Chapter 10
By Cliff
Beta and Clean up By: not done
Reviewed by Hotpoint.
The next morning 0730. 26 Nov 3046
Ltzehoe system
The Trojan's captain had made sure that his crew was up early. They had started pulling the allotted crates out of the cargo hold and moving them outside. They were careful to put as many of the crates as they could in the shade of the dropship. When Robert finely made it to the bridge, after getting an update from these other commanders? He took a seat and started filling out his reports, that he had to keep on the mission. He had just finished one of the most difficult ones when he was alerted to come to the main screen.
He could see a mostly wheeled based convoy about to enter the Space Port from his very high vantage point at the top of the dropship. He had just enough time to make it out of the bottom cargo door of the dropship, when the first of the three large flatbed cargo trucks, and a set of three 4 door transports had come around the last corner. Robert tapped the duty door guard and gave her a slight nod, to defuse the tensions Robert could see building up on the woman's face.
A ComStar Van had joined the little convoy, that Robert had not seen coming towards them from the Bridge. The group pulled up to the Engine fire safety line, that had been marked on the ground. The White Rabbit's crew had laid out the "safety line" the night before. It was a legal notice to not cross that line, or you were about to put your life at risk. It did not take long after the whole convoy had come to a stop on or very near the line. Then people started exiting the different stopped transports in a wave of moving arms and legs. It took longer for some of them to be ready to start doing business than others, after they first exited the different transports. Robert, watching from the hatch, could tell that this was a new operation for them. It just did not have the practiced look to his trained eyes.
Duke Terry was not the first person out the door of one of the four door sedans. That award went to the ComStar Demi-Precentor. Robert made a note to himself, to try to take care of him first. That would leave more time to talk to the Duke without a suspected spy in their mist for any length of time. It was strange. Robert realized that he was looking forward to spending some more time with her. He also was looking forward to the art of making a deal. He was about to embark on one on a scale that was his top ten over the last few years. He had always thought that maybe he had a bit of Sea Fox in his blood. He straightened his tunic and walked out and into the sun.
Robert put on his half smile, and this time he did not hold out his hand to the other man. "Demi-Precentor! So, good to see you this morning. I have all six of the computer systems you wanted out for your final inspection. All you need to do is plug them in, and then have one of your people double check to make sure they are what you wanted. If they are? You may load them up. As agreed, each one is 5,000 C-Bills, in cash."
Robert was not surprised, when the ComStar man did not offer to shake hands on the deal. The only hand movement he gave during the conversation. It was only as he waved to two Adepts standing behind him to start the required testing of the computers. "Emma" would be collecting the money, as they loaded the computer systems that had passed the final inspection into their van. This would give time for Robert to talk with the female Duke and her people while the ComStar people were preoccupied. After all, they had found out that she was not married or legally partnered over dinner. It was with this final thought that he moved closer to the woman.
"Duke Terry. It is good to see you this fine early morning." Robert pitched his voice lower for the next part, so the ComStar people would not hear him. He and "Emma" had picked up that the planetary leader was not that thrilled with the head of the local ComStar office.
"It is too bad that he had to be early, also." Robert said, as he used his head to point in the direction of the ComStar Van that was parked not too far away. He was digging for a confirmation or for something that he could use, a little further down the road.
"Robert, please call me Terry. I think we can use our first names, don't you? Besides this is not state business after all."
She said with a sly grin, maintaining eye contact with the mission leader the entire time. She knew that rumors would get around, that she had already slept with the tall Merchant Captain. She was okay with that, and well you never know. Dropship's Captains were supposed to have a woman in every drop port. So, the same must be true of jumpship commanders. If he did not understand that every day that she breathed had her working on "state" business, then maybe he was not as smart as she thought he might be.
"I can live with that, Terry." Robert said with an answering sly grin, that reached his eyes. "Why don't we let your team get to work, and we can chat a little deeper in the shade of the ship." Robert pointed to the five large crates with the tops already open.
