On Discoveries and Decisions)

(20 March, Magi Year 14408 / Year SL 8838, 0645 Hours Local time)
(Hess' Quarters, Administration Building 3rd floor, Base Boarhound, Terra 232)
(Day 3 of campaign)

Toni snapped awake almost immediately, and found herself rather surprised by how deeply she had been sleeping. She hadn't held a huge amount of hope for the big guy's plan on sleep aid, but it was surprisingly effective — though, it had resulted in several very weird dreams set to the songs involved.

A quick glance around the room showed that Hess was nowhere to be seen, but the weight machine had been disturbed — apparently Hess had managed to do a workout this morning and not disturb her? That was surprising to the lady, give how close the weight machines were to her couch.

"Virtue, where is Hess?" Toni gave up and asked.

"Erich Hess is on the second floor, discussing with Victoria Williams several personnel assignment matters. He left a warning for you to take a shower and prepare for the morning's negotiations, which are scheduled to resume 0800. A MRE is on the table for when you are ready to break fast."

"Oh, yeah, that makes sense," Toni said after a quick glance at the clock.

"Also, I took the liberty of putting in a workorder to have the supplies group install a bed for you over next to the display cabinets. While it is possible to sleep on a couch long-term, it is not good for one's back," Virtue pointed out.

"Good point," Toni said with a smile.

She stretched out and did some basic flexes to get herself warmed up, then made for the showers. Part way there, she stopped after she noticed her personal M4 with sound suppressor on the gun racks in the northwest corner of the quarters. "Virtue, what options do we have on base for training?"

"Firearms training can be done at the indoor shooting range in the second basement level, though if you are looking for more structured drills you will need to use one of the METARgraphic fields elsewhere in the base."

"If I intend to sign up for a security detail position, I will need to improve my shooting skills to a significant degree. Wouldn't do well to be outshot by the protectee," Toni said as she continued on to the showers.

"It is unlikely that anyone would expect you to rival Hess for some time. Remember, the Militia troopers have done more weapons practice in the past decade on their homeworld than is common for most Magi citizens to do in fifty or sixty years. Achieving that level of sharpening will take a large expenditure of time and effort."

Toni closed the bathroom door, but she had noticed something beforehand. "You have access inside the bathroom?"

"Audio only," Virtue answered, which revealed the two speakers in the room. "The CO has already made use of it for music purposes while in the shower, though his preference for morning wakeup is unusual at best."

"Such as?" Toni said while she stripped down for her morning shower.

"A playlist of hard trance, metal, classic rock and industrial music. Randomized, again, he seems to have little interest in picking individual songs," Virtue said.

"You're trying to type his personality by his choices," Toni guessed.

"Correct, I want to make sure the man is of the proper mindset for the coming chaos he will have to suffer as part of this duty," the AI admitted rather shamelessly.

"What you need is a psionic," Toni said. "Of which I am one," Toni admitted.

"I gather you have already taken a look?"

"Not just I, but Cynthia Williams, and probably Executor Nereus as well. As far as I can tell, he knows what he is getting into and he's ready for it," Toni said as she stepped into the spacious shower and turned it on. "His mind is too mobile to do a deep search, he would realize someone was messing around in his brainwaves if I tried."

"Good point," Virtue acknowledged. "Personal question, if I may?"

"Maybe," Toni answered. "Ask away; worst I would do is refuse to answer."

"You are a Phoenix, if I do not misgauge your hair color? Likely a Celestial Phoenix, if you are a Magi citizen as your codex necklace would indicate."

Toni did not answer for ten seconds. She was expecting questions about her personal leanings, or feelings, or maybe about her own wishes or desires, but she wasn't expecting to be so readily outed by the AI entity from her human-form transformation.

"You have both particulars correct," Toni answered after a moment. "Now, don't say it to anyone — "

"No need to concern, Toni. I will slowly start feeling Hess and the others out on the subject, though given his prior conduct, I doubt you will have any obstacles of that nature."

Neither Toni nor the AI knew that by the time she finished her shower, the game plan for the ongoing effort would change — drastically.

-x-x-x-

(20 March, Magi Year 14408 / Year SL 8838, 0700 Hours Local time)
(Business Analysis Office, Administration Building 2th floor, Base Boarhound, Terra 232)
(Day 3 of campaign)

"I'm looking, boss, but I'm not seeing it on MercNet. These contracts are eight-figure jobs, low-nine-figure jobs for the heavy hitters, the kind of forces we don't expect we'll have command of for a long time, if at all," Clarence reported.

"There's a lot of marginal contracts," Hess said, looking through the stack of entries himself. "See this here? 5 million C-bills to flatten a castle in a neighboring country. Ten million C-bills to guard a border for six months and kill interlopers with extreme violence. Another five-mill contract, this one for sinking enemy shipping."

"And you've read the same white papers as I have, boss. Transit fees eat into a lot of that return, especially since these stops would be single-purpose jobs for most Jumpships or Gate Mages, so no way to divide the segment costs."

"And there is also the consideration of return fare, which doubles the one-way transit cost," Hess said. "I wish there was a way to relocate large groups of objects that took the cost out of the equ — " Hess stopped himself dead in the middle of the thought, staring at the wall monitor that showed the status of the 523 train in the undercroft.

"What?" Clarence asked after Hess was silent for fifteen seconds.

"The Trains! Fucking awesome, I think I have it," Hess said. "Virtue, is it known if the jump train engines can be reconfigured to move a different volume from what they are configured now?"

Virtue took ten seconds to answer of her own accord. "Unknown. Do you want me to place an inquiry?"

"Yes, but hold," Hess ordered. "The Jump Engineer Guild, they are closely tied to the Star League governance since the trains are their monument, correct?"

"This is correct," Virtue said.

"Have they suffered layoffs recently?" Erich asked. "Or rebellion from their ranks? Someone with a wild hair, who would be willing to talk or work under the table."

"Unknown, I can inquire with the Magi and Executor networked AI groups, they are unlikely to be willing to feed intel to the Star League or possibly to persons who are connected to the Star League."

"Send your inquiry." Hess said.

"Transmitting now. Fee for inquiry will be 1.45 c-bills," Virtue noted.

"You're planning something, big guy," Clarence said as Hess' eyes bounced back and forth across multiple monitors in the room.

"Virtue, refilter the contract listing from MercNet, display only contracts at or under 5 million C-bills," Hess ordered.

"Standby," Virtue said. "The take straight from MercNet is default filtered to show only above five million c-bills. I am drawing a new data set with no filtering applied."

"Change our MercNet preferences to draw data only unfiltered — I do not like some faceless apparatchik elsewhere in Existence to determine what I think I want to see. We can apply filters once we have the raw take on our plate," Erich said with a bit of a savage grin to effect.

"Be advised that will increase our MercNet costs by roughly double," Virtue warned.

"Two thousand c-bills, as opposed to one thousand a month," Hess said.

"Hard leads are worth it. Make the change," Clarence agreed.

"New data set has been pulled in, applying requested filter at the local level," Virtue said. "Results displayed."

"Okay, boss, I think I see the point now," Clarence gaped at the wildly different view.

"If we take transit costs out of the equation, or at least defray the costs to a significant degree, doing small jobs like this becomes a possibility."

That thought caused Clarence to grimace. "Hess, some of these contracts, I wouldn't piss on the parties involved for fear of dishonoring my bozack," the physically older but operationally junior Militiaman said.

"Definitely. Classic case, ISIS versus Syria," Hess used a laser pointer to point out the contract, a quiet 2-million C-bill offering, "Getting caught up in that shit would not be to our advantage, economically or morally. Nobody is right because everyone is a jackwagon in that fracas, except maybe the Kurds."

"And the contract says nothing about the Kurds," Clarence completed the thoughts.

"Exactly. So, we now have a pool of possible jobs, pending an actual cost-effective way to get out there and earn the bucks. What we need is two things: one, someone of stout moral character to figure out which contracts are worth doing for what parties, and two, we need personnel willing to go out and about to earn bucks for themselves and for the Protectorate," Hess said.

"And we may have someone willing to give an answer," Virtue chimed in. "I have Jump Engineer Mosley Goodwin holding on Micro Gate Laser Feed channel."

"Put him through," Erich said, given that using the Micro Gate Laser Comms channels were the most expensive service ComStar offered, but also allowed real-time commo across dimensions.

"Engineer Mosley Goodwin, to whom am I speaking?" the guy asked after the video lashed up.

"Erich Hess, Militiaman and soon-to-be-founder of a new Protectorate on Terra 232. This is Clarence Williams, my Business Coordinator."

"Ah, Terra 232, that was some bad news from that planet. Last I heard, the SLDF jumped ship six months ago. Who's picking up your Protectorate?"

"The Magi," Erich answered. "Founding paperwork is already out, if you want to check it, I'm doing the finalization and structures in the next couple days," he continued, since word of it was already circulating according to Nereus.

"Okay, that's fast. Now, what do you need with a disbanded Jump Engineer?"

"Before we continue, how much do you like the Engineer's Guild that just booted you?" Erich asked to test the waters.

"Mister, if I could get away with it, I'd cut one of their arms off and flog the rest of 'em to death with the severed limb."

"Methinks he ain't happy with his former bosses," Clarence said. "Wonder why?"

Mosley bristled at the question a bit, but backed off quickly enough once he realized that the two troops on the far end of the commo link may not know the history involved. "I watched good men die at the hands of the Mafiosi and the Slavers while trying to work on those train engines, and those useless fucks in the Grand Council or the Guild would not provide security. Anything I can do to screw them, I'm game, and I ain't the only one."

"That's plenty of reason to dislike the bosses, I daresay," Erich said. "Virtue, encrypt the link to best possible security for hardware, rotate your encryption keys every 30 seconds."

"Processing now," The screen flickered twice, then came back full. "Encryption is active, gentlemen. You are free and open."

"That's some horsepower you have, sonny," the older Jump Engineer said. "What kind of game are you playing down there on 232?"

"I'm playing the kind of game that causes Grand Council panties to become mystically wadded and soiled, and I'm doing it with the blessings of several parties in the Magi and Executor ranks." The door to the office opened, with Executor Nereus and Gerald Lightbringer entering. "Speaking thereof, Mosley, this is High Executor Nereus and Legion Commander Gerald Lightbringer."

"Okay, that is some serious shit if you have a High Executor in on this. Are you really on board with this, sir?" Jump Engineer Goodwin asked the two new arrivals.

"As long as it isn't a war crime and it pisses off the Grand Council, I'll sign off on it," Nereus said.

"And the Magi Commandos will backstop the effort if needed," Gerald completed the thought.

