Copeland Supply, Salvage, and Resale

by cliff.west

This is a spinoff story. It takes place after "But a somehow a most melancholy" and" Hunted Tribes". Please read those before this bit of work. I will not be recovering those stories, but re-reading them will help you fallow this story. This fiction also will be slow on the combat action.

11. Chapter 11 5 Dec 3046

Chapter 11

By Cliff

Beta and Clean up By

Reviewed by Hotpoint.

5 Dec 3046

The Dunianshire system.

The first, of the two convoying jumpships, to arrive in this system was the Styx. She was followed a little less than five minutes later, by the Scout class jumpship now called Toy Box. A jump point was a large area of space, but accidents were known to happen. They were a very commonly used trope in written and visual media. You did not want to have any type of space capable ship to close together. If a jumpship tried to jump into the space, that was already occupied by another ship or ships of any type. If that did happen? Then both ships would come out of the event destroyed, most of the time in a very graphic way. It had happened in the past often enough and in all cases, it was bad? The best-case scenario was that they would disappear. Nothing was ever found of the two ships, which had their jump cores interact in such a way. The scenarios went downhill from there.

The Duniashire system was a center of large-scale manufacturing, and it had been that way even before the Star League fell. Now it was not as productive as it had been in the past, but it still was a major industrial area. The Zenith Jump point, even still to this day, had a fully operational recharging station. It was both a major draw and a major user of the local monetary resources to keep it in operation. Even with the rates it charged to help generate income for ships not trading here, it was always busy with interstellar traffic. It was nowhere near as busy as it had been in its heyday. It even was not as busy as it had been during the start of the First Secession War. That had been the last time, that there had been four stations of this type in operation around this single star. However, it was busier than it had been in the last fifty years. This information was not missed by the locals and non-locals. It was only the lack of jumpships in this part of space, which had capped the amount of traffic at the current numbers.

That massive station was not the only object that occupied this part of the local star system. A Merchant class jumpship, and Invader Class jumpship, and a massive Star Lord Class jumpship also were in this system doing business today. This was not counting the Tramp and Scout that had just arrived. There were also over a dozen dropships of various designs flying to or from the jump point, space station and the planet. It should have easily impressed any ship's crew and passengers traveling in this part of human occupied space. It did not work so much on this two-ship convoy. They had grown up in a busier star system.

This was the first major port the resupply mission had stopped at on this run, but it was not going to be the last. That is unless things went very badly. Captain Copeland had issued each person in the small fleet two hundred C-Bills, in cash. They could spend it anyway that they saw fit. That is if they followed the rules set down by the Chain of Command before they left their homes. A lot of people in the little convoy were looking forward to starting to fill their personal cargo allotment, with high value items to take back home. Many of the crewmembers were filled with stories from past missions, were someone had been able to buy a home or other major item with the proceeds from that cargo allotment.

"Sir. We are jump complete on both ships, and the jumps sails are in phase two of their deploying cycle. I am receiving an automated message coming in, which is saying. That we will submit to a customs inspection as soon as the next customs ship is available. It was not on a tight beam and it is repeating."

"Communications. Please contact Traffic Control on the Olympus Recharge Station and tell them that the Scout ship is with us. Also let them know, that we would like permission to launch two dropships to go planet side. We also would like to know, if it's okay that we launch our escorting dropship with two fighters. They are to provide a CAP on both of our Jumpships. Let them know that our CAP will stay in close orbit of our jumpships only. That should cut through the auto replay mess and get us a person on the other end of the radio." Smiled the Captain to his crew, and true to his statement.

A real person was trying to contact them, in less than five minutes, after their request had left the bridge of the modified Tramp class ship. Captain Copland knew some of the key words to gets "stuff" moving in most heavily populated star systems. He had learned a lot on the other missions, but sometimes some of the words had just popped into his head. They did not pull his name out of a hat to make his first resupply run all of those decades ago.

A very strong and loud voice carried over the active speaker system, which was auto fed from the radio receiver. "Merchant Vessel Styx. This is Traffic Control. You are not to launch a bloody thing, till one of our Customs ships has checked you for weapons! Confirm."

Robert picked up the small handheld device mounted on the side of his fix mounted chair and pushed the side button with a slight use of force. Robert could not help but feel a smile form on his face and he quickly decided to use a slow and friendly tone with just a little fun mixed in. "Traffic Control, this is Styx Actual. We all have weapons. You know that this is the edge of settled space, right?" Captain Copeland had been down this road before, and he was not going to let a local try to pull one over on him.

It took a few minutes for the speed of light radio waves to cross the distance to the massive space station. When it returned from that massive station, a new voice came over the speaker. "Styx Actual this is Traffic Control Actual. We do not have you on record, as having stopped here before. These are the rules we will enforce. When the Custom ships dock? You will give them a list of major weapons systems and classes of all ships that are under your command in this system. You will also be asked to pay a port fee for every day you are in system. The first seven days are due before the Customs ship leaves your flagship. This does not count docking or charging fees from this station or any landing fees on planet. I am now transmitting a copy of all rules, laws, fees and fines. Please let me know when you have them. If you decide that this is not the place for you, but before the custom ship docks with your ship? Please let us know. You can finish deploying your sails, charge, and leave. No harm no foul. You will not launch a dropship, small craft, fighter, buss or we will have issues. Maybe you will come back again when you are ready to trade in the deep end of the pool."

Robert could not help but smile. The woman on the other end was feisty, and that was a good type of person to have in that type of job. "Traffic Control Actual. Thank you for your time. We will be waiting for the Customs ship whenever it is ready to come over." The communication station ended the active connection with a flip of a switch. After being given the nod by the mission and ship's commander. There were more than a few snickers floating through the air about the exchange. It was with a few surprised looks that the speaker came to life again.

"Styx Actual, we will have them out to you as soon as we can. Thank you for your time and being a professional. It is a rare thing to see, this far from Terra. May you have a profitable and safe stay in our little solar system." The connection was static filled for a few seconds before it was ended at the source. Robert had just cut threw a lot of the red tape and waiting by hours, in his book.

Just as the jump sails were starting to feed power back into the massive interstellar drives and the batteries that made them work for a ship this size. Robert's day dreaming was interrupted. "Captain. We have a contact burning toward us. It just flipped but it has not started slowing down yet. I am reading her as a very old S7 Bus type craft. If she does not fire her engine in one minute, she will crash into us."

The report had ended in mid-sentence as more information came in. After a few seconds of quiet it started back up. "Sir, I'm reading a spike in heat coming from the Bus. She has fired up her main engines. She has started to slow down. Boy! It's dirty. Their output has lots of unburned fuel mixed in their thrust, maybe she is due for an engine rebuilding soon. Her deceleration has her at 0/0 about a hundred meters off our bow.

Robert looked over at the XO and gave some directions. "Open Small Craft Bay Door 2 and turn on the docking beacon for them. Jules, I think we should meet them at the small craft bay." Jules was still hooked into the non-floating slippers, but he turned at the hips so that he could see his boss.

"Sir. I think you're right. Let's go see how much they will be trying to extort from us, on top of the published fees." Both men floated out of the bridge and pulled themselves down the metal hallway toward the expected landing area of the Customs inspectors. Both men wanted to get to that location before the inspectors arrived, it was a matter of pride more than anything.

Robert watched threw a thick glass window as something came into view. It was a battered transport, which looked more like a brick to make a building, instead of a mid-ranged inter solar system transport. A craft that size could hold around ten people, not counting the crew that the little ship needed to function properly. It might have looked like a wreck, but the pilot knew their stuff. It smoothly entered the bay and then sat down on the marked area of the deck plating. It was as smooth of a landing as anyone in the SLDF in Exile could have done. That was very high praise and he would not have given it verbally or mentally to just anyone.