As Emma had hoped, the Demi-Precentor took all six computer systems, and one of his Adepts had passed Emma a thick package. It was filled with the 30,000 C-Bills that was required. The amount was made up of only large notes inside the thin walled package. Emma checked each 500 c-bill note before leaving the ComStar van side. "Emma" walked over where her Captain and the leader of this planet's government were talking off to one side. Both of them were in the shade provided by the dropship. Emma knew that she would get a copy of what was being said from the recording device that Robert had in his pocket, later, when they got back inside the dropship. First, she had to let her boss know that part of her job was completed. It was part of her cover and it would let her be closer to the mission commander.
"Sir, that Demi-Precentor is an ass. If I don't have to deal with him again? I will be a happy person." None of what she said, was a lie. She would have said this even if there had not been any issues with the ComStar part of the deals today.
"Emma, girl. I know what you mean. I cannot wait till they rotate that robed wacko off this mud ball. The first few HPG Managers were very easy to work with, and I wish one of them would come back." The venom in Terry's voice was caustic, even coming from Terry. Robert and "Emma" had seen it delivered a few times at dinner the night before. The planetary Duke gave her head a shake left and right, as if to cast out a bad memory.
One of Duke Terry's personnel walked over toward the group but was just hovering outside of hearing range of the three people. He wanted to talk to his boss, but he did not want to interrupt her at the same time. Finally, Terry relented and waved him over, and she had to fight to keep a flat expression on her face.
"What have you got, Steve?"
The nervous little man took the three long quick steps needed to reach his boss, before he started talking. "Ma'am, all the guns are Armstrong J11s. That is about all I can tell you about the make and model of the cannons. We have been through all of them. They all seem to be in anywhere between from good to excellent of condition or grade. They all also looked to have been completely stripped down and expertly cleaned in the recent past. They have the modified breach blocks, but they still will not fire the GM Whirlwind class ammunition. I think they will handle anything from 50 to 100mm with us not needing to modify the rounds before loading. The GM design uses 120mm shells that only they make"
The little man with shifty eyes looked to one side to see what the stranger's reactions to his statement might be. "This is as far as I can go, that is, without putting rounds down range with them or taking them apart in my shop." He looked hopefully at Captain Copeland. Steve was hoping, that maybe they might be able to test fire them one time. At least before they put money down for them. He had spent too much time out here not to think that anything that was too good to be true, most definitely was going to be too good to be true. He also did not want to be on the blame line, if they turned out to be junk.
The Duke saw the look, and she also could guess that there was no way would this commander let the weapons out of his sight. At least not without some gold in his fist first. "Well that is good news. If you would not mind, go and help them repack the cannons. It will give me a chance to talk to these good people about getting a few of them for us."
The smile from the Duke was enough to get the man to leave them alone, but he left happy at the thought that the best negotiator on the planet was on the job. Weapons of any kind, much less good working order mech scale weapons were hard to find this far off the shipping lanes. He also was happy that he had given his boss all the information he had.
"Now it's time to skin this cat," thought Terry and turned her smile to Robert. "Okay Robert. You said you had five of these cannons for sale. What are you looking to get out of these weapons?" She slowly folded her arms across her chest as she was talking. Now she was in her "pose".
"Okay Duke Terry, let's start this game rolling." Robert almost started rubbing his hands together, but that would give away too much. He put some steel in his soul, and just locked eyes with the woman. He did not even put his hands behind his back to keep them occupied.
"We are looking to get 150,000 C-bills, for each one of the cannons we have for sale."
"Come now, Robert! I thought we were friends? You know and I know. That new ones only cost 125,000. How about you take 85,000, each?" Duke Terry was still smiling and not offended by the first bid that Robert had opened this game with. This was all a negotiation. There would be a sale today, and both sides knew this. It was only a question of how much it was going to hurt, and how long it was going to take to close the deal.
Now Robert put his hands behind his back, but he still had a sly smile on his face. "Terry, you're a long way from a factory that can make these cannons new. And then you would have the cost of shipping them all the way out to you added in. That is only if they would sell them in the first place 125,000."