Hess nodded to the two officers in the room in thanks. "Full disclosure: what I am about to ask will be considered a high crime by the Star League. If you want out, now is the time to kill your connection."

"Hell with that, I'm listening," Mosley said.

"I have been commissioned to capture, clear, and scrap down the Jumper Trains. That commission comes from the top of the Executors, so the Grand Council has no say in it," Hess said.

"Whoa, shit," Mosley said as a lady entered the viewscreen area. "I see why you have high security on this now. That said, why are you asking me about this?"

"What I need to know, can the Jump Engines be reconfigured to move other objects without moving the engines themselves?" Hess asked.

"Well, yeah, but you'll need a shit-ton more power than the small fusion engines in the Engine cars. You'd need something like an industrial engine or heavy structures engine," Mosley said as a second lady entered the viewframe, and this one with a goodly amount of family resemblance to the Jump Engineer. "Wait — you said you're in an old Star League base?"

"Actually, that is where I am, but I did not say anything about it," Erich answered after a moment of considering it.

"That's it! Those bases have several fusion reactors underneath each, I did my journeyman Fusion Engine quals on some of them. Big suckers, far more power than is needed for the base itself, and that extra juice can be accumulated and pumped into the Jump Engines," Mosley answered. "Yeah, yeah! You are thinking about using the engines to move other materials?"

"I love talking to specialists," Hess said with a smile. "I don't have to trot out the full freaking monty to a specialist, I drop part of an operational concept and the master fills in the blanks."

"I presented the same plan to the Guild Board thirty years ago, they refused to even talk about it. So long as the Grand Council was paying out, they weren't about to make noise about parting out the engines and scrapping the trains," Jump Engineer Goodwin said.

Hess took a moment to stretch while the Jump Engineers' teenage kids (3, two boys and a girl) entered the room and asked the normal questions. "Well, from things I've heard, I think you may not like your prior employer. What say you to joining an effort to put him out of business?"

"Put the Jump Engineers Guild out of business? You're talking a very dangerous game, man. These guys are willing to hire mercenaries to protect their turf."

Hess smiled; with that consideration, he knew he had this conversation hook, line, and sinker. "Virtue, slug the present MercNet listing after local filter to his screen in a PIP." The quick reaction from Mosley was answer enough that it arrived. "MercNet accounts by default filter out contracts below 5 million C-bills, as most merc units consider them beneath their paygrade. These Jump Engines can take most of the overhead out of the contract work, thereby allowing a force I assemble to go out and do any missions we consider appropriate and profitable. Hundreds of thousands of contracts die out in a week, unserviced and expired. You ask about a Guild willing to hire mercenaries? I give you a Protectorate nation that will build a mercenary unit from the ashes of a planet abandoned by the Star League Grand Council, backed by the Executors and under the protection of the Magi."

"You're going to beat them at their own game, out-man them, build an unconventional mercenary unit, a protectorate nation, and probably tangle with some of the nastiest Guilds in Existence? Holy shit, sonny, where do I sign up?"

That surprised Erich; he wasn't expecting Mosley to go for it that quickly. "Not even asking about pay, benefits, housing? Bit of a brave soul, boss," Clarence said.

"Listen, man, I got laid off five years ago. I weld car parts in a sweatshop in the slums of Lunar City for minimum wage, because the market here is saturated with fusion engine and jump engine personnel. I'll take whatever you can give, especially if I can piss on my former employers and smile about it," Mosley said. "Erm, you don't mind if I bring my family with, do you?"

"I would not ask you to leave them in harm's way," Hess said. Any force willing to hire mercs to trash competition would certainly use paid muscle to rough up the families of competition. "I can have housing prepared for you in six hours or less. Start packing your bags, bring critical items, clothing and heirlooms only. Leave the common stuff, you'll be compensated well enough to replace it quickly — that which you don't salvage from around the base, that is."

"What?" Mosley asked.

"When the Star League forces bailed out, they left almost everything, especially house materials and furniture. It will require cleaning, but most of the material is intact," Hess said. "Personal effects, critical supplies, be ready to leave fast."

"I will be there shortly to extract you. We want to move fast on this issue," Gerald Lightbringer said. "Expect a knock at the front door momentarily."

-x-x-x-

(20 March, Magi Year 14408 / Year SL 8838, 0730 Hours Local time)
(Personnel Management Office, Administration Building 2th floor, Base Boarhound, Terra 232)
(Day 3 of campaign)

"Reporting as requested, ma'am," Toni said somewhat stiffly as she entered the room.

"Close the door and grab a seat," Victoria said. "Got a couple things to discuss with you."

The misplaced Magi citizen closed the door behind her and took the chair indicated. "Something I can help with, ma'am?"

"Yeah, I need someone to watch the big guy, make sure he doesn't trip over his big plans and fall face first into a spiked pit," Victoria said facetiously.

"Yeah, I kinda got the feeling he may be biting off more than he can chew," Toni answered with a grin. "And he's definitely gunning for a good list of enemies, but he's got a lot of powerful backers. I think, if we get lucky in a spot or two, this can go places."

"Okay, first off, since you're already camped in his quarters and I'm not seeing any real need to relocate you, would you be willing to accept a posting as his first Security Officer?"

"I was just thinking about that this morning, and I was going to ask you if that would be acceptable, but I was also thinking about something else. You four Militia troops are very knowledgeable and flexible, but I think you'll need someone who knows the Star Empires. I am also offering my services as consultant for Star Empires Affairs. I am a Magi citizen, so I can help immensely when working through Multimage Empire businesses and public concerns."

"You may have just won yourself a liaison position for international business affairs as well," Victoria said. "But, my main concern, start to finish, is keeping the big guy alive. As soon as things creep out into the mainstream media, we are going to be ass deep in threats. That means I need someone to make sure that he stays alive if the shit hits the fan."

"You need someone with lethality and defensive ability, effectively," Toni explained. "You've got it."

Victoria leaned into her desk, planted her elbows on the surface, and folded her hands under her chin. "Talk to me."

"I'll be the first to admit that you guys have me beat on common weapons — pistol, rifle, shotgun, similar. I was top of my weapons training class for support weapons, so I can fill in there. Additionally, I haven't discussed this with anyone, but I do have some magic talent, mainly in attack and healing magics, but some defensive and effect spellcraft as well."

"Define 'some talent', please," Victoria said.

Toni could not help but notice the way Victoria's chest was hanging, given the way she had her arms positioned and her back arched. Is she average for an American? I always thought that the 'natural history' ladies were in the low end, but that's respectable. Hope I'm not fighting an uphill battle on sizing, she thought but did not say.

"Hard question to answer?" Victoria asked after Toni hesitated.

"Trying to put it in proper perspective," Toni answered to cover her distracted observation. "I can correct pretty much any battlefield trauma with my spellcraft, so long as the subject is still alive," she answered. "I can defend a person from most battlefield attacks, though some classes of weapon would breach my shell defenses. And, in terms of direct outward attack, I have the destructive force to destroy a warship wholesale, or I can target a little more selectively," she admitted with a touch of apprehension and embarrassment to voice.

"That is… pretty significant," Victoria admitted. "I think you've got the job, now I need to assemble more of a team."

"Ma'am, may I make a suggestion?" Toni asked.

"Listening," Victoria answered.

"If you want to make a statement as well as built a solid team, Hess needs a solid guard detail spread across a swath of, oh, how to say it delicately?"

"Different races," Victoria cut through to the heart of the matter. "Toni, one thing you need to know right off the bat. There are two types of Americans: straight talkers, and politically correct say-nothings. You won't find any of the politically correct whangs in the Militia. You don't need to pussyfoot around with your words, at least in our company, you're highly unlikely to offend us."

"Okay, fair enough," Toni sighed. "To say it directly, Hess is sitting on a barrel of nitro right now and nobody knows it. You've got three problems: one, the people who want to go home."

"We just arrived here, we don't have the network set up to get people home yet," Victoria protested.

"I'm not saying it's logical, I'm just saying it is there." Toni sighed. "The faster you get people on the move, the better that will pan out."

"Got it, and I think Clarence was planning that anyway. Two?"

"The Mafiosi. The ones around here get along, but that can change in an instant," the lady answered coldly.

Victoria sighed. "Nobody is right if everyone is wrong," she lamented, which was a catch-all she acquired from Hess.

"Third, a racial divide that is quiet right now, but could go super-nasty in a hurry."

"Humans and nonhumans?" Victoria asked.

"Exactly," Toni said. "Usually, the Sylphs and Nymphs slide, they are closest to passable for human. Elves, depending on how modernized, they'll get a pass or get the boot. The 'triad non-sapien' as some disparagingly call it, they always lose. Tigers, Phoenix, Dragons. If shit hits fan, they get exterminated. If civil unrest occurs, the non-humans usually lose it all, sometimes their lives. If a Dragon defends himself from a teenage punk throwing a molotov cocktail at the sleeping dragon, chances are better than fifty-fifty the dragon loses in court. Now, this does not apply to Magi territory, the Empire has mostly moved past those old biases, but elsewhere, that is the hard-and-fast rule."

"Ah," Victoria said. "That sounds a lot like Jim Crow America, about a hundred years into our past. Okay, you've listed the problems. What's the ready solution?"

"One, make it look like you're preparing a solution to go home, and that will stay quiet," Toni offered.

"Definitely, since we will be doing that shortly. Two?"

"Two, well, give them reason to focus on something else, claim something other than their Mafiosi affiliation, and it will work out."

"I think I can think of a couple things already," Victoria said with a smile. "Three?"

"Three, well, that's going to be the complicated one. A lot of nonhumans won't accept anything short of family ties as proof that you don't intend omnicide at the first available, and some would even scoff at that."

"Well, that knocks William and I out of the running for helping that, but Clint and Erich are open," Victoria easily recognized the quick and slight flush to Toni's face. "I think Clint could play a round robin, not sure about the big guy. Generally, when he went on dating misadventures, it was single lady for short time before something went wrong."

"Did he ever say what went wrong?" Toni asked, though with a level voice.

"Usually, he said liberal taint nuked it. Difference of opinion on core issues. One time, he said the lady in question was hoplophobic, afraid of his gun collection, so that ended right then and there."

"No chance of that," Toni said.

"There was one lady, though, they broke but he never mentioned why. I got the feeling from him, though, he wouldn't deal with her again. About three months after they split, she left the company immediately and without explanation, but I didn't hear anything about why."

"I wonder why? Erich strikes me as the kind of person that gets along with anyone," Toni groused. "Or am I missing something about him?"

Victoria could tell that the twenty-year-old across the desk from her was probably starting to have mixed feelings about the Boss, which would complicate the security arrangements. Or, alternately, make things better for the two. Now, how well the big guy responded to such a situation, that remained to be seen. To Victoria's knowledge, the big guy had not said anything one way or the other on the issue.