Once the indicator said that it was safe on both sides of the hatch, it went a bright green from its blood red. A young female, with an Ensign rank badge on her uniform, was followed by an older man with a well-worn Star Corporal's rank badge on his space suit exited the visiting S7 Bus. The two jumpship's officers opened the hatch, which would lead to the rest of the ship in one smooth motion. Robert and Jules entered the bay to greet the new arrivals in the small craft bay.

"Well they look bored, don't they?" Thought Robert. "Welcome aboard the Styx. How may we help you?" He made sure to have his smiling face on when he spoke to the two new arrivals.

The very bored young female officer was the person in front of the pair of new arrivals. She spoke first of the two-person group. She pulled out a thin handheld glass topped computer and tapped the screen with a plastic stick. "Sir, please state your name for the record. We also need to know the class of each of your ships and the composition of your escorts." She had given this exact same speech a dozen times today, alone. And today was the same as the last 187 and she had another 170 days to go, before she was eligible for a new assignment.

Robert kept a straight face and gave his and Jules names along with each of their job positions. Then Jules rattled off the information, and the enlisted person wrote down all the information along with the young woman. Sometime during Jules's speaking the female officer started looking down at a piece of blue card stock attached to her right suit arm. When Jules got to aero fighters carried by the Hobgoblin, he was looking closely at their faces. Both looked up when the last class of craft he stated was an Ironsides. Jules and Robert just kept a poker face and made like it was just another day in the deep black.

"Now, that is an odd mix of fighter craft. Are you a mercenary unit, which decided to become traders? Asked the older man. He had been around this solar system so much at high speed. That it was starting to affect how he counted his age. When he saw that something was off? He was not shy about bringing it up. It was his job to make sure the young officer lived long enough to be an older officer. And sometimes that meant you had to ask odd questions.

"No, they are just what we have been able to acquire along the way. I would like to reduce it to one design for all six bays, but we have not been able to do that so far. It would make it easier on our parts supply situation, not counting training and ammunition. We hope that we might change our luck, here. We just need to find the right buyers and sellers." Captain Copeland replied, in his best command voice. It was not all a lie, just mostly one.

The young female officer turned and looked down at the enlisted man, before turning back to the two other officers. "I will need to see the cargo bays of all the ships and physically see each fighter, now. If you would like to change your statement? This is the last chance you will get, and there will not be any issues about the miss remembering what you're packing."

Robert just grabbed a hold of a handle near the open hatch and with the other hand pointed down the corridor to show her the way she should go. She went through each of the ships and stopped on each cargo deck. The only issue that came up was when she entered the main hold of the White Rabbit and saw the battlemech. It took some explaining, to get through to her that it was not a fully functioning mech. He had to say, over and over again, that it was only being used as a demonstrator vehicle for sales. The enlisted man climbed over it and after a few minutes agreed with Robert's statement about the mech. The entire inspection was complete in less than an hour. Most of that time was spent just moving from cargo hold to cargo holds that were spread-out between the dropships. When they returned to the small craft bay, which held her ride home. The young officer was about halfway through the small craft bay, before turning around.

"This is the first time I have been in this class of vessel." She gave a shoulder shrug and went on with her shtick. "I thought it would be bigger. Here is your bill for entering Duniashire space. You will be charged a daily rate after the first seven days. She passed over a card to Captain Copeland and waited for the payment for the number written on it.

"Well, that explains why you did not ask to see the main cargo bays that this ship should have." Robert took the note and read the numbers then passed it to his second in command.

Every other class of jumpship in the Inner Sphere only has enough cargo space for small spare parts, food for the crew, and not much else. Jules took the offered paper and read the amount. It was exactly the same amount that had been posted in the information pages, which had been sent to them earlier. That was surprising, to both of the SLDF in Exile officers. Captain Copeland reached into an inner pocket of his ships coveralls and counted out the seven hundred C-bills. That was all that was required, to settle the bill the young officer had just passed him.

The still bored officer looked down at the half inch thick glass topped computer. She had been taking notes on it and now sees that she had missed something. She counted the money and handed Robert back a thin paper receipt with a stamp on it. She now looked a little embarrassed by her slight mess up.

"Sir, I'm sorry. I forgot to note. What is your business here in this system?" The now slightly embarrass junior officer asked. She kept her pen ready to write down whatever the merchant captain was going to say. If they were not going to go in system, she had just shortchanged her government by about double the amount of money in her pockets.

"We are on a trade mission. We are to collect things that our home system cannot produce but needs. Or we are to collect things we might be able to sell at a profit back home." That was the cover story, which had to be given every time when asked that exact same question. It was the same one that had been used on the last half dozen missions like this one sent to the Inner Sphere.

Both visitors seemed happy with that statement and re-boarded their craft to continue with their jobs on other nearby interstellar ships. The two customs inspectors went to another ship, all the time knowing. That what the pair was doing was just a check the box kind of thing and being the tax collectors for the leaders on the planet closer to the star. The only reason they were out here, was to make sure that someone did not sneak in an attack force of some kind. They thought that the little money that was collected was just enough to cover the fuel cost of the ship they used and nothing more. All the time they knew they were just a speed bump, if things went wrong. That was good training for a junior officer and an old crusty NCO that had made someone with a lot of rank mad at him in the past.

Both officers of the Styx floated back on the bridge of the jumpship, and re-strapped into their chairs. Both could now breathe a little easier, now that the inspectors were done and the fee's paid. It was one little step in the overall mission, but it was one they also had to get used to having to deal with. It was times like this, which they felt like they were at the most risk of being discovered.

"Well that could have gone a lot worse, than it did. I was expecting to get hit up for a payoff of some kind. I cannot remember the last time, we had an "inspection". That we did not have to cough up extra money in the triple digits." Captain Copeland shook his head and his XO was nodding his head in agreement. Robert had a total of twelve hundred C-Bills in his pocket to deal with any added "fees" that might have come up.

"Well let's see if any of 'Emma's" messages made it threw to anyone. Communication. Please contact that old, decrepit Olympus and see if we have any messages waiting for the jumpship M/V Styx." Robert had to shake his head and smile wryly. He had been waiting a long time to give orders like that on a supply run.

This was something new for him, and it would have been done by the Flagship on a given leg of a collection mission. This time it was just the Tramp Class ship Styx. The last time he had been on this run, he had been in charge of this ship, and second in command of a small part of a supply run. Still it was three or four jumpships working together. Now, he was alone. He did not count the small scout class ship, which was just a large bit of cargo he had to move.

"Sir?" When the communication operator turned to ask the Captain why there would be a message waiting on them in this system. It was a star system that this ship or its crew had never been in before, as far as they knew? Before another word came out of his mouth. He looked at the Captain and changed his mind. He did not want to ask again, by the look on the Captain's face. Captain Copeland had the "I am the right hand of God" look on his face. This shift of jumpship's bridge crew had not been on duty when the briefing had been given to the mission commander about Emma's messages.

"Sir! I am contacting the recharging station now." He flipped a few switches and waited for the reply to come from the old station. It came a few long minutes later. A very shocked radio operator turned in his fix mounted chair to look at the commander. He had some aw in his voice.

"Sir we have one text message waiting. They sent a digital copy, now. Would you like a copy on a Noteputor?" He was assuming that the message in question was either a very personal one, or it was a very highly classified message. Either way? It was not for just anyone to know the contents of. That was the safe bet

Robert was not smiling. Even just an almost questioning of an order on his ship was not handled lightly, so he kept a stern look on his face while he had eye contact. "No, just read it aloud please." The ships senior officer smiled to himself. Sometimes you must let your reputation ride.

The radio operator silently turned around to face his station and started to read the message, after a few quick button pushes to bring it up to his screen. "Sir! Its only three short lines, in the message. First line. Please meet at Le Chiffre, at main entrance of the Drop Port. Second line. Call and it has a contact number, twenty-four hours prior to meeting. Last line says. We are looking forward to working together as your Intermediary for local sales. The message ends?" There was a slight aw tone as the com tech finished reading the message.