The Duke knew he had a very good point. She had to reach into her bag of information to counter his point. She kept stuff like that in her head, to swing any negotiations back to be in her favor whenever she needed it. From the information recovered from last night's dinner and then the need to go right out to send out an HPG message. She knew that Robert and his people had not been in contact with much that had been going on deeper in the Inner Sphere.
"You know? I heard that the Federated Commonwealth was able to put a class 5 system, which can shoot about twice as fast as a normal one, back into production. I think that was about six or seven years ago. What do you think that is going to do to the prices on what these older weapons will bring in on the secondary markets?"
Robert did not let his poker face slip. Well, he hoped he did not let it slip. This was news. This was VERY BIG news! No one back home had known, that a Star League era and style Ultra class cannon had been about to be put back into production. That was, if it was true. If it was it could change a lot of things, back in the nebula. He knew that there had been a few odd reports of "special" weapons that had been used by elite units back in the 3039 War. But all the reports he had read before coming out? Those reports had been marked down as propaganda. After all it was not like they had a spy in the FedCom military industrial complex, or in any of the other house militaries for that matter.
"Really? I had not heard anything about that." He made a tight-lipped face. "I will have to check into that, on our next stop. What do you know about them?" Robert let his eyebrows raise. This had the effect of relaxing him. He was showing some of the concern that he truly was feeling right at that moment.
Robert looked at Emma and she knew this information needed to be checked out. Even if it only turned out to be a wild rumor, or wishful thinking for someone trying to get a better deal on older tech weapons. The more information they had to start, the better. He had already been surprised by the response to the desk top computers. Robert knew he was on his back foot with this set of negotiations. He was too rusty, and Terry was too good not to know that he was on his back foot. Much to his surprise she kept talking.
"I started hearing about them about five years ago from some traders and ComStar chaps, after a few to many tallboy PPCs at the bar nearest the compound. It is supposed to be a direct copy of an old Star League design, but to tell you the truth. I have not seen one in person, yet. I do know that the ComStar people are worried about them, because it looks like it might match what they are fielding with some of their prime units. Now, from what I have heard, lately. The FedCom are supposed to have a few hundred units in service with their top of the line Mech RCTs, already. If that is true? Then the market for this older style of cannon? That will dry up very quickly, don't you think? How does 95,000 sound per weapon?"
Robert was losing this quick; he could feel it. And if what she said was true? Then the mark up for the hoped-for Cash Cow for this mission was in danger. Then Robert let a smile come to his face. He had an idea. "Even if it is true, Terry. How long will it take for them to get out here, on the other end of occupied space. I might be able to go as low as 115,000 each."
The Duke kept the same smile on her face. They were already at the price point, which she had set as her maximum price for the weapons. She knew that he had a point. But Terry had one more card to play, to see if she could get a better deal. She felt like there was still some meat on the bone of this deal. What was the worst thing that could happen? They would get the weapons at a price she was already okay with spending.
"How much barrel life is left on those things anyway? 100,000 and I will take all of them off of your hands."
Robert knew how old those cannons were. As a matter of fact, it was his opinion. That If someone wanted to shoot one, as some kind of a test before buying? He would have made sure that he was in a bunker very far away, before they pulled the trigger. But he could not say that. It would blow his cover story apart.
"Ugh… okay? I have no idea. As I already said. We found them in the Scout ship's cargo hold. I can live with that number. I will just have to deal with my partners, when I get back home."
Robert held out his hand and Terry took it in her long finger hand and pumped it up and down twice, before letting go of the other hand. The deal was done. Robert and Emma followed Terry to the trunk of her hover sedan, which was in front of the flat bed cargo trucks. When she opened it, she pulled out three thick plastic envelopes.
The first one was the thickest and had handwritten letters on the outside. It said 200,000 in neatly printed numbers. The two thinner ones each had 100,000 written in that same neat handwriting on one side. Robert passed the thicker one to Emma, to count, while he took the two thinner ones. Terry then opened a metal lock box, which was on the armored trunk floor. Inside the metal box? There were gold and silver colored bars stacked one on top of the other. This far away from the major or House center banks. Cash was king. But having a lot of it on hand, that was a different matter. It was not like the local government could get a loan from a bank branch.