"To a complete degree in Erich's case, and to lesser degrees for the rest of us, we don't tolerate ignorance. Stupid is eternal but cyclic; give it time, it mellows out. Willful ignorance is lethal or severely injurious, and he just won't tolerate it any more."

"There's a story in that explanation," Toni said with a smile.

"Oh hell yes," Victoria leaned back and stretched. "It was just after I joined the Militia team. We had a guy in the team, I won't name him to protect his dumb ass, he thought he was Billy The Kid with trick gun handling. Hess and Clint frequently used him as an example of shit not to do with live firearms. Well, one day, we were gearing up and loading up to do a competition against the Claiborne County SWAT group, and The Kid Wannabe was busy fucking off with his gun handling when he managed to get himself with a four-inch Colt revolver, a .44 Mag. The slug punched through the guy from front to back, got his diaphragm and shattered a vertebrae without paralysis, jumped the air gap, passed four inches in front of one of the SWAT operators, jumped another air gap, and got Hess while he was talking to the other SWAT operator."

Toni gasped. "How bad?"

"The guy spent a couple months in the hospital recovering from major surgery. Hess didn't get it nearly as bad, but if you look on his right forearm, you can see a gouge just below the elbow where the slug tore a chunk out of him. We all warned the dickhead, the SWAT guys warned the dickhead, hell, his own family members warned him, he kept doing it. After that incident, the guy got out of guns, and Hess and Clint bought a good portion of his collection. Sheriff Hearter did first aid on the guy, and saw both Hess and the puke through surgery."

"Not so bad, then, that the kid learned the lesson before he killed someone," Toni said.

"I guess, in wrap, don't do anything that would cause you to get booted after he warns you five or six times, and you should be all right," Victoria said. "And take it slow. Erich doesn't take a whizz without a plan and a backup; you try rushing into something, chances are you'll turn him off."

Victoria could not miss the flush in Toni's face at that comment.

-x-x-x-

(20 March, Magi Year 14408 / Year SL 8838, 0800 Hours Local time)
(Hess' Quarters, Administration Building 3rd floor, Base Boarhound, Terra 232)
(Day 3 of campaign)

Toni was not surprised to see a whiteboard attached to the wall due south of the table, and Hess was pacing back and forth in front of it, adding notations to what appeared to be some kind of structuring schema? At first glance, it didn't make a huge amount of sense, but of many things Erich was known for, straightforward logic was quickly falling off that list.

"I think this is it?" Clint asked.

"Nope, two more," Hess said.

The door pinged as it opened again. "Sorry we're behind schedule," Jeff Evans said.

"Haven't missed anything yet." Erich gestured to the seats waiting for them. "After some pretty hard thinking, and after a lucky break courtesy of LC Lightbringer's extraction work, I think I now have enough puzzle pieces to get us moving in the right direction."

"That hieroglyph?" Clint waved a finger at the whiteboard.

"Correct, scrawny one. This is a table of organization with income streams added in for good measure." A laser pointer he had liberated from a pistol substituted for the typical office laser pointer. "Top level is the Protectorate. This is where the bulk of our defensive work will be centered, and will have a slow ramp-up but the most stable income from tax revenue. Nothing special there, the fun really begins in the subdivisions."

"Okay, I see where you're going now," Victoria answered. "Different branches of a corporation, effectively."

"Correct. The first branch of multiple is going to be the Train Clearing Group, to be named Rail Guard. This is a limited income stream, as it is finite income and once we run out of Trains to scrap, the Rail Guard can either disband or fold into the other units. Income here will be high, but expenses will be high as well due to operational necessity and the overarching goal of getting people home."

"That solves problem one," Victoria said to Toni, seated next to her.

Erich heard the comment, but figured he'd be briefed on it later. "Second branch is the Planetary Guard, who shall work on taking the planet and bringing order to chaos. This will be a combination of offensive and defensive work, but we already have a volunteer group to try to work as ambassadors before we have to introduce outside parties to the Regulator."

"Not the most politic of phrasing, but workable," Star Colonel Storme said.

"Political correctness will be used for toilet paper on this floor of the administration building," Clarence said with a smile.

"Always wipe twice," Hess played off the standing joke. "Third group, Emancipation Guard," Hess highlighted the group with a swing of the laser. "I expect this group will be a net drain on finance, but this is a necessary function. These forces will be dedicated to the elimination of the Slavers and any other fascist or protectionist structures that cross our paths. Again, once their mission is complete, we can fold them into one of the other forces or decommission them."

"After I begin retasking the Jump Engines, you'll have plenty more enemies to play with," Mosley Goodwin said with confidence.

"I could always use more graves to piss on, so…" Clint said with some bravado.

"Fourth group is industrial concerns. This planet has a lot of abandoned industry, and we're going to turn it around, make it work hard and fast, and the take we can use for other government functions or turn around onto ScrapNet for resale throughout known existence. This will have a fairly high start-up cost, and it will incur a lot of operational cost, but if done right we can expect break-even or net profit results."

"I'm gonna be a busy wench," Victoria shook her head ruefully.

"And the last, but likely not to be least, is a mercenary group to be formed under our auspices, for the purpose of executing low-end contracts that other merc units won't touch, such as contracts paid in non-standard materials, contracts paid below the five million cutoff, contracts to parties that we approve of but which are disdained by the major units."

"Mercenaries? Serious?" Victoria asked.

"Quite," Hess said. "Virtue, Monitor one, please, with the normal MercNet filter."

The results took a few seconds to populate. "This is fairly typical tripe, the typical Merc unit uses these kinds of runs as their bread-and-butter. Nothing special. Occasionally, a Magi combat force will build up some budget by taking a contract or two," Legion Commander Lightbringer explained.

"What does this have to do with us?" Victoria asked.

"Some day, we can be big enough to play these contracts, but for now, our pool is a bit different." Erich took a moment to adjust his pistol belt and shoulder harness. "Virtue, invert the filter if you would?"

"Executing now," Virtue answered. The new listing of contracts was far larger and far more varied, and this set included names that everyone at the table recognized.

"This is our bread and butter, courtesy of the efforts of Jump Engineer Mosley Goodwin. We pull the train engines, set them up in the base, set up safety systems to terminate the gate jumps where we want them, and we have free and instantaneous transport pretty much anywhere we want to go. We call a contract, we jump a force there, the force executes the contract, we receive payment through another jump engine array, we bring the force home. Force takes a break to rest and refit, then they grab another contract and motor on."

"Cost-benefit analysis?" Clarence asked.

"Expenses will be significant, but if we have an average contract turn of two contracts per merc team per month, we're coming out way ahead of the game," Hess said. "Additionally, you'll notice that these contracts cover the gamut from Iraq 2005 to Nubia in 2000 BC. We've got a smorgasbord of problems that require firepower, and risk tolerance is however much of our arse we want to swing out into the breeze for it. There are bucks to be made by doing other people's dirty work, and I'm not seeing why we can't add an American touch of morality to the merc scene."

Victoria leaned back in her chair. "An American touch of morality? Do tell," she said.

"Perfect example right here," Hess waved to an entry with the laser pointer. "Sturmabteilung looking for a merc unit to help suppress dissidents in Hamburg. Two words: FUCK NO." He moved the pointer to another location. "Iroquois Nation wants merc assistance to help with a hunt and gather for winter supplies for themselves and neighbors. Perfect job for a sniper team and some troops willing to help deal with the harvested animals. See where this is going?"

"Now that is some serious shit," Clint said. "Who is going to call the contracts?"

"Clarence, for now, at least until he can break in some more personnel for declaring contracts. Anything he doesn't know, we can research easily enough."

"Anything else?" Victoria asked.

"Office of Personnel Management and Administrative Management falls under the Protectorate level. I was going to ask you to head those up, Victoria," Hess said.

Victoria opened her mouth to respond, then closed it. She hesitated ten seconds before: "Serious?"

Erich nodded. "I need someone on my six who can keep the front-liners fed, supplied, and loaded so we don't fall over from blood loss. We have a pretty diverse crew here, but barring the Legion Commander, you're top spot for HR and admin."

"Got it, sir," Victoria answered.

"Clarence, you're down the hall from your wife a couple doors, in the Office of Business Management. Your operational concept is on the whiteboard, think you can implement it in the real world?"

Clarence looked at the whiteboard, then to Hess, then back to the whiteboard, and settled on Hess. "I'm gonna need some serious vodka for this."

"You'll get it." Hess looked to Clint. "Scrawny one, I want you in command of Combined Forces, TraDoc, and Implementation. Find 'em, organize 'em, train the hell out of 'em, get them ready for the coming storm."

"Will do, boss," Clint answered with minimal fuss.

"Jeff, Cynthia, I will have a job for you two shortly, once we get things mobilized you two will have some work."

"Understood," Jeff said.

"Mosley, you have the Jump Engines. This plan is sunk without 'em working for us on demand, so you have priority of effort for the time being. Once we get more trains in, you'll have more engines to work with," Hess said.

"Damn good to be here, big guy," Mosley said with a wide grin.

Erich turned to the last of the two semi-permanent residents of the planet. "High Executor Nereus, Star Colonel Storme, I will need legal counsel for both Magi and rest-of-existence affairs. If you two are willing?"

"It's what I'm here for," Gail Storme answered.

"All right, people, listen up. I can hear a couple dirty thoughts amongst some of you, and questions about purpose amongst the rest. All of this effort is for finance and for expansion. Nereus has informed me that the going price for a week's worth of work for a Temporal Psionic is 1 million C-bills, and the maximum expected effort per psionic is two runs per day, with a reasonable expectation of three runs per two days. So, you have fourteen ops per million c-bills at the best. Given the scale we will be operating, you're talking thousands of contracts to the Psionics Guild to achieve our goal."

"A million c-bills an operation? And only a maximum of fourteen per operation?" Clint gaped at the explanation.

"Now I see why the push for merc work," Victoria said. "A thousand micro-contracts for Psionics would eat our budget alive, and achieve only a hot fourteen, fifteen thousand sent home. We need the merc work just to remain solvent."

"I intend to break the budget down into four groups: Operational, Expansion, Mercenary, Rescue. Operational is for day-to-day running of the Protectorate. Expansion is budget to be used to push outward from existing areas, and for improvements to national support, industry or infrastructure. Mercenary budget is for just what it sounds like. Rescue budget is SAR and for returning people home. We will need to make sure that our budgets are in line and any slack cash that is not promised to a project of some kind is diverted into the Rescue funds. Any questions?"

"Yeah, what's the budget for vodka look like? We're gonna need a shit-ton of it going forward," Clint asked.