Robert still had a poker face on, when he looked over at Jules. "Looks like someone from the Families still lives on the Planet. I think we need to get clearance and launch the White Rabbit and the Lisbon Maru, both. I think it will be me and Jess going with them, again. Jules, I want you to keep an eye on things out here. I don't think we will have any trouble. But you know if it goes sideways. Get out of here and leave us. If things go wrong? Alt R, and just like that this is the last system." Alt R was, run home as fast as your ships can take you plan.

Jules did not say a word. He just nodded his head, that he accepts the order. It did not matter if he agreed with the orders or not. They were his orders, and they were already loaded into the ship's computers as proof of them. Jules knew that this was the burden of command, and the overall mission was the most important.

Two hours later, two Dropships separated from the jumpship Styx, and started a long 1g burn towards the target planet. The crew was happy to be able to enjoy the sense of gravity without having to use the larger jumpships rotating gravity deck for the pleasure. It should have only taken seven days to reach the drop port from the jump point. That would have been in a perfect world. That did not happen.

Both of the dropships had to spend an extra day in orbit, till two landing spots that were close together, were clear for their use. Robert used this time to contact the Café Le Chiffre in "his" company name for reservations. He then left his own message at the number that was given in the first lines of the message that had been waiting for them. He left his own message with the date, time, and the name that the reservations were under. This meeting would be different, because none of the parties would know what the other one looked like. That is, until the meeting started, it was like a blind date from hell. Robert was thinking of all the things that could go wrong with the meeting while they were waiting in orbit. He was a jumpship's captain, not a spy out of some cheap Tri D drama.

13 Dec 3046

The Dunianshire system

Robert and Jess, the intelligence specialist on this mission, were able to call for a hover taxi to pick them up at the base of the White Rabbit after they had landed. As they had been told, the Café Le Chiffre was right outside of the main entrance to the Drop Port. The Café was large, at least two floors of booths and tables. The two people from the Star League masquerading as traders were escorted to a booth on the second floor. It also was against one of the large side windows. It was the perfect place to have a quiet meeting that few would notice in passing. The table was set for three people, not the six that it was designed to hold. The two visitors ordered from the "French" menu and waited for their hoped-for contact. It gave them both some time to think about what they were about to do. This is generally thought of as not a good thing, when you're under stress.

The meeting time had been set for 6pm local and at 6:05pm a short woman of around twenty or maybe thirty local years old walked up to the table. It was not just by her dress that you knew that she was not part of the staff. She took a seat behind the only open plate left on the table. She was way too young to have seen the Exile's hidden home planet. Jess in her "Emma" suit and Robert looked at her and went on high alert as soon as she took her seat.

The woman looked at each of the two navy officers in standard spacer gear, in the face before saying one word. "Revenge?" The tone was a question not a statement of fact.

Robert looked at her. That was the correct challenge code word. Now, it was time for him to give the counter password. "Ajax". He should have used the word in a sentence to hide it, but something told him that would have been the wrong move with this woman. When he said the word, it was not a question. It was a statement of a fact of life.

The pair would know if this person was safe to talk to, if they lived for the next five minutes. As soon as he said the word. He decided to wait a few seconds before he added something that just popped into his head. It also was going to be a breach of field craft, but he did it anyway.

"You look like Lisa Noone."

The young woman blinked quickly three or four times. "I do not know a Lisa, but Beth Noone was my mother."

The woman seemed to relax a little, before she continued. She kind of had a lost look in her eyes. "I think I remember you from the last trip, but I'm not sure. I was only like ten when one of you stopped by our apartment. When Mon died. She had left me a hard copy folder to read. I could not believe we were a deep cover family supporting a remnant of the Old Star League. It was like something out of a daytime Tri-D drama. I don't think it truly set in, even after I had time to read the whole packet."

She gave a shrug and kept talking after a bit of a mental flash back. "I really didn't think that it was true. That is until I followed her directions to the underground hidden warehouse. That was about three months after she had died. It was about half full of stuff, and notes about bank accounts full of monies that I did not know we had. The extra money was to try to finish filling the shopping list, which had been left for her to do. I'm kind of new to this, and mom did not exactly train me up before she passed on." She knew that she was rambling and probably was talking too much. It was not like she had been trained to be a spy. Her mother had died all of the sudden, and she felt that she had only been partially trained for something like this.

Robert felt like he had been hit in the stomach. Beth was a close friend from his childhood, and she should have lived for another dozen years. At least, if she had access to some decent health care. It was with a slightly breaking voice he had to ask.

"How did Beth die?"

They had plenty of time to talk shop, now that they were back in system. It was better to get the personal stuff out of the way, to see if it was covering any lingering or hidden problems. This would also have the benefit of letting the young woman know that what happened to the Families, being so far from their home, was important to him. It would also show that they, the leadership, still cared for them so far from there people and the other families. More than one of the "Families" had faded away, because of a death or any of a long list of other reasons.

"She picked up some bug, which was going around the planet like a firestorm. She just never was able to shake it after it hit her. The doctors could not figure out how she lived as long, as she had. She was one tough woman. So, Captain Copeland, is it? What do we do now?"

"Right to business. Just like her grandmother," thought Robert. "First, does your family still have contacts that would be able to sell large aerospace items on so short of a notice? Yes or no?"

"Captain! I and I'm a company of one person now, is one of the most popular and primary go-betweens for the resale of dropships and small craft in this system. The message I was sent said you have a Scout Class Jumpship to sale, correct?"

She was looking dead at Robert, and not looking at "Emma". She knew who was in charge and focused on that target. She felt more than a little offended that he would ask her those two questions. Her mother had worked very hard, every day of her short life to be the best at what she did.

"Yes, Miss. Noone. That is correct. We also have a list of things we are looking at selling, but not all should be dumped here. At least that was what I was thinking." Jess passed over a hard copy of the list of items they wanted to sale on this resupply run, without being asked to do so by the Captain. It had the desired effect of pulling the eyes of the other woman to face her across the dining table.

Miss Noone took the offered information and looked over the list before looking up again. "I do not know how mother would have handled this. I must pay taxes to the local government on any dealings, which I sign on to do. I will have to charge you a fee to cover those costs, which the locals are going to want covered. My company's books are checked often enough by the government, that I don't want to risk them asking too many questions about you." She was shifting looks between the two strangers equally.

"You are Beth's daughter. I know that we would pay her the standard fee. They were the same ones that she charged everyone else, for those same reasons. What is your fee rate and schedule?" Robert could not help but smile at the younger woman.

"I charge a flat ten percent fee on all big-ticket items that I help sell. But I will cap the total to fifty million C-Bills in total fees. You will have to pay for any taxes the locals might put on the sales you are party to." She looked around the room and then pitched her voice a little, but in the wrong way. She did not know that whispering carried further than you thought.

"I know mom would spend about a third of her profits on the stuff she put in storage for you all. I will sell that stuff to you at cost, sense the government does not know about it. If we are going to be working together for some length of time? How about you all just call me Lora if you please."

She stopped talking and went into thinking mode. She went to drumming her fingers on the tabletop. "I will need to arrange to have the jumpship inspected, before putting it up for sale. We do not have to do that, but it will speed up the sale. If it passes an inspection? I would like to post the results of the inspection, so everyone can see it when they want to. Is that going to be a problem?" She looked back and forth between the two again.

"I agree to both the inspection and the fees, Lora. You're in charge of the sales. So, we will trust you on what needs to be done."

Just as they paused in talking business, food for all three people was brought out. This was an interesting bit of information, since Lora had not been there to order anything. "She must use this place for meetings often. That will be nice to help our cover." This was a silent thought that Robert had, as they started digging into the fresh hot food in front of them.