These items were called trade bars. Each of the bars had a twelve-digit serial number and stamped with a maker's mark. Each one also was sealed in a clear, thick, and very hard plastic cover. It would help prevent tampering with them, by any unsavory person. This far out from normal civilization? Paper money tended to be used, less than other forms of physical wealth transfer. She counted out the bars of different sizes and colors. With the mild fluctuation on the price of the metal in the bars, she was handing out. The Duke overpaid by around two hundred C-Bills for all five of the cannons over the agreed to price.
When Emma received the last bar. Captain Copeland waved his hand and the old Powerloader's ICE rumbled to life in a small cloud of billowing black smoke. It slowly started its way down the loading ramp. With each step, it was belching more but less dark black clouds of smoke out of a pair of back mounted smokestacks. The power brokers moved out of the way, and let their people work. They had tons of cargo to be moved and in a very limited space, and sometimes stuff just happened. Anyone who had spent a few weeks at a drop port knew this.
Robert and Terry chatted while "Emma" made two trips into the dropship carrying the payments into and putting them in the safe that was built into the very bones of the Dropship. When she came back out the last time, after making sure the safe was locked and recovered by a concealing end table. She had three, half liter bottles of the local caffeinated and carbonated cold drinks.
Emma handed each of the senior people a drink, before she took a sip from hers. While they were taking the first sips. Jess's AKA "Emma" intel skills kicked in. "I hope we did not deplete your cash reserve with this deal, Madam Duke." Emma's training was kicking in hard, and off to data mining she went. The bad part? She did not even realize that she was doing it.
Terry took another sip of the offered drink. She took the time to read the label and let a little smile come to her face, before answering the question. "Oh no. Close, but not quite. The militia operations budget only had enough left in it, to pay for two cannons at that price. I am, personally, picking up one for a project that I'm working on. The rancher you were chatting up last night, Emma? He is picking up the fourth one. I have no idea what he plans on doing with it, and I don't care. The fifth one? He and I are splitting the price and we will put it up for sale on the open market." Terry pointed her opened bottle off into the direction of the HPG compound. "ComStar's Explore Command has been running Mercs out this way for a while now. We think that we can sell it, to one of them, at a nice profit. They are always looking for repair parts of all kinds. It they have the need bad enough, we will have something to sell."
She stopped talking for a second and takes a third sip of the cold drink. Then she started up talking again, now that she was not working. "We should be able to make not a bad profit on the cannon in a few months, but too bad about the computers. That jumped up Adept is such an ass. At least the militia will be happy with the two new cannons. Well, the newish weapons we got for them."
Robert and Emma/Jess shot each other a look, but it was Robert that broke the ice on a new subject. He was not going to beat around the bush. He was going to dive into the meat of the issues. "You don't care too much for what ComStar has been doing out this way over the last few years, do you?"
The look on her face said it all, so he continued, not needing to wait for a verbal confirmation of his question. "So? You wanted one of the computers, and he cut you out of any sales? Why did you need one of them?" Robert was giving the Duke a level look, but he made sure his face was as still as he could make it.
Terry looked at both strangers, and then thought what the hell. "It is for one of the Capital Investment items, that I have been trying to keep going. I have been doing them mostly out of my own pocket. I have been slowly acquiring the tools, and everything you would need, to set up a small auto-cannon ammunition factory for Class 5 weapons. The Class 5 autocannon is very popular in this part of space. It has a nice balance of range, stopping power, weapons weight., and you cannot beat the heat curve." She then gave a soft little shoulder shrug.
"A good computer system would help out, a lot, if it was powerful enough. I have already set up a small factory that makes Short Ranged rockets that fit any of the Holly made launch systems. We can make about a hundred rockets a month, but we can ramp that up to two hundred missiles a week. All we need is a few months warning. That is if someone needs more, than what we have on hand at the time they make a purchase. I prefer to keep a steady production rate, and keep people working, instead of feast or famine. We also have our own line of short ranged rockets. We call them dumb fire systems."