"I'm sure we can liberate some vodka from the Star League," Hess said with a smile. "All right. Let's make it happen, people."

Hess deliberately didn't say anything about Toni, mainly because he had a question or two for her before he dropped a plan on her…

-x-x-x-

(20 March, Magi Year 14408 / Year SL 8838, 1030 Hours Local time)
(Train control offices, Industrial Railhead 32, Bensinger 3301, Multimage Territory)
(Day 3 of campaign)

"Can I help you, sir?" the receptionist asked without looking up from her paperwork.

"Yes, I am here to speak with Luna Fallsorth, if you will? I do not have an appointment."

Something about the voice of the respondent caused the receptionist to look up from her stack of bills of lading. Once she had eyes on, the lady gasped, covered her mouth, and tried to sit up straight all at once — which combination caused her to skid off the front of her chair and land on the ground behind the reception counter.

The guest looked over the counter. "You alright?" he asked.

"Oh yes, yes sir!" she stood up quickly enough. "Luna Fallsorth? System engineers are on the second floor, sir. Will you need an escort, Executor?"

"I should have no trouble finding him." The Executor said before he turned to step past the reception desk and make for the stairs up to the next floor.

The Executor (technically ranked far higher than just a low-level Executor) trudged up the stairs and into the second-floor cubicle farm with no challenge from two rail workers that passed him. The white 'common' uniform of the Executors really stuck out in the area of a dingy railway facility, which was more muted grays or the grease stains commonly associated with heavy machinery. Up on the second level, some persons took notice of his dress, and a few had him pegged for who he actually was, but nobody actively said anything.

The instructions as to where to meet up with the tango in question were rather specific. Nearest cube farm entrance, right at the first intersection, pass one intersection, turn left, third cubicle on the right. True to the instructions, the cubicle was placarded for Luna, and it looked heavily occupied, but the person in the cube had no resemblance to what the Executor had conjured in his imagination.

"With a uniform like that, you're not railroad personnel," Luna said as he spun around on his office chair to face the Executor. During the movement, Tenchi noticed a mirror attached to the technician's monitor, likely for seeing persons approach him while working. "Whoa. You seriously Star League?"

"Only to the distance I'm not allowed to divorce myself from it," the Executor responded with a smile. "Veteran Executor Tenchi Masaki. You're Luna Fallsorth, correct?"

"Don't ask about the name, sir, it's a sticking point between my family and myself," Luna said before he scratched at his rather massive lumberjack beard. "A Lord of the Star League isn't normally used as a messenger; something is up, I take it."

"This patent request is yours, correct?" Tenchi handed him a large envelope.

Luna pulled the docs and checked them. "Yeah, this is all my shit, why? I thought this was canned by the Patent Office, conflict with a Guild Trade Secret."

"Exactly, it conflicts with the Jump Engineer Guild and their trade secrets revolving around the jumping systems on the old Jumper Trains," Tenchi clarified the issue. "Specifically, the Jump Engineer Guild has two of these it used to use to corral trains for repair. Since the trains went 'feral', they've deactivated their mechanisms to protect personnel."

"Oh, wow," Luna said before he slipped the docs back into the folder. "So, what's the scoop here?"

"Read," Tenchi handed over a separate folder.

Luna took five minutes to read through the documents. "Is this shit for real, sir?"

"One hundred percent of it," Tenchi answered.

"So that fatboy wants me to relocate, change jobs, piss off the Jump Engineer Guild, and build some of these assemblies. Well, not a hard challenge to accept, Management has been crawling up my ass on a routine basis, conflict of personality and the top dog wins," Luna said nonchalantly.

"You know how I hate that manner of speaking about management," someone said as he approached. "And who are you? Star League?" the twenty-something guy asked Tenchi, who simply glanced at him and then looked back. The Veteran Executor was a little more concerned about the nondescript two guys who had tagged along with the manager, but said nothing to any of their rank.

"Well, if Management wouldn't spend all day sucking Corporate dick, I would have a lot less to complain about," Luna said in a voice loud enough to be heard easily four or five cubicles away.

"Are you trying to get yourself fired?" the manager asked Luna.

"No, just trying to point out the obvious that nobody else can. May want to wipe that jizz off your chin, boy, it's a bit unsightly," Luna said to the much younger Manager. "Rosco! Yo! Pass me those cardboard boxes you keep in your cube! Gotta pack my shit up and hike! Luna Fallsorth is a free man!"

"Free man? What?" the middle-management twenty-something asked.

"You heard me, George. You can take this dead end position, shine it up, and use it to ream out Corporate's assholes," Luna groused. "Rosco! Where are those boxes?"

"Alley Oop!" Tenchi quickly caught the first box, and used it to deflect the second box into Luna's hands. "How many more?"

"One more should do," Tenchi caught the third box readily. "Hate to use you as a mule, sir, but I ain't giving these shits the satisfaction. Only thing I'm leaving is the dust bunnies."

"Expected, trooper," Tenchi said with a chuckle. "You're still here?" he asked the middle management puke.

"I'm escorting these two to see Luna," the manager said with clear naievete.

"Assassins," Tenchi said, clearly recognizing their type once the manager stepped aside. "I am Executor-Lord Tenchi Masaki, Fourth Disciple to Eric Atrebas. Identify yourselves and your contracting party or suffer my wrath."

"What? Tenchi?" The lead of the Assassins said. "Our contract is from the Jump Engineer's Guild. I am Assassin 6837, and this is my apprentice 6838."

Tenchi nodded twice. The Assassin's Guild only had 20 members, never more, and deliberately took no political sides, but were still subject to the orders of an Executor. An apprentice meant that one or more of the Assassins had been slain or was retiring soon.

The Executor Lord frowned briefly, but had an idea how to prevent any kind of nasty battle scenario in the middle of a cubicle farm. "On the authority of the Will Transcendent, your contract against Luna Fallsorth is null and void. You have been hired by parties that know not what they are interfering in, for purposes that are considered detrimental to all Existence. You will stand down and leave this planet or suffer annihilation for your misdeeds, understood?"

"As ordered, Executor-Lord Masaki," The two Assassins blinked away from the Executor and their targeted party (Luna).

"Well, that says enough," Luna grumped after Tenchi relaxed. "If they want me dead enough to hire assassins, this must be one fuck of a party I'm headed for." He swapped a full box for one of the empties held by Tenchi. "The folder you had listed the project details. Didn't say anything about pay grade, expectations, benefits, what have you. You know anything, Executor?"

"Not really, other than you're jumping into an ambitious startup. This guy, Hess, he's an American Militiaman, he doesn't pussy around about these things. He's got goals, and your skills are part of the job."

"It's a weird thing to ask about that patent I submitted a decade ago, though," the Rail Engineer noted. "Still, gets me off this Gods-forsaken rock and somewhere a little less obscene in both work environment and social scene."

"I am sure Hess' negotiating position will be favorable," Tenchi said. "He is also extending house cleanout services, so if you want anything from your apartment, you can have it pulled."

"Maybe," Luna said as he exchanged the second filled box for the last empty. "Mostly, I'm just in a hurry to get away from Middle-Manager Cumguzzler and the Corporate Board of Dumbfuckistan Rail Freight."

"I can understand that," Tenchi said with a smile.

"And that's it, sir. I'm ready to bail out whenever you are," Luna said after he emerged from the back recess of his cubicle.

"Hold these," Tenchi passed the boxes over to Luna. Once his hands were freed, he held both hands open palm-first toward an open space. "Gate to Envisioned Locale, Terra 232" Tenchi said.

"Give 'em hell, Luna!" one of the other Engineers shouted before the Executor and the Engineer stepped through the gate and to a different world. None of them had an idea he would be back in less than a few weeks to recover more Engineers to assist the effort.

-x-x-x-

(20 March, Magi Year 14408 / Year SL 8838, 1100 Hours Local time)
(Hess' Quarters, Administration Building 4th floor, Base Boarhound, Terra 232)
(Day 3 of campaign)

"Turnkey government solutions," Clarence said. "I get the feeling that this isn't the first rodeo the Magi have been to."

"Sadly enough, not an incorrect guess," LC Lightbringer said. "This isn't the first Protectorate I've helped assemble, either, but you Americans are the first Protectorate that is singularly more ambitious and more conservative than 95 percent of the rest. Credit where due, every decision you've made so far is on the up-and-up, which I can't say for the bulk of the rest I've done or seen."

"Okay, looks like we have two major sticking points left. Code of Laws and Government Identifier," Victoria said. "Man, where are they?"

"Clint, Hess, Toni, Jeff, and Cynthia are in the basement target range still," Virtue reported. "Stand by, I will signal them to rejoin the group." Virtue said.

"While we wait for them to trudge upstairs, let's begin the process. Virtue, please display proposed structure of laws on monitor three, United States laws on monitor five, and variations / discrepancies between both sets on monitor four."

"Stand by, this will take a few HPG bursts to pull down the USC and relevant state or local laws," Virtue noted.

As each burst of information came in to the HPG, Virtue processed it in, ran it down the left-side monitor on the western wall, and did a comparative on the center monitor against Magi-equivalent law structures.

"One down, three to go," Virtue reported. "I have combined the results into an easily-distinguished result. White text is matched laws, yellow text is US Code in excess of Magi Law, blue text is Magi law in excess of US laws, red text is laws considered obsolete by other regulations or revised national policy."

"You can start by eliminating the entire Income Tax Code," Hess said just inside the door to his quarters. "An income tax is destructive, and serves no purpose other than centralizing wealth in the hands of the government. Sales tax only, our primary income will be through the Protectorate business plans."

"The tax codes are already obsoleted out," Virtue assured the new arrivals. "Second group United States Code is in," she reported after a moment.

"Nice," Clint said as he took his usual seat at the table.

"Third code group USC is in," Virtue said as the screens updated. "Last group would be Kentucky and Claiborne County laws and regulations."

"So far, no major legal conflicts," Gerald Lightbringer pointed out. "The major ones will come in on the small bullshit, housing codes, interstate commerce, similar. The Magi traditionally minimize government influence in such matters, preferring to allow either Prefecture-level control or none at all. The expectation is that people will either be smart enough to do it right on their own, or they will learn the lesson the hard way."

Clarence chuckled. "Natural Selection legal edition," the business analyst said. "Darwin would enjoy that kind of study, I know it."

"Last burst is in, parsing codes and organizing by section," Virtue said. "All codes are arrayed. Ready to begin."

"Begin process by eliminating redundant code," Erich ordered. "If wording conflicts are detected in an otherwise mirror code or law, favor the Magi code."

"Huh?" Clint asked.