All three agreed that you should never let good food go to waste. You can always talk, but food was only ever done right once. Besides it seemed very good. The quiet time lasted only until the food was mostly gone. Then the meeting resumed, and at a little friendlier manner than it had first started. They still would take a small bite of the remaining food or take a sip of a drink, while they worked.

All during the meeting, they talked about the best ways to move the equipment they brought all the way from home. As it turns out, she knows a person at Majesty Metals and Manufacturing or as it was known to the rest of the Inner Sphere MMM. One that would be able to schedule a meeting to talk about the cannons. She also sent a message to the Recharge station at the jump point. An inspection crew would leave the next day, to do the official inspection of the Scout to be put up for sale.

About halfway through the meeting. Lora passed Robert a locally made communication device, so that they could pass a message up to the Styx. He needed to let them know that they would be having visitors, and they were going to the Scout the next day. They also used it to schedule a meeting with a representative from MMM the next day. After dinner Robert set up an official meeting again with Lora to join them at the MMM office. Using a local made device was "normal" and added to their cover story. That was the need of this night's meeting.

So, the next day, both of the officers took another short hall taxi off the local Drop Port's grounds. The MMM office was in a non-descript ten story heavy duty concrete building near the heart of the city. They reported to the administrative assistant at the front desk, and then quietly waited there turn to be called deeper into the building. Lora walked in a few minutes later and joined the other two out system visitors in waiting.

Lora was playing with a book that was almost three inches thick, and Jess noticed that the other woman was very distracted. Jess was very well trained in some of the military disciplines, but she had natural talent about watching people. She also lived by the two rules of her profession. (1) "It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you." And (2) "We put people in lunatic asylums, if they go around saying there aren't people hunting them down trying to kill them".

Lora what do you have there?"

Lora's head almost popped off her neck when she looked up from the book. "Its something that my mother and I think my grandmother worked on." Lora tapped the padded top of the book a few times. "I remembered, late last night, that my mother was working on it all the time." With a soft sigh she handed it over to Jess. "I thought that it might be useful."

Jess shot a look over to Captain Copeland, but he was head down into his own book. Jess reached over and took the book. She opened it to the first page and realized that it was a scrap book. It had a mix of digital pages and old fashion paper. Mostly it was made up of paper pages and images that were attached to the bounded pages of the book.

While they were waiting? Jess kept going through the scrap book, it was not like she had anything else to do. Then she flipped to a set of pages that were made up of a paper magazine, that catered to the mech jock or want to be Mech pilot. She was about halfway through the new section, when she stopped breathing. She passed the scrapbook over to Robert, who first raised an eyebrow then looked down at the paper page she was pointing to.

The story was an in-depth review of a battle a mercenary unit had been involved with back in 3028. The title of the story was Massacre on the planet Misery. Robert did not have to read the story to know what had caused Jess to pass him the scrap book. In the center of the story, was a full color plate image of three mechs. The trio were standing over a massive waste land of destroyed machines. The standing machines were a Shogun, Annihilator, and an Imp. These were all mechs that were known to be in operation with the Clans, when the Wolverines had left. As far as the Star League in Exile knew? They were not known to be used by any of the Inner Sphere's major or minor power players. Robert took the book and started reading the pages from the very beginning.

The 5th floor waiting room was nice, even plush as those things went. But it did not take long before the waiting was starting to ware on all three of them. Lora was about to get up and start to ask some questions, when one of the other doors off of the waiting room opened up into what Lora knew was the low-level VIP waiting room.

A man dressed in an expensive suit, a fresh haircut, a false smile, and an outstretched hand entered the waiting room. He was talking as soon as he passed the door threshold coming into the waiting room.

"Captain Copeland, of Copeland Salvage I take it? I'm sorry for the delay. I was just told that you were here. I am going to have to get after the receptionist. You should not have been left here so long." The last part was a blatant lie. Everyone in the room knew it, as soon as the words touched the air in the carpeted room.

"That is us, Copeland Supply Salvage and Resale. I was about to see if someone else was interested in what I have for sale." Robert knew the game, and he wanted Mr. Slick to know that he was on thin ice. Robert was not some back-planet rock with lips. The sooner Mr. Slick knew that. The better off everyone would be.

The smile did not leave the face of Mr. Slick, but the area around the eyes gave it away that he got the warning shot. "Why don't you and your friends come into my office? We can be more comfortable and discuss if we can do business, or not."

Mr. Slick stepped to one side and gestured into the room he had just exited. He seemed relieved that all three rose and walked into his office. He knew that his multibillion C-bill a year company had the upper hand when dealing with 99.999 percent of the population of the planet and those who visited it. There was only one person in this group that had a "name". He let the group take whatever seat they wanted in the very nice office.

"I am truly sorry about the wait, but we needed to check out your story before we could have a meeting. That alone took some time, on such short notice. We get a Lost Tech Prospector in the office about every month. They are always trying to sell "something" to my company. Not all of them have Miss Noone working for them, but we still have to check them out."

Mr. Slick looked down and checked his notes on his office computer. It was another delaying tactic, but not a rude one. He had been letting them sit in the waiting room as a way to show them that they were not in a powerful position. As he was looking down, he started to talk again. "You found and repaired a Scout Class jumpship. From the report that was filed. It passed inspections for resale, with flying colors. That was a good move by the way, whoever's idea that was. Miss Noone said that you might have something that MMM would like to look at, before you opened this "special" item for offers to anyone else."

Robert now had the stage, and he knew how to do this dance. Lora's job was to set this up, and now it was up to him to do his job. "Yes. You see the Scout had the one dropship on her, when we found her. Before you ask. We are not looking to sell it, but it did have a crazy miss match of fighters still in the bays. We can move those. If the price is right? As for what we wanted to show? That is what we found on the one mech in all of the cargo bays. It is an old 2nd SW machine, but its arm mounted cannon is a late Star League area KWI design cannon. That cannon was not the only one we found. If you are not interested in them? We will put them up for sale, on the open market. We thought that if MMM bought them up? Then you could help us pick up some of the things that might be harder to find for the normal shopper on this planet."

Mr. Slick was stunned, and he did not say anything for a long second. The KWI or Ultra Class Cannon had been a dream of weapon manufactures for a hundred years. Like most people in the weapons business. He knew that they had been put back in production in 3045, somewhere in the Federated Suns. If MMM could get a few working copies? It would give them a leg up on getting a model in production on this side of the Inner Sphere. They could corner the market on that class of weapon on about half of the whole Inner Sphere. That is if they could get a few copies and then reverse engineer them.

"We have heard this before, Captain Copeland. How do we, and by we? I mean MMM know this is true, or not. I am afraid today that you are not the first person to walk into my office saying that they have a working KWI or some other bit of old Star League technology." Mr. Slick's hands were slowly pushing keys on a flush mounted keyboard as they had talked. He was buying time again. He could not afford to be wrong about something like this. These people, after all, had put up a whole jumpship for sale that they had recovered.

Robert knew Mr. Slick was playing for time, and again he was okay with it. However, time was something that Robert was not going to give him, this time. "I have fifty cannons for sale, today. If you have the range open in one hour? Then I can have our demonstrator mech there, and we can show you. I am tired of playing games. After we prove what we have. Then you can inspect the fifty we have for sale. You can pick out however many you all want today. The rest I will put up for sale to anyone else on the planet. They will go to the highest bidder. The price is 300,000 each in C-bills, for MMMM. My partners and I think that this is a fair price. The ball is in your court, as they say."

"Now Captain Copeland! It's…. you must be joking."

He gave the group across the desk from him a soft chuckle. "If what you say is true? Then I think 150,000 is the price we would be willing to pay, for something like that."