Terry saw the blank look on the off worlder faces. "They are missiles without any guidance packages mounted in the nose, but they can carry heavier warheads. You would be surprised, but we make a good deal of money selling them to different groups. Most of the mercenary units don't like them. But if that is all they can afford? They will buy them, some of the nearby poorer planets buy them for their militia units. We use them for marksmanship training. We are always looking to improve our high-end exports going out of our system. It just takes time, money and some hard to find items. Oh, and a reason for someone to send a jumpship out this way. "
Duke Terry was now looking down at the hard-baked ground at her feet and kept talking. "We have everything we need to get that damn auto cannon shell manufacturing line up and going. That includes the software. It all has been collecting dust for over eight months. Everything is setting in a small building near my home. All we need to get it going is a pretty powerful computer system, to help design the ammunition and then run two of the production machines."
Terry looked up and over to where the ComStar van was setting. She should have been shooting daggers out of her eyes. "I looked at that computer system you had on display, and the Bio's stats where great. One of those would have been great, for what I need. I think if I could get a few more of the computer-controlled production machines. It even could have handled them too, and that would have increased our total production. If I can make say a ton to a ton and a half of ammunition, to start with a month?"
Terry gave a very unladylike snort. "Even that jumped up Adept would have to buy ammunition from us, and I would make him pay in cash! They will go through a lot of ammo with the Rifleman and Clint that they have over there." She had a dreamy look in her eyes at the thought of getting money out of ComStar every time they went to the range. She knew that they would go through at least four tons of rounds, just going to a range one time.
Emma raised one eyebrow as she looked at Robert. This is where it came to a judgment call on a resupply run. This could be a new contact for "The Family", if Robert played it right. Robert did not have to look at "Emma" to know she was looking at him. He was thinking the same thing. This contact had way too many "up sides" to pass up. It had risks, but it also had a lot of rewards, to match those risks. Besides someone down the road might pull the plug on it, or they might agree and help it further along. It had not been the first time that a contact had been developed on a supply run. Most of the time they were only used for that one supply run, but other times. They had been run by one of the Family for some years afterword's.
"Terry, I might have a surprise for you. But you will have to keep it quiet? You will never be able to say, where you got it from. Can you do that for me? This is not a small risk, that I could be taking. So, please tell me the truth."
Terry looked at the Captain and smiled. She thought that he had been coy, with how he had phrased some of his words. "What do you have Robert? Is it an autographed image of Jerome Blake dancing in nothing but a pink tutu?"
Her tone was light, but the spark in her eyes was not coy at all. More like blazing with the gleam of hope. Hope was very hard to come by in this part of space. You could get only fleeting glimpses of it, before it was snatched away again. Having hope could be a great thing, and then it was equally as bad when you lost it.
Emma had been taking a drink from her drink bottle and choked or snorted as she heard what the other woman had just said. It was more like she did both things, at once. She sent a pair of caramel colored liquid rockets out of her nose. Of all the things, that might have been said. That was not even close to being on the list of expected comments to come out of anyone's mouth. Emma was really starting to like this woman. She also knew that this could be bad, if she turned out to be playing a game on them somehow.
Robert had a good laugh at both women, because Terry was looking at the antics of Emma with an odd smile on her face. "No nothing like that, Terry. But one of my old bosses has a copy of that in a safe back home." This drew a look from both Emma and Terry, and this added to his mirth. It had taken them a few seconds for them to realize that he was joking.
When they were ready? He lowered the boom. "Let's just say. That we found more than six of those computers. I was planning on taking one of them home with me, for a project a buddy of mine has wanted to try for some time. I had expected to sell each of those computers, for only about a thousand C-bills. I was thinking that since I did so well here with them, and you could use one. I will just help him buy a lower end model, when we get back home. Now, as a bonus you can use it to screw over a ComStar Adept with and ego problem." The only part of that story that was true, was that he had more computers and he wanted to get even with ComStar. But it did sound very good, and he had pulled it right out of his fourth point of contact.