"Magi wording is often more concise and easier to understand than equivalent American codes," Hess explained.

"Ah," Clint gaped.

"Cleared," the AI reported.

"Next step, eliminate all codes pertaining to the labyrinthine United States Tax System," Clarence said. "Are there any Magi equivalents?"

"Tariffs system laws are still on the books, but are used only at the local or Prefecture level, not at a planetary or Empire level," Virtue said.

"Keep the tariffs or bin them?" Clarence asked the other Militia.

"Keep, but leave inactive for now," Hess said. "Tariffs can be levied at a later time if we end up in a situation where imports begin divesting monetary power from the Protectorate or its citizens. I do not intend to use Tariffs for industrial protection; if it can't be done cost-effective, it requires improvement."

The Magi liaison officer rapped her right-hand knuckles on the table. "With your expectation of external income streams, I don't see that happening in any large amount," Star Colonel Storme said. "Think about it — you'll be pulling in hundreds of thousands of C-bills raw per contract, millions in materials and bounties on the Trains, other forms of income will come available. Chances are, you'll be converting that cash into either liquid or solid assets of one kind or another, you won't need the protections of a tariff system if you can keep the pace high enough."

"Point, boss," Victoria said.

"Indeed," Hess admitted. "Okay, of the old USC, we can dump Titles 2 and 3, no President, no Congress. Title 5, replace all conflicting statutes by favor of the Magi process and modify pertaining to our unique operational structure."

"Executed. Modified codes are in Orange, and will need to be reviewed and finalized."

Erich nodded. "Strike Titles 6 and 7. Domestic Security will be handled by the Military and the Militia. Agriculture will be decentralized, to be controlled at the Prefecture level or local, if at all."

"We have got to rename that, though," Clint said. "Replace Prefecture with County?"

"Closer to States in size," Victoria pointed out fairly.

"States sounds cleaner," Jeff Evans pointed out.

"States it is," Clint said.

"Concur. Virtue, make the mods, if you will?" Erich requested.

"Corrections implemented," Virtue said.

"Oh Hell no," Clint said. "Strike Title 27 from the books, completely. The Federal level has no business in local business such as liquor operations. That's a classic case of government creating the problem, then creating several nasty solutions to the problem they skull-fucked to begin with."

"Definitely," Hess said. "That can be handled at the State level, if regulated at all."

"This is gonna get messy," Clarence said, referring to the way Hess and Clint were applying a chainsaw to the USC for the new Protectorate. "And it's gonna take a while," he continued the grumping, referring to how long it would take to reconcile the parts that had not been outright eliminated.

-x-x-x-

(20 March, Magi Year 14408 / Year SL 8838, 1330 Hours Local time)
(Barracks Building FB2, Base Boarhound, Terra 232)
(Day 3 of campaign)

"At least it's not too hard to figure out if you're legal or not from day to day," Sapphire D. said with a smile towards the other ladies in the small group that had formed up in the room. "Definitely easier than American law, not quite as clear-cut as Magi law, and a lot less baroque shit than in my homeland, the New Moon Empire."

"They talk a good, loud talk. It is yet to be seen if these Militiamen have the stomach to hold to their principles when any level of lawlessness sets in," Rasine T. commented dryly.

Sapphire regarded the Sylph in the five-lady group with some suspicion, but considered that the actual threat of it was not unfounded. The trend was, during periods of unrest, given any opportunity the human-based groups would go out of their way to exterminate the clearly-nonhuman groups, such as the Dragons, the Phoenix, and the Tigers. Elves sometimes got a pass, Sylphs and Nymphs usually got a pass, but not always. By that metric, of the five in the little group, only Sapphire expected to survive such unrest on racial lines, but did not expect to survive on combative lines because she would defend her comrades to the death.

"Oh ye of little faith," Lydia Q. said with a chuckle. "This guy Hess, he's a complete hardass on this subject. Sapphire intends to defend us non-humans to the death, Hess expects to defend us to the death and he expects it will likely kill him if he has to, but he also expects to be cut down while resting on top of a pile of enemy bodies."

"Looked into his mind, didn't you?" Rasine asked slyly.

"His mind is very loud when he's asleep, and louder when awake," Lydia confirmed. Being a Copper Dragon, Lydia was a natural in magic talents and born psionic / telepathic / telekinetic. Her physical form was one of the smaller classes of Dragons, but her disguised Human-type form was large both in height and bust, which inevitably drew attention to her chest and away from her Copper-color hair.

"Does he realize that cling-on Toni is a Phoenix?" Moira H. asked after a moment of considering it. Of the two Dragons in the group, she passed closest to Human, but on inspection her hair would be too hard a color black to be considered natural. Much the better, technically, as it identified her as a Black Dragon to anyone who knew what to look for. Of course, anyone who approached the group would be a helluva lot more focused on her presently-free-hanging DD chest then her hair color. Hiding things in plain sight was easy for someone willing to use distracting traits to do so, and laying in bed naked from the waist up was quite distracting…

"No telling," Rasine answered truthfully. "If he knows, he's giving plenty of illusion that he doesn't know or doesn't care."

"Okay, guys, let's consider this," Leonora L. prompted them. The lone Nymph in the group was physically the smallest of the five, both in size and in chest, but hands down she was the most powerful of the five in magic skills. She singularly lacked any training in black (attack) magics, but her healing and effect magic was second to none, and she said but had not yet demonstrated ability in time magic. "What if Lydia has the right of it? What if Hess is willing to play against type? What if Hess really doesn't give two shits about race, and is willing to defend us against untoward aggression?"

"Room for another Human in this rank?" A lady that approached the group with a chair asked. The other person in the approaching duo was Elven, though Sapphire could tell the Elven one had no Magic or Psionic ability, and the human only minor Magic and Psionic skills.

"If you want to listen to us nonhumans bitching about the coming genocide, sure," Rasine said nonchalantly.

"To answer the odd-out question, Hess suspects Toni is not human, but doesn't have solid info on it," Anastasia D. dropped a bona-fide for her joining the group. "And from what I heard in his mind, he's enjoying learning about the nonhuman groups. Eye candy like miss double-deltas over there, he considers that a bonus. Victoria knows she is nonhuman, and knows he's sitting on a powder keg of racial tensions."

"Okay, at least that settles that question. He isn't gay, which is a good thing. Don't know what I would do serving under such a weird CO, he's already got some really strange points against him, like his obsession with technological efficiency and unusual job divisions and such," Lydia said with a chuckle.

"He's a specialist," the Elven newcomer said. "Specialists think different, act different, relate to others different," Sonya T. admitted after considering it. "How perverse is his mindset?" she asked Lydia.

"Very chivalrous pervert," the Copper Dragon answered after considering it. "Even if he walked in here right now, he wouldn't try putting moves on any of us, he would be the perfect gentleman as far as I can tell, but he'd be standing about a kilometer tall for sure."

"Little more information than I was asking for, but it makes sense," Sonya said. "With an attitude like that, would make the perfect King, one that I would follow to the grave if necessary."

"How so?" Sapphire asked. After thoroughly observing the Elven lady, she couldn't tell if she was naturally flat or was wearing a chest binding or minimizer bra under a set of robes and a Mechwarrior's cooling vest. Either way, Sapphire figured she wouldn't be getting too much attention from the guys in that department.

"Would not sleep with him, myself, for disclosure. Looking for a good Elven mate for myself," Sonya admitted. "Still, would defend him to the last, if he is willing to show us the same courtesy. He is just as ruthless about racial legality and egalitarian positions as the Magi, which makes the Protectorate choice that much better for us. It is mandated in law, and the man who provides final judgment is in accord. Best we defend him, lest his replacement decide otherwise."

"The little one has a good point," Moira declared.

"Little one?" Sonya asked in a wary tone.

"You may be the flattest lady here," Moira pointed out.

Sonya looked down her chest, briefly, then looked back to the Black Dragon that was laying on the bed to her left. "Not the metric I thought you were going by, but it is the truth and it is a truth I have no problem with. Some guys like them smaller."

"Another good point," Moira admitted.

"So, we've come to two conclusions. Our boss is a chivalrous pervert specialist, and we need to defend him," Rasine said. "How do we do this? And how do we make sure we keep him in command for the foreseeable future?"

"He needs security. Toni will probably volunteer, just to make sure she can continue to cling to him even if she won't make a proper move," Sapphire suggested.

"You sell the Phoenix short. She is a bit torn on what she really feels right now. She does not lack the courage to make the move, she is still deciding if she actually wants to do so," Lydia said.

"We should establish a complete guard group for the CO," Leonora said. "Definitely Mages through and through, and willing to show a little side benefit to the boss, let him decide which way he wants to go."

"That reminds me," Sapphire said. "Virtue, has a ruling been made on relationship laws as of yet?" she asked the wall speaker nearby.

"Indeed, just passed, two against two amongst the Militia was the vote, with Hess siding along Magi traditional lines. Extended marriages are legal, but the cutoff age is 18 for multi-party. 16 is the new national consent or majority age, which is divergent from the Magi AOM of 12 and the United States AOM of 18."

"Wonder why 16?" Moira asked. "So far as I know, there is nothing particularly special about turning 16."

"Same can be said about 18, but the Americans picked that just the same," Anastasia retorted. "Not like most people mystically grow a brain at 18, or 16. Hell, I know some 26-year-old persons that are markedly dumber at 26 than they were at 16."

"Hellishly true, that," Rasine groused. "Back on topic, if you would?"

"We need manpower — or womanpower — as a defensive bulwark for the Boss in particular, and the rest of the Americans by extension. We defend them, maybe play nice with them, maybe we get what we put into it for once?"

"Maybe we get something more out of it?" Leonora asked. "Maybe, with this mercenary unit idea, maybe we can prove to the rest of Existence that we nonhumans are not the abominations they think we are."

"Am a bit partial to scaring the crap out of the notional opposition," Sonya said with a devilish smile. "Except we could do better than that, still. We could prove ourselves superior to expectations if we play the cards right."

Lydia smiled at that thought. "Hit so hard, so fast, that we become a respected agent on the interdimensional scene? That's really going to take effort and skill, but if we do this right, we could spend the rest of our lives doing shaving ads and public appearances for profit, never mind the merc work."

"Shaving ads," Moira said with a school-girl giggle. "Well, not so much for us. If anyone's going to be first in line for the guard detail, probably going to be us. Elven company excepted, given you don't appear to have any magical skill."

"Expected and welcomed," Sonya replied. "Would prefer something more along lines of defensive infantry or training position, not guard detail."

"There you have it, then," Rasine said. "Tomorrow morning, we get up some more like-minded troops, head in to the HR office, and volunteer for guard detail on the CO. We can work on his relationship skills a bit after that. Though, what do we call our group?"