Mr. Slick was trying to hide his sweating hands. This could make his career, if he could close this deal. He could have taken the first offer and be done with the whole thing. But that was not in his nature, to do something like that. He would never go for the first offer on anything that was being sold to him, it did not matter what was at stake.

Robert stood up and Jess was right beside him, delayed by maybe a second and a half. "Lora? I thought you had contacts that wanted to do business." He had pitched his voice, so it sounded like it had some anger in it. It was all a game, and he knew that Lora would automatically know how to play along.

Lora rose more slowly, and she was giving Mr. Slick that "you're in so much trouble" look with full power. "I'm sorry Robert. I will have the press release sent out today. We can have an open sale in forty-eight hours. I will need that long to get the permits for the sale, and a place on the public range. That way you can demonstrate the weapon to the crowds, that I'm sure will want to be there. We should have no problem moving them in a day. Well maybe two days, but that will be tops."

"Oh crap! I blew it, and they are about to bolt!," thought Mr. Slick. "Now, now Captain. Let's not be hasty. Let's wait on the decision of the final price for your products. I will call the range and we can meet there; Lora knows where it is. I will even have one of our mech transports dispatched to pick up your mech and take it to the range. I assume that it is still on, one of your dropships"

Mr. Slick was punching buttons on his computer like a madman or a three-year-old after drinking a six pack of energy drinks. And he was not trying to hide it anymore. He was trying to save this deal and maybe his job. "I have the saved VIP range slot for you, but it will not be open till 1300. Is that acceptable?"

Mr. Slick looked up and was glad to see that they had not left the room yet. "Lora knows how to get to the range, but I can have a company car pick you up with the Mech hauler."

Robert was trying hard not to smile. He had just reeled him in, like a trout in summer. He gave a nod to Lora. She would be the one to deal with these people, after they had left the system. So, he could not poison the well too badly.

"We can do that. The mech will be at the dropship White Rabbit. You can have the mech hauler pick it up there, but have a nice car pick us up at the dropship Maru. This is going to be charged to your company. I am not paying for a bloody thing. After the demo? The mech will be brought back to the dropship, and then you can have a crew look at the weapons. They will be on display outside of the Maru when we are done. We will be expecting payment on the pickup of any weapons. Payment can be a bank Draft or in cash. It's up to you and your procurement department." Robert turned and started to leave.

Lora waited until both of her clients had almost made it to the door, and then turned to face the MMM rep. "Have a good day, and I hope I do not see you on the range. Live weapons might not like you."

Lora turned on her expensive high heels and followed the two space officers out of the office and waiting room without stopping. She would be passing along to some friends what had happened today, and then just let rumors fly on how close this jerk had come to losing a deal of a lifetime.

Jess was fuming when they made it to the elevator. She did not say anything while they waited but after boarding the metal walled room, and the elevator had started going down to the main lobby that changed. She was about to say something, but Robert made a chopping motion across his throat to stop her. He did not want her saying a word in a building, which was probably bugged four ways from Sunday. They did not even talk in the taxi, which just happened to be waiting for them when they exited the building. Lora told the taxi driver to take them and let them off at the Drop port pad, which had the White Rabbit sitting on it. She was also quiet on the ride to the dropship.

Robert waited with the two women outside the dropship, but he had not said a word, until the hover car taxi was well on its way toward the exit of the drop port. Then with a sloppy grin on his face he turned to one of the women.

"I am impressed Lora. That was some great work back there." Before he could say more a banshee drowned him out.

"GREAT WORK?!" that Fraking person was a jerk and insulting." Jess was fuming mad and so red she looked like she could launch an Overlord into orbit. Robert thought he could see fusion fire coming out of her ears.

"Jess, two things. First watch your choice of words. We are on mission."

He was giving her the look that she had breached protocol. He did not say another word until Jess calmed down and nodded back that she was back under control. "Second point, on this planet? We are the Barbarians from the edge of civilized space. We are the sheep to be sheared and not the other way around."

Robert now relented on Jess and turned to face the local woman. "And Lora that bit about the press release for open sale? That was a perfect bit of adlibbing."

"Thank you, Robert. I do think he will have to clean out the pants of that expensive suit with a large spatula about now. I had to work with him once before, and he did much the same thing then. This time? It will get back to the top-level management, if I have anything to say about it. I want them to know that he almost cost them those high-tech cannons. You were not kidding about those Ultra cannons, were you?" The last part, her voice had some stress in it. She had been taking a lot of information on faith, and her whole business required that she be trusted by both parties. When Robert left, she would still be here.

"Lora, no I was not. Now, will all of them work? That, I will not say. I will tell you that before we go to the range. I will make sure that they unload the oldest and most worn out weapons, to put on display first. I had planned to sell them only the best ones. That plan is off the table, now."

Robert looked over at Jess before continuing. "I did not lie to that jerk. I just did not give him the right number, which we have on hand." He said with a sly grin.

"Why don't we wait in the main conference room of the Maru, until we have to leave for the live fire range?" Robert gestured up the loading ramp to the dropship.

The three people walked up the loading ramp into the cooler air of the Dropship. Robert stopped only once. It was to let the cargo master know, that they needed to move the Sentinel to stand outside of the White Rabbit. He also cleared it so it could be loaded on the mech hauler, which was due in a few hours. He did not want to delay the loading of the abused machine.

They passed the next few hours, the three of them talking about how they were going to play the next few steps with plans and counter plans. The only break they took was when Jess left to take the Emma suit off. While she was gone, Robert let Lora know why she had been in disguise. When Jess returned to the room. They war gamed out steps and counter steps, to as many options as the three of them could think of in that short amount of time.

The thing that help and hurt them on the price they wanted was something out of there control. It was that the Federated Commonwealth had been making these types of weapons for a few years now. That production was only going to the best or most trusted units, and from what they could tell. The production numbers were suspected to be very low, compared to the need for the high-tech weapons. They could not be found on the black market easily or this far from where they were being made, yet. By the end of the meeting. They decided that they would just have to see how it would affect them later, as they moved closer to one of the more populated worlds of one of the Major Inner Sphere Houses.

The time seemed to fly by as they sat around the meeting room. They were surprised when the intercom buzzed for someone to attend to it. When Jess picked it up, they were told that their ride was waiting for them. When they exited the dropship, they could see that several things were happening at once. The modified 40ton medium class mech was in the last stages of being tied down on the mech hauler. The driver for that demo machine would be riding in the cab of the huge multi wheeled transporter that was carrying his mech on its flat bed.

The Dropship's Cargo Master was using the loadermech to layout fifty of the large crates that held the cannons, which would be up for inspection and sale today. Each crate was being set up, so that a group of people would be able to see what was in it. They also would be able to run checks on the weapons without blocking access to a second weapon. This action was starting to draw a little crowd of people to the pair of dropships. Rumors were spreading faster than a jumpship, about what was happening on this part of the Drop port.

There were strict orders that not one of the crates would be open, until the Captain got back from the range. The Captain was sure that it would be reported back, threw MMM spies. That the crates were out in the open, just as advertised. He was also betting, that it would also be passed along. That those weapon crates were still under the guns of the dropship. That should make the people over at MMM a little nervous, and at the same time show that this Captain was not playing for a small prize. It would take a large group of mechs and tanks to challenge the firepower of the grounded blockade runner protecting the weapons crates.

The VIP limo and the mech hauler left as one group, going out the main gate of the Drop Port. You would think that a mech scale weapons firing range would be far away from a habitable town. If that had been the case, it would have been a very long drive even in a large hover limo to make it to that testing site. The mech hauler followed the limo to the massive live fire range, that had been built by Majesty Metals and Manufacturing to show prospective clients their wares. It also doubled as the marksmanship range for the local militia and security force.