Terry was confused, was he offering what she thought he might be offering her? She needed to clarify what was going on right now, or it could get ugly. Like a fully loaded passenger dropship landing without engines, ugly. "Robert, all cards on the table. What are you talking about? Please speak clearly and plainly. I don't think we have much room for a misunderstanding on something like this."
Robert gave Emma a short nod and she walked back towards the dropship, without saying another word. "Terry, what I am saying is. I will trade you a fully functional computer system, like what the Demi-Precentor got, but we will trade it to you. You will cover our food bill, any landing fees, which might be due. Then we will call it an even trade. The only catch is, you will never be able to tell anyone were you got it from or what you paid for it. I need you to understand. That I mean never tell anyone. I think that if a certain Adept, found out? He would seek out any way to get even with me, for being lied to. If I have the right read on that young man? He will want to get even with everyone involved in the deal. And I do not like the idea, that someone in ComStar is out to get me and my people. They have the largest jumpship fleet known in the universe, and very deep pockets."
Terry was stunned, so stunned that she was speechless. Nothing else was said, until Emma and another man set a certain type of box down at her feet. Terry thought, "I can do this!"
She quickly walked over to her hover sedan. She opened the rear door, and the crewman forced the system deep into the back seat. When Terry closed the door again, she quickly looked around the local area. "Well, that just barely fit. And thank god for tinted windows, and I had the top up. I will have to lock it up and not let my staff even look at it until the next dropship lands and lifts off again."
In only seconds the game changing computer system was out of sight from any on lookers, which might be around. The normally reserved woman hugged both Robert and Emma. While doing this PDA, she fought to keep the tears from coming out of her eyes. What sat in the back of the car, was the end of almost three long and painful years of work. Now it seemed that a very complex project, almost on the level of a pipe dream, would be complete. The SRM factory had been started and finished while the first project had languished. All for some fresh groceries to feed about a hundred people for a few weeks. Food was cheap on this planet, but not high-tech equipment. The three individuals stayed outside in the shade provided by the grounded Dropship, for another hour. They were just making small talk and getting a few more bits of information. It was all about her plans for improving the manufacturing and educational capabilities of her planet.
While they were still talking. A series of large trucks rolled up to the dropships to offer fresh, frozen, dried, and canned food stuffs for sale to restock the dropships and jumpships. In the end, enough food was loaded to feed all of the crews for a full ninety days. Terry had stayed around and was happily making suggestions and even helped with negotiating down the prices. She wanted her new friends to get the best deals and or the best cuts. She, in person, would collect the bills from the venders and Robert's crew would load the ship. Duke Terry had not planned on staying all day at the Space Port, but she did. Later that night. It would go down in her journal as one of the better days, which she has had in a while. Right up to the time that the White Rabbit started to close up her hatches to launch back into space.
28 Nov 3046
Ltzehoe system zenith jump point
The White Rabbit dock to the JumpShip on the number three docking collar of the Styx. There, all the crews from the JumpShip and dropships were waiting to help move the food stuffs. They worked quickly to fill up each of the other three ships food lockers with fresh food. While that was going on? Captain Copeland and Emma/Jess floated towards the bow of the large jumpship where the Bridge was located at.
Lt Vaun was waiting for them on the Bridge, when the pair arrived by floating into the command center. He made eye contact but waited until each had strapped into seats before starting his briefing to the mission commander. "Both jumpships are green across the boards, and able to jump at any time Captain. All dropships are docked and secured, but they would like a few more hours to trans-load the fresh provisions and store them properly before we do anything…. drastic. Communications reports that they were able to pick up and record all of the HPG transmissions from this star system since we have been here."
The XO had his stone face on for the next part. "They were able to decode the four messages "Emma" sent. We will be able to fake those four locations codes, which were used in her messages without any problems. We have two other messages, which we should be able to decode by tonight. There was one message that was sent about ten minutes after Emma sent hers, which stands out. We don't know who it was for, but it was coded four ways from hell. It was so encoded that it stood out. I have told them to wait till the other messages from Emma, were decoded. Then run the rest of them threw the crunching software and just let the computers chew on it, when it has the open cycles."