"Praetorian is the Magi term," Sapphire volunteered.

"No, too much bad history on the Roman side for that term. What's the American name?"

"Secret Service?" Lydia asked by way of answer.

"Secret Service? I think that term fits perfectly," Moira answered. "That said, we would need to psionically shield his quarters. That could get a bit noisy in some of our cases."

"The senior officer quarters all have a Mithril box built into the walls. It would be fairly easy to enchant that for Psionic resistance, and we could pass that off as a national security issue. Can't have the Boss psionically spied upon, after all," Sapphire pointed out fairly.

"Guards with benefits," Moira chuckled again. "This is either going to end with broken hearts, or it'll drag on forever. Not sure which so far."

"We'll know soon enough, but take it slow. Don't want to scare our potential guardian off on the first round," Rasine said.

-x-x-x-

(20 March, Magi Year 14408 / Year SL 8838, 1930 Hours Local time)
(Hess' Quarters, Administration Building 4th Floor, Base Boarhound, Terra 232)
(Day 3 of campaign)

Cynthia, Toni, and Victoria were likely the smartest persons in the room, Hess figured. Of everyone who was bored to the point of clawing at the walls, said three ladies had decided to fall asleep at the table, though Hess had them relocated to the bed (Toni) or to the couches (Cynthia, Victoria). Hence, the three were busily doing a session of 'dueling snoring' between the three, which made for a strangely lulling background sound to the remainder of the work.

The legal sorting and reorganization had taken its time to execute, and even Hess had to admit it was boring work, if necessary. With that onerous task completed, only one task remained in the initial setup.

"Organization designation," Legion Commander Lightbringer said with gravity.

"That's going to be the big one. What name we choose will make things either an uphill battle, or a laughingstock, or somewhere in between," Clint said.

"No fun, I was kind of partial to the Killer Bunny Brigade," Clarence said with clear humor.

"Thank you for just giving me an idea for one of the unit names," Clint took the name down on his notepad.

"I racked my brain on this one last night, and came up with nothing worth talking about," Erich admitted.

"Some of the best merc units are named after their Commanding Officers," Star Colonel Storme pointed out fairly.

"Not happening," Hess said definitively. "I am not the kind of guy that people rally behind."

Don't sell yourself short, big guy, Lightbringer thought but did not say. "Animal motifs?"

"I would say American Eagle Protectorate, but that is the name of a clothes brand that I wouldn't wear to begin with, much less want to be confused with," Clarence pointed out.

"Wild Turkey would cause a cognitive dissonance in anyone we crossed…" Clint said, then petered his sentence out when he saw the looks from the rest of the persons at the table. "What? Sounded good inside the confines of my mind."

"There's a limiter in your explanation that makes all the difference, scrawny one," Erich said with a smile. "Care to guess?"

"Uh, inside the confines of my mind?" Clint asked.

Gerald chuckled. "I was once told by an old friend of mine, 'your name is in the mouth of others. Make sure it has fangs.' He got it from somewhere, don't remember where, and I've probably misquoted it, but I always kept it to heart and it has served me well over the years. You will want to do the same, here; your name, Hess, is already pretty well sharpened; another Erich Hess is one of the most feared Executors, if one of the rarest seen in public. If you can earn your reputation, the two of you should have no problem playing off each other's fear factor."

"That's a nice piece of psychological warfare," Erich said with a smile. "That means that the name I choose would need to grow fangs. I would say, probably something… neutral, not living, would make a good starting point. Something that we could turn into a living being by reputation, give it the fangs that are needed."

"Iron Rain would do, maybe?" Clint asked.

"Only for the Mercenary Unit," Clarence shot back. "Or for a merc sub-unit." The Commander TraDoc took down the name, and listed it as a possible aerospace unit.

"Sierra, maybe?" Clint countered. "Or maybe one of the other Phonetics?"

That offering caused Jeff Evans to perk up. "What did you say, Clint?" he asked.

"Sierra, as in the letter S, in NATO Phonetic."

"S… Sigma?" Jeff asked in counter.

The table was silent for slightly over a minute, considering the possibility. "Multimage Protectorate of Sigma?"

"A bit catchy," Clarence said.

"Sigma Mercenaries," Clint tried. "Yeah, has a ring to it, not entirely sure what."

"Sigma Railguard, Sigma Defensive Forces, Sigma Industrial Services," Gerald tried a few more. "Nothing sounds out of place, technically. Like you said, it sounds neutral, so you will have to add the fang to it."

Clarence fell into a chuckling fit. "What's so funny, number-cruncher?"

"Not exactly the picturesque namesake, when you think about it. I mean, Sigma is about as neutral as you could think about, it even sounds bland and unimpressive. Vanilla name means we're going to have the uphill battle earning some reputation."

"Beats the hell out of being the laughingstock," Star Colonel Storme said with a sweet smile toward Clint.

"Killer bunnies," Clint said, pointing at her in an accusatory fashion. "You know that would make a creepy badass unit name."

"Virtue, verify Sigma is unused as a Protectorate or Mercenary name," Erich said to forestall the coming tension between Jamison and Storme.

"Confirmed, no such political entity name exists," Virtue said.

"Floor objections?" Hess asked. The group was silent for twenty, thirty seconds. "Looks like we have a winner. Protectorate of Sigma it is. Virtue, go ahead and apply new naming convention to the sub-units," Erich said.

"So, now that we have the top level setup done, what's the position titles?" Clarence asked.

"We'll set callsigns on the top level positions. I'll go as Sigma One. Clint, Sigma Two. Clarence, Sigma Three. Victoria, Sigma Four. As we deploy further command positions, we'll assign other callsigns," Hess delineated for the group.

"Guess that works," Lightbringer said. "I'll finalize the paperwork and have everything submitted with a fast-track flag."

"Setup process is done," Clarence said with a sigh.

"Now the real fun begins," Erich said. "We just built ourselves a career cleaning up some of the nastiest scum in Existence. Now we get to do the scrubbing."

"We gonna need some badass scrub brushes for this mess, boss," Clint said.

Hess glanced at Jeff Evans. "I think I already have a few new scrub brushes in mind."

-x-x-x-

(20 March, Magi Year 14408 / Year SL 8838, 2100 Hours Local time)
(Parade Grounds, Base Boarhound, Terra 232)
(Day 3 of campaign)

"Guess this is it for my involvement… for now, I daresay," Gerald Lightbringer said. "Can't wait to see the total butthurt of the larger merc units once word gets out of how you are 'cheating' the mercenary network."

"I expect there will be a lot of hand-wringing and howling at the moon on such subjects," Hess said with a smile. "Still, I'm just doing as I have been commissioned…"

"Ah, speaking thereof," Nereus said as he joined the Legion Commander and the Militiaman. "These documents are relevant to your pursuits," he handed over two envelopes to Sigma One.

"Commissioning Document, Bill of Fees, and Disposition of Salvage and Supplies, Mercenary Contract E-1817," Hess read off the front of the white 8x14 envelope. "Contract to Protectorate of Sigma, from Master Executor Eric Atrebas, for the clearing and demolition of the Interdimensional Jumper Trains."

"This one is for the elimination of the Slavers Guild," Clarence said, looking at the second portfolio. "Looks like we're officially under commission now."

"I'll have to review those docs before we begin, but I want to plan on beginning the process on the captured train tomorrow — we start with the engines, get them out and get them on cradles for transport," Hess said.

"I figured you'd say that," Clarence said with a smile. "I'll have Clint provide two Militia units to the disassembly effort. I think you'll need to finish up the legal stuff, as well as get some material and equipment purchases done."

"Yeah, big one right now is getting our hands on some wheel loaders with trenching blades — we'll need them for running new power cable for the Jump Engines," Erich mused. "Clint, you'll need to — what the fuck are you doing, scrawny one?" Hess asked as Clint was trying to hang upside-down and look under the shoulder plate of one of the Magi Armored Infantrymen.

"Dude, have you checked this armor unit out?" Clint asked while still inspecting the shoulder plate underside. "This stuff looks like it's heavy enough to take direct fire from a tank's gun and be survivable."

"It is," Legion Commander Lightbringer acknowledged. "Without the shield, the latest armor systems can withstand repeated bursts of 120mm Autocannon. Add in the shield, and you'd have to chew through a full ton of 140mm or 150mm autocannon ammo to drop the trooper."

"Ouch," Hess groused. He was studying in the morning and evening on the extant battlefield technologies of the Star Empires, and one of the first things he had looked up was tank guns (Autocannons). If Victoria had been truthful in accusing Hess of being Technosexual, she would certainly have accused him of being Hoplophallic after reading up on some of the common Mobile Army weapons of the day, and for good cause.

"Clint, stop harassing the poor trooper," Clarence groused.

"Agreed," Erich said. "We'll work out an arrangement for preparing Infantry Armor at a later time, if the Magi will grant an export license for it."

"Already have it," Lightbringer said. "One of the first agreements you signed was an authorization to import any weapons systems, mobile army units, ships, or aircraft available to the Touman, excepting Nuclear or Antimatter weapon systems."

"Oh, I thought that only applied to ScrapNet purchases," Hess answered.

"Hell no, big guy, that applies to any contractor or manufacturer in the Empire. There is nothing stopping you from dialing up Lunar Technical and ordering a wing of Fireball Aerofighters right now." Gerald paused to consider something, then shook his head. "Neg, scratch that. Tomorrow at 0001 hours, it is legal. The Protectorate status takes full hold, along with all agreements, as of midnight plus one minute."

Hess looked to Clarence. "Don't get any bright ideas, Clarence. We are going to purchase the heavy artillery sparingly for now. Small arms and support weapons are another story, though. I think I'm going to start my day off reviewing small arms. Contrary to Clint's desires, the duty weapons for the Mercs are unlikely to be the Kalash series. For the Militia, I might consider the 74-series, but I'm probably going to standardize across the board, and likely to standardize on a STANAG solution."

"I hope you're not planning to do an M16 or M4," Clint half-shouted from the far side of the trooper he was inspecting.

"What's wrong with the M4?" Lightbringer asked. "I love the M4A4 for dealing with point unarmored targets in close or medium combat. Hellishly effective when used with the Infantry Armor auto-stabilized aiming systems. Throw a short-barrel Saiga 12 underneath with explosive shells, and you can take care of any pesky Level IV, Dragon Scale, or Ceramex armored troopers. If it's wearing heavier armor, use an anti-armor weapon like a pulse rifle or Infantry Support Laser."

"Why would you not want a Kalash? Ammo's everywhere, weapons are rugged as fuck, and both the 7.62x39 and the 5.45x39 are considered ballistically more effective than the 5.56x45," Clint argued.