When they pulled into the range. The limo's door was opened, and the trio were offered to wait in the lounge while the targets and other range equipment was set up. Captain Copeland, and team, declined the offer of the lounge use. Instead they talked with the young kid, which was the pilot of the Demo mech. He was more of an Astech for one of the dropships weapons turrets and an extra driver for the workmech, than a mech jock on this mission. But there was a reason that someone so young had been approved to come on this mission. Robert could tell that the pilot needed reassurances that he would be okay. Still the young man was beaming with pride.

The pep and small talk session were interrupted by a group of about a dozen people, which were an equal mix of male and female. One of the women was in a mech cooling vest, neurohelmet, and shorts. This was very old tech to the eyes of people who were used to the full-sized pilot cooling suits, and other items not seen in this part of space in a few hundred years. Cooling suits had been what the old Star League had issued to every mech jock, tanker, and pilot for a hundred years before the fall of that organization. By now it was listed as lost tech, unless you had access to a Star League bunker or knew about the clans.

Seeing the woman in her gear had been anticipated by Robert and his group. It was expected that MMM wanted to make sure no trickery was being played on them, from inside of the massive war machine. Robert saw the group approaching first and made a slight head not to stop talking. The young kid did not get the hint, until Jess put a pointed elbow into his exposed rib cage with just the right amount of force. With all of his people looking the right way. Robert greeted the advancing group of corporate sharks and middlemen.

"Ahhhh good. You brought your own mech pilot. We have a rumble seat set up, so she can keep an eye on things inside the cockpit. Mike is the closest person we had to a qualified mech jock, and I do not want to be up there." He smiled at Mike, and he quickly took the queue to start climbing the ladder to the cockpit at the top of his ride. This statement had been rehearsed, so there was not any sting to those words taken by Mike.

After the second set of legs had disappeared into the cockpit of the machine, nothing happened for about two minutes. Then with a not so smooth set of movements, the tall mech walked to the firing line. It was only a few dozen steps from where the mech hauler had helped unload the beast. The first target was only sixty meters from the firing line, a two inch thick steel plate made to look like an outline of a tank. This was not a test of the mech's pilot, so all Mike had to do was standstill and lock the target into the decrepit fire control system built into the Sentinel. When the pilot was ready? He set the weapon to double rate of fire, and prepared to fire. But as with any plan. It went right out the window when it came to dealing with people who had their own ideas about how things should be going.

Right after the mech had made it to the firing line, a person in range safety gear started walking up to the group. She went about setting up a radio and rebroadcast system. She and the mech jock in the rumble seat would be in charge for the next few minutes. The pilot in the rumble seat now ordered how the visiting pilot would shoot, and her orders were broadcast to the people on the ground.

First the targets were engaged in a normal firing rate, then a set of shots at the double rate, then back to a normal rate, then normal rate again, then a set of double rate fire, and then double rate of fire again. It looked like they were going to shoot threw the whole ammunition load of the machine for this one live fire test. Robert did not say a word and let the locals do their tests.

Mike did not hit his targets every time, more like only about half the time. This was not a test of his piloting or his mech gunnery. It was only about the weapon that was mounted in the left arm of the battle machine. Mike called out that he was down to his last five rounds on the open frequency. The Range safety looked around at the power huddle, and after not getting any direction from them. She concluded the weapons test. She ordered the mech weapons safetied, and then allowed them to return to the same area that it had been dropped off earlier by the hauler.

Robert turned to face the group of gathered MMM personnel. He was not in sales mode. He was showing just a little anger on his face, and he let it also show in his voice and tone. "Now that you have seen the weapon in action, and it passed all of your tests to prove it is legitimate. You even had one of your guys close at hand, to make sure there was no funny business being played on you from inside the mech. Now, I think it's time to get my machine reloaded and back to the drop port. I am sure you have heard about all of the crates being unloaded and placed around the bases of my dropships. I had planned on asking 300,000 c-bills, for each one that you select from the fifty we have for sale." Robert was rehashing what he had said earlier to remind them, and to reinforce his determination. He kept his voice the same as he dropped the hammer.

"After what happened this morning, in your offices and some fact checking while we waited for some range time. I think half a million C-bills is a better starting point. I am not going to let you steal these weapons from my partners and me. I can always find another buyer, even if I have to sell them one at a time to the average mercenary on the street." Robert turned on the heels of his boots and started walking to the waiting hover limo with his two co-workers falling in behind him.

Robert and crew could not leave the area until the mech was reloaded onto the mech hauler. While they were waiting Lora looked around the spacious cab of the limo. She stopped once when her personal communication device when off. She quickly read it, and then started looking for what she was seeking around the cabin. She found what she was looking for. It was the little mini bar that held a nice chilled dozen bottle selection of alcoholic drinks or juices, all of the very expensive kind. Lora picks a bottle and held it up for Robert to look at. He shook his head in agreement and then pushed a button on the arm rest of the door. Robert called out the open window of the limo.

"Mike, why don't you join us till your ride is taken care of?"

The young man joined the older people in the back of the Limo. Lora pored each person about two fingers of the twenty five year old whiskey into the richly cut crystal glasses. After handing each person a glass, she held up hers, and started to speak.

"Mike great job! You sealed the deal. Robert, I was sent a heads ups." She waved her device in the air. "They are looking at the Scout, and a report has made it all the way to the top about the cannons you got your hands on. I don't know about the price tags they are going to go for, but half a million is a bit much. You know, I will try to get the most money I can for each one." They touched glasses and slowly sip the very expensive liquid. As she took a sip, she was hoping that she could get the half million C-Bills per weapon.

After the half wrecked mech was reloaded on the flatbed hauler. The now expanded convoy, left the range and headed back to the drop port at a nice steady cruising speed. Robert contacted the dropships to let them know that they were coming back with a few extra transports, but to have all the weapons turrets manned. This was just in case MMM wanted to take the stuff, and not pay for it. Or maybe someone else that might want to jump into the picture, like the local government, and take them under new ownership. You never can know how things can go, when you're dealing with these types of large sums of money. The hover cars, now with MMM personnel and wheeled mech hauler, were joined not long after leaving the range. The additions to the convoy were four local made wheeled vans. Robert was assuming that they were carrying a group of weapons experts for the next part of the mission. If they were carrying ground troops? They would meet with all of the firepower the White Rabbit had to offer.

As Robert and his team were getting out of the hover limo a second car, just as majestic, pulled up beside them. The car was such an eye draw, that everyone stopped working to get a second look. Robert told Mike to go ahead and unload his machine, and to store it in the Main cargo hold of the Maru. He did not want it in the White Rabbit, which it have been in before. Mike did not question the change of plans. He simply nodded his head in agreement and went about his new task.

If the Captain had wanted it moved to the star at the center of this system? Mike would have done his best to do just as he had been ordered to do. Robert turn to see the new business suited person, that was about to join the same group of people that had been at the live fire range. Robert could tell this one suit was different than the rest of the group, which he had worked with so far.

The man that exited the hover limo was nondescript looking, except for the suit. He wore it, like it was an extension of his skin and his long but well styled hair was movie star perfect. He walked slowly, but suddenly turned and came directly to Captain Copeland. When he was close enough to talk without yelling. He started by holding out his arm and open hand.

"Captain Copeland, I'm McDonogh."

Lora sucked in a sharp breath. If the name was right? This could be the head of MMM, or closely related to that powerful person. That person, who also was a member of the most powerful family group in the local space. A very big fish, in any ocean.

Robert did not even look at Lora, when she made the slight noise. He stepped forward and took the offered hand in a firm but not a crushing grip. It was returned in equal measure down to the ounce of pressure, by the other man. Robert made sure to have his own salesman smile on.

"Mr. McDonogh, nice to meet you. What can I do for you today?"

"So, you're the man that has turned about a third of my divisions on their heads today." The man gave a soft laugh, as he looked the other man up and down. "I must say. You don't look like an Atlas battlemech in human form."