It was rare that a modern computer used its full computing power all of the time, and on JumpShips. It was rarer that computers were ever taken offline, and this only added to the available idle computer processing power. The decoding software would use those "down times" to work on very complex issues. This software had come off a SLDF Bugeye that had not made it all the way to New Circe.
Jules stopped talking and gave the pair of them an odd look, before continuing. "You and "Emma" have a message from a Duke Terry person. It was transmitted in the clear. She said to come back sometime soon. And she will cook you both a dinner, when you come back."
Jules made sure to make eye contact with both of them, before continuing. He had no idea what was going on, but he was worried that they had broken protocol somehow. "She also said that if you can find any JagerMech or Enforcer parts? She will pay top dollar for them. Sir. That is all I have." Jules was still strapped into the slippers, waiting for some information to explain what had gone on dirt side.
Robert matched the eye contact from his second in command, and he did not back down. "Jules, I think she will be a good contact for any of the Families that might be in the area. She is smart, and she seems to be looking out for her people and their future. She also does not like the way ComStar has tried to take over out here. She also told us about the way they have increased their influence in the Free World's League. She said that they have even had fingers deep into the Combine. One of those robed crazies, is now the Mark in charge of the whole Free Worlds League for God's sake. They also have raised an army called the Com Guard out of thin air, or so it seemed. During a war in 3039 between the Draconis Combine and the new Federated Commonwealth. Someone gave one side hundreds of old Star League combat mechs and tanks. There are a lot of fingers pointing to them, as being the salesmen. And those fingers are not just intelligence people, but also it was showing up in open source reporting. What do you think, Jess? We got all that data from her, or people around her. Oh, and by the way I think we can retire your Emma identity. It might keep ComStar guessing for a few more stops, but I do not think it is worth the effort to keep it going as long as we had planned. We still might need it on a few special occasions."
"Emma" was a cover name and person that had been used on every resupply mission for the last hundred years. It was a mix of Clan and old SLIC infiltration tech. The person running an Emma would have on a hair wig and a suit that added about 35kg to a person's body weight. The wig and special compartments in the suit would "drop" skin, hair and other DNA loaded samples into a given area. It would flood a good-sized room, that would act as cover for anyone that was around them with the loaded DNA. It was a DNA smoke screen. The hair and DNA packets had only come from families that could trace all of their relatives back to the people who were slaves or political prisoners recovered from the Draconis Combine. There was a good-sized store house of this material that was renewed and stored. An Emma suit was always worn when a member of the Clan needed to use a ComStar run HPG.
Jess aka "Emma" for this mission looked at both men and decided that it was her place to say something. "I think she could be put on the list, but I would not waiver the background checks and any required investigations. I agree with the Captain. She could be a big help, as a contact. I about fainted, when she said the FedCom might have a production line up and working making Star League grade Ultra Class weapons. Then when one of her militia wrench turners said they even have a type of Freezer heatsink in production. I about jumped out of my shoes, when I worked out that it's a first-generation double heat sink."
She let that part out, to get a rise out of the second in command of this supply run. She even drops the line with a straight face. She had not told Captain Copeland about her intent of dropping that bomb on the mission XO. It was already written into her reports, but no one at the jump point would have had the time to read them after the dropship was attached to the Styx.
"WHAT!"
Jules made a quick look around the Bridge, and little beads of sweat started to form on his forehead. Thankfully no one looked at him, but he knew that he was now the center of attention of the on-duty bridge crew. It was not good form to yell at your Captain. Plus, you really should not do that on his own bridge.
"Sorry Sir. But did you just say, one of the Houses militaries has recovered Ultra tech auto cannons?" The blood had left Jules face with the news of late Star League weapons technology being used again in the Inner Sphere.
Robert nodded to his second in command, to let him know that he did not take offence at the raised tone he had been subjected to. "We don't know if it's true are not. I have put it on the list of things to check out, when we get deeper into the Houses territory. We have reports of other third generation mech components being put back into production, and the information came from two different point sources."