"Simple. If we take a contract with a NATO outfit, would you want to be swinging AKs in the vicinity of troops who have been trained to fire on that sound?"

Clint peeked out from behind the trooper's shield. "Good point, boss, didn't think about that."

"I'll give the AK series rifle credit where due, but the Magi have been using the 5.56 weapon systems for over an eon for light target interdiction. If it sucked as much as an AK operator thinks it does, why does the biggest Star Empire of all issue them routinely?" Erich sealed his argument.

"Okay, okay, it rubs me the wrong way, but I think I'll bite my tongue on this one," Clint admitted.

"FN SCAR," Hess said simply.

"You shitting me?"

"Saw a bulk shipment of them on ScrapNet, 27,000 units, 200 c-bills a piece. I'm kinda thinking Remington ACR, though, we'll have to review both."

Clint ducked back behind the trooper's shield, then came out again. "What time are you planning on doing these tests?"

Hess looked to the Legion Commander. "See, sir, this is what conversations with this ack-operator usually do. They start on one subject, meander to the next, take a sharp turn left, head nose-first for the gutter, make a big mess on impact, somehow keep rolling into the minefield next door, and onward into the sunset."

Gerald chuckled with a grin. "I've known more than a few people over the years with the same mindset, and I noticed you share the same talent."

"Guilty as charged," Erich readily admitted.

"You've got a solid crew here, big guy," Lightbringer said. "Technically untrained, but hearts and minds in the right places. With the support, supply, and oplan you have, I'm sure you shall get the necessary results."

"Here's to hoping it goes as planned," Hess admitted.

"Ah, that reminds me," Gerald reached into a cargo pocket on his pants, and came out with a bottle of vodka. "This one is from the Empress. Her offer to you: on the completion of your first contract, a celebratory shot for the troopers involved and yourself."

"Much obliged to the Empress for the consideration," Hess said. "I have a feeling that, with the rapid-fire nature of the contracts, we will have a lot of drinks to raise."

"You make it to a thousand contracts, I'll buy the drinks," Gerald said. He offered his hand for a shake. "Good luck, Hess. I'll be keeping an eye on the news wires for your noise."

Hess took the hand for a good shake. "I'll try to fly low and slow for as long as possible, but eventually someone will put the noise to a location."

"Ghosts, Armored Commandos, we're out of here!" Gerald said. "Star Colonel Storme, It's on you to keep the interest of the Empire in proper place here. Good luck; as soon as they have the Jump Engines active, have them grab your Gundam and Omnimech for use here, they have hangar space aplenty available."

"Will do, Legion Commander. Give my regards to the front office pukes, they completely misread this one," she said after she came to attention.

"Gate to Commando Administration Building," Gerald pointed the flat of his hand toward an open area of the parade grounds, then waved the Armored Infantry through before himself.

-x-x-x-

(20 March, Magi Year 14408 / Year SL 8838, 2130 Hours Local time)
(Hess' Quarters, Administration Building 4th Floor, Base Boarhound, Terra 232)
(Day 3 of campaign)

Hess thumbed his way into the door at his quarters, took two paces inside, and stopped. He realized after the fact that Toni was not in her bed, and he had walked past someone with not even realizing the person were there. After a moment of considering it, the answer to 'who' it was was fairly obvious to Hess, given her breathing pattern.

"There are only two types of people that actively wait for me. Those who are actively waiting for me to fix something, and those who are pissed off enough at me to try to force the issue. At a guess, you don't have any broken equipment for me to work on."

"You're right, which means this is about a beef," Toni answered with frustration in voice. "Why did you not wake me up after you had finished with the legal wrangling? I wanted to be in on the namesake decision process! Much less be there to see the Legion Commander off."

"It was his suggestion to leave the three of you as you were," Erich pointed out fairly. "And, truth be told, I know well that we are headed for many sleepless nights in the future; you can rack up the hours on those days."

Does he know about my — no way, he can't know my maybe-maybe-not-feelings on this subject, Toni thought but did not say. She decided a test was in order. "You know something that I might want to know, big guy?" she asked in a slightly more demure fashion.

"Yeah, I know that now we have gone official, we will be ass deep in reprisals and threats," Hess said, with answer was both expected and disappointing to Toni. "And I have personnel distribution handled at the top level, except you," the big guy continued as he walked into the room and to the gear racks in the northwest corner. Once there, he began the process of disassembling the harness and pistol belt he had worn pretty much continually since arrival on planet, except for morning showers.

"Except me?" Toni asked.

"Yeah, I have official positions for everyone except you," Erich said after he hung up the H harness on the wall. "Funny, I've come to rely on this gear set, but now that I command a military in theory if not in actuality, I need to assemble a new and slightly more standardized kit."

Toni disregarded his tangential thought. "What about Jeff and Cynthia?"

"How effective are you at holding information close?" Sigma One asked the semi-stealthy Phoenix standing behind himself.

"Somewhat, if it is worth keeping concealed," she answered truthfully.

"Well, I overheard Jeff and Nereus yesterday, discussing if it would be possible for him to acquire a last few hours of helicopter training to complete his flight certification. If he's that close, he has a general idea how to run a whirly, and one of the things we need is active helos. We need transport, we need mobility, and we need a good, destructive attack helo or several. I was going to ask him tomorrow about putting that talent to use."

"That's… wow. Do you know what bird you are going to use?" Toni asked, now interested in where this was going.

"Yeah, the Apache IIM R3, which just went into production about four years ago. It's the nastier great-granddaughter of the Apache from my homeland, just with a fusion engine, ER Medium Lasers, electromagnetic machine cannons, and about 12 tons of available payload instead of the 2 tons on the original," Hess said as he approached his bed and sat down on it. "Opinion?"

"Everything I heard about it before I ventured onto the train said it was rock solid. Put two wings of those in the skies, you've got some serious pain to dispense," Toni said as she grabbed a chair from the table and sat down backwards in front of Erich. She figured, if she was going to get any kind of reaction out of him, being a bit direct and forward would be the way to go.

"How long were you on the train?" Hess asked with some gravity to voice. Erich definitely noticed her rather forward posture, but said nothing about it out of latent sense of chivalry.

"Six months, give or take," she answered. "It got disorienting after a while, hard to tell time accurately."

"Okay, that gives me two options for you, then," Hess said. "One, you can head up the unit to clear the Trains. You command the effort, you command the troops, you get the people out so Victoria can get them home or get them settled. Follow?" he asked.

"I hear you, and that's a hard offer to refuse. I wasn't violated when I was on the Trains, I always stayed a step ahead of the Slavers or could kill them, but I've been in a sleeper car where that was happening down the hall. That's something you never forget, especially when you're not in a position to stop it. Still, what's your second option?"

Hess sighed, and Toni could tell he was hesitant to ask the next. "I need a security detail for when the shit hits the fan, but I also need an admin assistant, someone to back-check my work, and someone to lean on or vent on when needed." He sighed again. "In my prior job, I was that guy that the rest of the team could lean on, call on for the unusual stuff, back-check the others. I know, with this position, I will need the assistance."

"You've got it," Toni said in a rush.

"That fast?" Erich asked.

"I discussed this with Victoria earlier today. She agreed that I would be a good candidate for security, but she did point out I need a lot more work in firearms skills."

Hess chuckled. "You have the basics. Drill will cover the rest."

"And, one thing, sir," Toni prompted him.

"Listening," Hess said.

"I'm going to put together a security team for you. It will be unconventional. It will be commented on, in more ways than one. Things may get interesting for you, at more than one level."

Hess could easily see through what she was intending. "You're going to prep an all-star team of nonhumans, probably with various magic talents, as something of a warning to the primarily-human mafiosi and racist groups that the positions of egalitarianism are not a joke."

Toni deflated after the answer sunk in. "How did you see — oh, yeah, analyst."

"I was going to assemble several units around the clear non-humans in the ranks, you know, the Dragons, the Phoenix, a couple others, but with a security detail starting out like this, I think I may have to hold off to form up a full unit," Erich explained nonchalantly.

Toni squirmed at the thought. She was born Magi, which meant she was protected by a society that was truly post-racial on the nonhuman issue, but she wasn't ignorant to the problems in the other Star Empires. And now, she served a guy that wanted to prevent those problems just the same.

"You can relax a bit, Toni. I had a bit of a suspicion on your hair color that you were some manner of undeclared nonhuman. After some research this morning, typing you as a Celestial Phoenix was not too difficult," Erich admitted.

"Do you care?" Toni blurted out before she could suppress the question in her mind.

"Yes, actually, I do care. I do care that someone who has plenty of historical cause to fear genocide is still willing to defend me. That tells me you're either crazy, or you have some manner of emotional attachment to this plan," Sigma One said.

Toni suppressed a giggle at his analysis, mainly because she had been thoroughly read by the boss. "What brings you to those conclusions?" she asked with another giggle.

"MICE," Hess said. "The four primary motivators: Money, Ideology, Conscience, Emotion. Money is out; you don't strike me as the Material Girl type. Ideology is possible, if you're aiming to build more street cred for the non-humans. Conscience is possible, you just admitted you would take a stab at clearing the trains, and that is a conscience effort. Emotion is possible, but only if you qualify as high-functioning crazy and are trying to use the Protectorate as a bludgeon for some purpose."

"Not exactly what I would have figured you meant for emotion," Toni said.

"Well, the full acronym I use is MICES, Money, Ideology, Conscience, Emotion, Sex. I automatically deprecated the last of those options; in this building, I rank in the bottom four in physical appearance and attractiveness. Figured you'd take a swing at Clint long before me."

Holy shit, this guy has a really low opinion of himself, Toni thought behind a frown. "Yeah, I'd take a swing at Clint with a baseball bat before I slept with him," Toni groused to cover for her scowl. "Don't sell yourself short, sir. This is a wide-open landscape," she said.

Hess sighed again. "And that's part of what I'm afraid of. More than one ruler in the old histories of my world went down the drain in the arms of the wrong person. Let's just say I'd like to be real cautious about the issue before I jump into it."

So I'm not completely sunk by his near-zero confidence yet, Toni thought passively. "Well, you'll be here a long time, and there's plenty of options. I'd recommend putting some analysis to it, there's an answer out there somewhere," Toni said, trying to lead him toward making the leap of faith.

Hess raised an eyebrow at her comment. "How did we go from security arrangements to dating advice?" he asked after a moment.

"It's a talent, conversations follow their own road," Toni said with a smile.

"No argument from me," Erich agreed, given he had just gone through the same wordplay with the Legion Commander. "I accept your offer to form up a security detail, with you as the unit lead." Sigma One looked up toward the ceiling and the intercom speaker therein. "Virtue, please inform Victoria tomorrow morning that Toni will be heading up the selection detail for my security unit."