"That is not what I intended. I'm just trying to pay the bills, which I have run up over the last two years on this little project. Well that, and I don't like to be underestimated or looked down on by people who have never met me. If you're mad? Then we will leave, unless you want to try to stop us." This was Robert sticking to the cover story, but he would not go down without a fight. He knew that he had taken a risk by the way he had handled Mr. Slick, and the group at the range. Robert knew that sometimes you paid through the nose for taking those kinds of risks.

"Oh no! It's not anything like that, but you have come at a time that is too good to be true. Oh, and I had already had a personal talk with the representative that was assigned to you. I let him know. That I was not happy with what he tried to do to you, and your company". The other man had drop Robert's hand. McDonogh like using his hands to talk, when he was excited. Now he was waving them about, as he talked.

"No, you're just a little upset. That someone from your company got caught trying to screw over someone for the good of your company." Thought Robert, but he was careful not to say the words aloud. He also did not let the feelings show on his face.

"So, I guess we can talk some business. I think you're a little early for closing the deal. We just returned from the range. Your guys have not even finished inspecting the weapons, which I have for sale." Robert could feel something else in the air, but he did not know what it might be. He was going for a delay of game, just so that he could try to work out where any pit traps might be. One's that might have been put down and waiting for him, and his people to fall into.

"Oh, I'm not here just for those rare cannons over there. I'm here to talk to you about your jumpship. The one that you have for sale and not the Tramp. It would fit nicely with our new rapid supply systems, we have been working on setting up for only about two decades. Most of our customers buy a dozen or less machines at once. Even when we run a restocking mission to our major outlet stores. We are only moving about a dozen battlemechs. It is kind of a waste to use a twin collar jumpship to carry that small of a load, if you know what I mean? It's that or wait even longer as someone tries to find a Mule full of cargo that just might be going to the same place we are. Sometimes delays cost more than you can possibly expect."

He was trying to make a joke of the last bit, but it fell flat on this audience. He reacted quickly to the flat joke and got back to business. "Anytime the company is thinking about spending a certain amount of C-bills? I feel like I should be there to handle some of the details, and at least meet the group selling the item or items to us. That way if it fails, for some reason? I know the why and the how of the failure. Without having to read between the lines on some memo, a few days after it hits the nearest mass market news outlet."

"It also helps, that the Scout has the smallest jump wave of any ship. So, it is hard to track on any tracking systems this side of the fallen Star League. Now what is your offer on your hopeful new jumpship?" Robert was also thinking all of those were good reasons for this massive company to buy a Scout class jumpship, even if the company man had not brought them up. Industrial espionage was alive, well, and heavily armed.

"It is, and do you not think that "new" is a bit of a stretch for the Scout. Your ship is old, but then what jumpship is not old these days? How about we start at two hundred and fifty million for her? After we get that worked out? Then we can work on the deal for the cannons you have for sale. I look at this as two different deals. That way if we cannot come to an understanding on one, it will not adversely affect the other deal in any way. It that works for you, that is?" Mike McDonogh knew some merchants that like to do a single package deal. Sometimes that work out best for the buyer, but most of the time it only helped the Seller get rid of some dead weight.

Mike was trying hard to make this work and repair the damaged ego of this trader Captain. MMM could use either or both of these lots. If they could get both? It would be a major boon, but the really big payoffs? That would still be decades away. When your company had been around for a few hundred years, a few decades was thought of as short term risk. At least most of the time, they would think of it as a short term risk.

Robert could not hold back the shock at hearing the number, "Well this is unexpected!"

Robert still needed to drag it out some. "Yes, she is old. She was used by the Star League Supply Command before the fall, but her computers were so heavily damaged. That we don't know what really happened to her after things fell apart. Last I checked? A ship of this size was going for three hundred million, at any major capital world. As you no doubt know, already. We will be spending a lot of your money here on planet, to refill our cargo holds. I think that you will be getting a lot of that money, back over the next week."

The head of the local MMM office could not help but make a sour face. "Really? That bit of information had not been passed along to me. How about we cut to the bottom line, Captain. I will only pay 270 million, but we will take care of any taxes or fees on this sale. I will also put out a message to my people to be as helpful as friends and family can be. That is my last offer."

The man but his hands behind his back and locked eyes with the visitor. He knew that 300 million was a fair price out here on the edge of nowhere, but he was with MMM. They should not have to pay retail price for anything, which was not listed as super special or lost tech. That would have been bad for business, if word got out. Word would get out, there was not any doubt about that. This was only the second jumpship to be bought or sold in this system in the last half decade. News like that could not be kept quiet for long.

"Done," was the one word reply from Robert. He would have settled for two fifty, but he had just wanted to see, how much meat was left on the bone. He now had the capital to start buying what they needed to fill his two cargo ships. He stuck out his hand, and the two men shook hands on the deal right there in the afternoon sun.

A deal of this scale was not done on a simple hand shake. That was something that mostly only happened in TRI-D. It would take maybe a day more, for all of the paperwork to be done for it to be a legal and binding deal. All of the heavy lifting was done, but the details still needed to be looked at. The rest of the group standing by Robert, both his people and MMM, were in shock. It was like someone had just pulled out a magic wand and poof it was done. People would be catching flies in their mouths for a few seconds.

"It might take up to a few days to get all of the funds together, even for MMM. But I will let the Central Bank know that it is coming out for your use. This should make it so that you can draw on the funds, if you need to." The man smiled to Robert, and he had an odd twinkle in his eyes.

"I was surprised you did not push on the final price, Captain. Your reputation as a negotiator has proceeded you, even though you have only been on planet a day or two." Now that it was done. Why not find out what he could about the new player in the area that was called Copeland Supply, Salvage, and Resale?

Robert put a sly smile on his face. He knew the other guy was fishing. "It was a fair price, and with you taking all the pains out of having to deal with the local government. Let's just say I feel that it was worth it, not to get every C-Bill out of the old girl. This way? I can get down to the job of buying things for my trip home. All the while your lawyers get to spend all that time fighting the government money suckers, and not me." Robert let the smile go to a full-on grin and beamed it back at the other man.

"I have been away from my family to long. The faster I can get a full cargo load? The faster I can get home. Then the faster my partners will get off my back, and the faster I can get back to my family. Even not getting the retail or new built price for the ship? I think that the offered price will get me a lot of the way home. Besides, now you might be nice to me and not be so hard to deal with when I'm the one writing the checks to pay your company."

Well, I already have paid the lawyers their salaries for the month. So, I don't mind if they have to spend a few extra hours to earn their paychecks this week." His eyes were suddenly drawn to someone over Roberts left shoulder.

"Looks like one of my armaments guys wants to talk to me. If you would excuse me for a minute." Mr. McDonogh did not even wait for a word to get in edge wise, before he walked away. It was not rude. It was just that when you had that much money? You expected people to make way for you. It was just the way it had been done for hundreds, if not a few thousand years.

The man, that was older than any other member of the MMM group, which was not wearing a dress suit. Instead of that mark of office? He had on a set of dropships crewmembers' jumpsuit. He was covered up to almost the shoulder of that jumpsuit, in dirty greases and old gun oil on both arms. He looked like he was right at home being that way to, instead of being locked away in an office somewhere. The crew suit might have been common, and dirty. But it was almost new, when he had gotten out of one of the vans less than an hour ago.

The older man was very excited about something. "Mr. McDonogh! I'm so glad you're here! You're not going to believe what they have out. If you do not string someone up by his thumbs, for almost letting this get away? I will! Is that why you're here?" He stopped talking; maybe it was because he had run out of breath. Or it could have been that he had run out of things to say. You just did not know with people like him.

"No, I was coming out anyway. It seems these Lost Tech Prospectors have found a Scout class Jumpship and a Leopard class CV, complete with a set of fighters. They were able to get the jumpship fixed up and needed to sell it. I heard about it through the Water Cooler network. Part of the story was that a certain person on the acquisitions team put his foot in it, when he tried to short change someone over a set of SL tech cannons."