Robert turned a little in his seat to look at who he was about to address. "Jess, I need you to decide. This way no one can say later, that I was thinking with the wrong head on this one. If we cannot get the same price or better, on the rest of the Armstrong designed cannons? Then I say we should bring them back here and sale them, to these people. We will have to dump all of the computers systems, before we come back this way. Or we will have to carry them home and bring them back, another time. Is this a sound game plan?" Robert stopped talking and both he and Jules were looking at the younger woman. There was a reason that the command effort was split between three different people. This was something that the old Star League had pioneered back before HPGs were even an idea.
Jess was quiet for a while, and then spoke just loud enough for the two commanders to hear her. She knew exactly why she was being asked this question, and it still did not make her feel any better about being put on the spot.
"Sir. I agree about the old cannons. I would also suggest that even if we could have one of the Ultras class cannons left? One that would pass for an Inner Sphere built one. I think Duke Terry would pay a fair price for it, and she would know that she owes us another large favor. If we could get some locally made examples of that type of ammunition for it? She might be able to reproduce it for sale, at a later date. That would upset the local ComStar representatives to no end, I think. I also agree about the computers, but before we sale anymore of them. We need to check out the stats of local machines that are on the open market, before we set a price at our next stop. This would allow us to know what a fair price might be. I know that it was impossible to do it here, but in the long run. It would benefit us. If we are selling them to low, we will draw some attention. And as far as I know, one of our plans put out before our leaving, was that we were coming back this way. I do not see why someone in command cannot bump it to the primary plan. I think it would be worth our time to come back to his star system, at least one more time.
Robert did a little nod of the head. You did not make a lot of sudden movements in zero g. "Then it settled. Comms. Please send a message to the local Traffic Control. The following message to Duke Terry. We hope to come back this way, in the near future. We are both looking forward to dinner. Sign it in my name please."
Robert turned to look at his XO. "I think it's time to leave this system. Navigation. Check with our little friend, make sure they have the next jump coordinates. If they are ready, we jump in three hours. Ladies and Gentlemen. We are twenty-four light years to Dunianshire, let's be about it. We are sticking to Plan Beta 4, for now."
And so, it was on the 28 of Nov 3046. The two ships jumped from the Ltzehoe system, and right into an unnamed planet less star. This put them with in ten light years of the next stop, of the resupply run. With both ships safe and secured from the jump. The post jump checks were started, and the jump sails were let out. Soon they would start the slow process to recharge the jump drives, for their next jump across the stars. They could have taken a straight shot to the next system. This short jump was meant to buy time.
It was not possible for the contact to have been able to reply to the message, which was sent from the ComStar controlled HPG by "Emma". So, a time was given for them to expect a second contact. It would not stay a secret long, about where they had jumped to, but the longer it took the better. Robert would not know if his contact was there. At least not until he jumped into the next system, in about a week or so. Dealing with the Lost Families was not the easiest, and they were known to move, die, or otherwise just fall off the map.
It was going to be a very stressful week for the command crew. They were not used to waiting so long between jumps, which the "normal" jump drives required. Robert used the time to work out his next move, if this contact was not there. He even started on the finishing touches on the contact plans if even the second of his planned contacts was missing. He remembers his father telling him once while he was working on those plans. It was that his father had not been able to make contact with a member of the "Family" until they were down to the fifth line on a mission.
Notes:
Why did I choose Ltehoe? When I started writing this about 2012. I wanted something that was off the map. The first maps I found made it look like this system was just under 60ly from a major planet and not under anyone's control. It was only later, 2018 (?), that I found out that it was a lot shorter distance to a major system. I was lazy and I did not want to change the planet's name. So, I just rewrote a little bit.
Buying/Selling mech weapons in the Periphery. I was reviewing Mercenary 3055. It had all of those rules about buying mech, dropships and jumpships. I just wanted to write about what it might be like to go shopping and selling out there on the edge.
Emma. How do you keep ComStar/ROM not knowing who you are? Crime drama is not my thing and it just kind of sounded cool. I decided I would take it out for a drive for a few chapters.