"Roger that, sir," Virtue answered. "If barracks talks are to be heeded, Toni will be busy most of the day tomorrow vetting candidates."

"Excellent," Toni said. "Guess I'd better get back to sleep."

"Tomorrow morning, 0630, meet me down in the shooting range for some intermediate rifle and pistol training. Bring your M4, I'll have munitions available." Hess again looked up to the speakers. "Virtue, can you fast-track a Storage Interface for the shooting range?"

"Already planned, will move the priority up. Theoretically I can have the third-shift maintenance group put it in by 0700," the AI announced.

"Good, since I intend to start reviewing assault rifles tomorrow, that will help." Hess looked back down from the ceiling to Toni. "Sleep fast, milady of the skies. Tomorrow will be a busy day."

---

Author's Chapter Afterword:

This is where the things get moving in the necessary directions.

First, you'll notice that two specialists with rather interesting attitudes have been added to the ranks. Luna Fallsorth, Motive Systems Engineer for a rail company on a Magi backwater planet, a former biker with an engineering background, a ZZ-Top beard, and a foul attitude towards dunderheaded management. He is going to find out fairly quickly in the next chapter that when he left 'Dumbfuckistan Rail Freight', that was the end of his management woes. Now, as to whether or not he finds a proper girlfriend in the new confines, that's another story entirely. Luna had two prior engagements, both of which fell apart before the wedding.

Mosley Goodwin, former Jump Engine Technician Journeyman, joined up to help avenge his fallen comrades and take the trains out of commission permanently. At the opposite end of the spectrum from Luna, Mosley is a family man, decent (and somewhat adventurous) wife, three kids (two sons and a daughter), responsible, knowledgeable, calm, and willing to silently go the extra mile to get a job done. More is the better, as the Sigma battleplan requires the extra mile and voiding warranties to achieve the proper ends. And who knows, maybe the rest of the Goodwin family will make some noise on their own?

Second, with the conclusion of the negotiations, the game begins for Sigma in its entirety. Now that the protections are in place and the Protectorate is established, it is theoretically safe for the Protectorate to start the systematic scrapping of the Jumper Trains, theoretically safe for them to begin mercenary operations, and theoretically safe for them to expand throughout Terra 232. Note the copious use of the word 'theoretically' in that prior description. While the Protectorate status is engineered to prevent any kind of high-level reprisal, in actuality the Protection is considered 'paper' protection and an entity that is willing to take the hit and sacrifice assets could still flatten Sigma. That said, the protection of the Magi is the paper side, the protection from the Executors is the real-world entity — a force that thinks they could take the hit and just steamroll Sigma might quickly find themselves on the wrong side of the battlefield from beings they cannot do battle with under any expectation of survival.

And then there is the whole security detail thing for the Militiamen. I won't go through anything pertaining to that in depth, mainly because it will all be spelled out to a significant degree in coming chapters and side stories, but things will get very unusual there. You can probably guess the direction it may be headed by undertones in the convo, and a lot of it gets spelled out in Chap 5, but suffice it to say that the whole story get a shit-ton more convoluted than where it simply appears to be headed.

Be on the lookout for the first side-story of the series to drop soon as well. It will cover some of the armaments and training aspects of the coming series, setting the tone for how Sigma begins to earn its reputation.

Other than that, not much else to say today. NEXT UP: Now that the preparation is concluded, time for business to get going. And, in the midst of it all, the seeds of coming conflict shall be sown...

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Review Replies: 5 Reviews for Chapter 3! Good to see this story is gaining traction!

Ragnar28190: Much obliged for the review, and also for the recommendation to start posting to Spacebattles. I get that recommendation off and on. Thanks!

HolyDragoon: NP on login, sj1t happens and all that.

Not sure if I ever made a race of unicorns canon to any part of my story. Will need to review notes, verify if I did? I've probably forgotten more stuff writing this out than I can admit to remembering.

The issue with the Slavers is an interesting one. Once commissioned and Apprenticed, the Slavers are very decentralized. Theoretically, Hess could go quite a while killing or capturing Slavers and nobody would be the wiser, so…

The M4 Sherman (AKA the Ronson, which was a type of use-anywhere lighter that you 'strike once and it lights up') was a wrongheaded approach to armor tactics and we deliberately did better in subsequent designs. The Abrams may not be the best on the battlefield (arguably — the leaderboard is between the Brits, Americans, Germans, and French, with the margin coming down to whose crew is better), but it is an order of magnitude above and beyond the east-bloc competition right now, so the ghost of the M4 is dead and gone. Americans fight smarter now, and you see echoes of that philosophy in this story.

Vietnam was a bollocks job, and not for a military reason. Knives91 pointed it out: Politics is the deadliest of battlefields. I read somewhere that after the war was over, General Westmoreland and General Minh got together and compared their maps. After all the analysis was hashed out, the conclusion was that the North Vietnamese were within 6 months of folding, if the US had not gone pussy. Vietnam was the picture-perfect example of politicians failing to fight a war properly, and the ISIS conflict is rapidly devolving into the same class of clusterfuck. Remember, even after we withdrew from South Vietnam, it still took the NVA over a year to get their shit going and actually finish the campaign. That alone is good evidence that we had them hosed but failed to deliver the killing blow.

By nature, Common Sense cannot be a government policy. Common Sense does not consolidate power, thereby it is considered bad government action. On the other hand, Sigma is more of a military formation commanded by problem-solvers, so common sense and explosive maintenance are considered perfectly reasonable solutions.

KPhoenix: Vash's actions are not exactly uncommon — lots of people have complaints, they also don't have lots of solutions. Still, given his complaints, he'll jump at an option to save lives before things have to get destructive.

The responsibilities shift bit by bit, but for now the positions are solid. Hess has overall command, Clint has military subcommand, Clarence controls the business ops, and Victoria manages the personnel. The real shake comes down to the next level of command, and how they train up. Decisions made now will change fates in the coming times.

As to how far the speech was broadcast, it was heard both in the Train and throughout the base, so everyone got a good earful, and anyone in the case of those nearby monitors, they got a good view as well. Additionally, since it is archived and public, it will be played back off and on for explanation and motivation in the future.

The 1930s stuff was a bit of an interesting thing to do after the fact. I didn't really have a plan for the scene to begin with, it was just something I threw in willy-nilly, but ex post facto I can see it going somewhere. As to 'locking that info down', not at this point. What I wrote was just the headlines. There is supposedly thirty minutes of interview to go in with it between the headlines.

Your self-answer is very much accurate. More to the point, Hess did not try to engage them since he knew by appearance he looked like something worse than the Slavers, and he deliberately did not want to draw their ire in close quarters. Nothing can ruin a gunslinger's day faster than being caught in a position where a blade-wielder can outflank you.

On the parts of Magi law that Hess dislikes, mainly the Trial by Combat structure, but the bulk of his objection was premature. Magi law, or what is now hybridized into Sigma law, is a lot more cut-and-dried than the USC and CFR..

Good to see you are liking the OCs, and there will be more, and more diverse ones. I am constantly updating and improving my random-generation systems, so expect constantly shifting results!

Knives91: Have not done Destiny yet, so that status is still up in the air. Borderlands is definitely possible, though.

As I said in review reply, a variation or three of that scene will show up later :) And I figured there was no alcohol or hallucinogens involved, I was considering something similar and my last drink was before New Years.

Winblades: I am trying to keep this ship a lot tighter, a lot more in control. Thanks!

As always, much thanks for the reviews! The feedback is motivation to continue the writing!

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The Gripe Sheet:

No gripes. Much obliged to Sieben Nightwing, Takeshi Yamato, One Village Idiot, and Necroblade for keeping the writing straight!

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Footnotes:

No footnotes for this chapter.

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Included Works:

—Real Life Armaments — too many to name, that is most of the arsenal shown.
—Real Life Combat Gear — the vests and gear carried by the Militia troops are easily constructible from stuff you can buy on Amazon or Cheaper Than Dirt. No, Seriously, Look it up. Do a search for "UTG Modular 10-Piece Complete Kit", and you have a good look at a starter kit for any serious gearhound.
—Real Life Concepts
—Real Life Time Period: 1930s New York City (Shown in Chapter 2, referenced here in newspaper headlines)

—Real Life Mythology: The Phoenix race of beings are derived from the mythological Phoenix (Egyptian) and Thunder Bird (Native American). That said, I have made some serious modifications to the whole principle that will be revealed in coming chapters.

—Personal Works: The Star Empires are mentioned briefly here. Additionally, the Magi Empire is named specifically.
—Personal Works: The Star League is a derivation of the Star League from Battletech, but founded by Queen Sora Serenity (Executor-Queen Sora Takenouchi).
—Personal Works: The Executors are specialized Mages who have transcended a minimum of twice (Gods and Goddesses are a minimum Transcendance of once) and are specially commissioned to defend life and honor amongst the Star League territories or member states.
—Personal Works: The 10mm Kurz cartridge is a shortened / lower velocity / lower weight version of the 10mm BG round, developed by the Magi for 'crowd pleasing' against large masses of Negaverse troops, most of which were unarmored during the Star Empire Wars. It quickly became a favored heavy machine gun round for multiple purposes after the fact. (Shown in Chapter 1)
—Personal Works: Gerald Lightbringer is most famous for his participation in my Jokers Wild series, but his history is far stranger than either story properly shows.

—Anime General: the oddball hair colors, especially endemic to nonhumans.
—Anime General and D&D: the nonspecific concept of Elves, Nymphs, and Sylphs.
—Anime Trigun: Vash The Stampede, Millie Thompson, and Meryl Strife took the wrong train, ended up hanging out, and now are tagging along with the Militiamen.

—Game: Battletech: You are starting to see some serious discussion of Battletech units and force concepts in this chapter. They will become more prevalent as the story marches on.
—Game: Dungeons and Dragons (First Edition): A lot of the spellcraft will be drawn from D&D as well as other sources to be named.
—Game: Dungeons and Dragons (First Edition): The concept of the Dragons of many colors is drawn from the D&D First Edition Monster Manual. Some mods were made (the Platinum dragon is not unique, and the Eternal Dragon is a wholly new class).
—Game: Final Fantasy IX: The player cast of the game (Zidane, Dagger, Steiner, Freya, Vivi, Eiko, Red, and Quina) are residing in one of the dining cars, but do not have a role as of yet. That will change in a few chapters.
—Game: Infantry Online (Sony Online Entertainment): The CAW from the early section, and named in the stinger, is a different-manufacturer version of the Kuchler A6 CAW. (Shown in Chapter 1)