By now the two men were almost shoulder to shoulder and the head of MMM kept talking. Now the boss pitched his voice lower. "I didn't know how many it might be, until I was on the way over. The local grape vine was talking it up like it was a Wolf's Dragoons size of weapons cache, by the time I got to the gate. What's your read on the cannons, give it to me straight?"

This jumpsuit and grease covered man, was not just some grease monkey. This was the company's walking encyclopedia on heavy weapons. He had forgotten more about working on mech scale weapons, than any other ten people on the planet knew about them. He was so good? That MMM gave him a heavily armed three-man protection detail, whenever he stepped one foot off of company property. That did not even count the armored car and safe room, and the other dozen safety measures the company had in place to keep anyone else's hands off of him.

The old man turned to look back at all of the open topped crates of massive cannons spread out on the super hard flame scarred drop port. He rolled his lower lip up over his top one. He hated not to know something, and he was about to have to admit to the big boss. That he did not have all the answers, which he felt like he should have at his fingertips.

"I don't know where these cannons came from. Some, I know, are of KWI manufactured and they were built before 2915. I found the right markings that tell me that. It is just that some of them are not KWI's. We don't have much information on all the manufactures of this type of cannons, from before the fall. What I do know, is that there are fifty of them on the ground. I can tell, that all of them are Ultra 5 class cannons. Some are in pretty bad shape, but all of them are useable. All of them have seen some hard use, but they are very clean. Whoever did the cleaning of the weapons? They knew their business, and it was done maybe a few months ago."

The weapons expert started to flick his lips with the point of one finger. He had a lost look on his face, but he still kept speaking aloud. "I would bet, that somehow? They found a lost shipment of these things. Maybe they were going back, to be rebuilt back to factory specs, and they did not make it for some reason."

"So, can we use any of them?" McDonogh put his hands in his expensive raw silk pants. He was happy with the deal, so far. But even if just half of these weapons were useable after all? It would be time to pop the cork on something expensive. It not? Then he might just let them go to someone else, then they can take the risk on the large lot. He would then only pick up a few of the best samples, for his people to work with. He always had a plan B in the back of his mind.

"Oh God! Yes, I do!" The gun bunny looked around to make sure that no one, he did not know, was within ear shot of him. He had been around long enough and was smart enough, to know what the "real" world was like outside of his gated housing community.

"Sir! Some look good enough. That we could put them on machines in a few weeks. All we would need to do is just check them out, do a software update, and repaint. Then we could sell them to anyone that had enough money. Now a couple of the others? We might be best to just turn them over to the R and D labs, to see if we can start making our own copies of them. Or just use them for spare parts to keep the others in operation."

The grease covered man was talking and thinking at the same time. He was dreaming of what he might learn from one of these weapons that had been laid out on the fire baked landing area. He had read all about the high rate of fire weapons the old Star League had used before it had collapsed. Now he was going to have one, and maybe find out why they never made a class 10 version of this weapon. This was a dream come true, for the old man with his skills and knowledge.

"Okay. How many do we want? How many are worth the money to buy?" asked the name and money behind the largest arms manufacture in the Magistracy of Canopus.

The grease monkey gave a short barking laugh, and then turned so that he could make square eye contact with his boss. "That is easy sir. ALL… OF…. THEM!" He almost said it too loud, but the noise coming from an active Drop port covered his statement.

"Okay Jon. How much are they worth? You're the best person we have, that knows Star League tech within a hundred light years of us. They started asking 300,000 C-Bills each, then they went to half a million each after a leadership issue within our company. I just committed us to a big chunk of money for the jumpship. We can go deeper, short term. I don't think this Copeland guy is the type of a person to let someone who was trying to stick it to him, get off of the hook that easy. He has some high cards to play and a grudge against us. I need to know how, I can talk him down on the price."

"Mr. McDonogh. You could sell them for a few million each, if the Fedrats had not started making them already. I don't know now? I would think both prices are within reason for these weapons. You have always been better at working out what stuff was worth or what someone would be willing to pay for something. I would go with that they all need some overhauling, and there's no ammunition on hand for them. We are going to have to make some, just to test them."

"Thank you, Jon. I will see how many of these new toys we can take off Mr. Copeland's hands for you." He patted the older man on the shoulder, and turned around to look for the person who was about to take more of his company's money. And in some cases, more of his own money in the next few minutes. At his level sometimes the lines got a little blurry.

"Why don't you see if you can talk him out of that mech? It's not combat ready. I think that we could still use it for testing. It did feed the weapon on the range without any issues, which they could see. I heard that it even hit the target a few times." Asked the grease covered man, to the back of the man with the expensive suit.

The richest man on the planet went looking for the person he needed to start talking to again. He found all three of the same people still together in one group. They were talking to another person that Mike McDonogh would bet was the Cargo Master of the dropship behind them. When he was closer, he addressed the target.

"There you are Captain. I have talked with my people." He used his head to point towards his people off to one side of the dropship. "They are still going over the weapons, but I think we can start working on a price for their sale."

In truth it still looked like a pack of ants crawling in and around, all of the now open crates holding the nine ton weapons. They were all covered in muck, but looked to be as has happy as a dog, with a fresh bone.

"Are you really stuck on that half a million C-bills mark, a weapon?" The head of MMM had a salesman smile on his face.

Robert was in character and ready to work on the deal. "These weapons, maybe are old. But a little cleaning, and some elbow grease to polish them up? You could put them on the shoulders of those Shadow Hawks you are making, in no time. I will bet, you could charge a mercenary unit through the nose for one of those modified mechs. It would make up the cost of the weapon, at that price, plus any R and D you might have to do to get it to fit and feed right. If you did that kind of refits to a dozen battlemechs? You could cover the price of all fifty of the cannons we are selling."

"Man! This one is sharp," thought Mr. McDonogh to himself. "Maybe I can hire him away from this company. He would be amazing to use against the Free World's League!"

McDonogh had to shake his head to get back into the game. "You have done your homework, Captain. But ever since the rumor made it out here that the Federated Commonwealth, has put them and some other stuff back into production. That means they are not as rare as they used to be."

He did not use the slang term Fedrats and any of another dozen terms. At least not around someone, who might not like the term and thus cost him business. "But now that word has gotten out. There is a strong demand for the new tech weapons all over the sphere, but those are being slowly fed. Did you by chance, find any of those Class 10 anti-mech shotguns with these smaller weapons?" He pointed over to the rows of high speed cannons laid out on the ground.

Robert was stunned but recovered quickly at the casual way someone was talking about Star League weapons. If he would have been drinking anything? It would have been blown out of his nose. "I'm sorry. A what?"

Robert did not need to look over, to know that Jess was all ears. This might be confirmation of what Duke Terry had told them at the last stop. After much thinking, and many meetings, while they waited to make the last jump. The delay had originally been meant to buy time for the Family to reply to the contact message. The ship's leadership and technical groups had thought that the FedCom rolling out the Ultra 5, was like when one of the Houses had begun rolling out the 45ton Hatchetman battlemech. It was just an example of hyper focused development, and not a general capability uplift that was needed to do the work. Now It looks like they might have been wrong, and the Duke was right after all.

The rich man did not seem to notice the delaying tactic. "The FedCom is supposed to have started limited production of a Class 10 Auto cannon. It is supposed be able to fire a standard round, or some type of round that can sandblast the armor right off of a mech. I'm not talking about a few off prototypes. They are supposed to be in limited production of the final design. If you see anything else out there from the old Star League days? I will pay you top C-Bill, if you come to me first. Captain, I don't know if you were lucky once or you have a set of skills that are unique in my experience. For some reason, I get the feeling it was not luck. No, I am not going to ask you were you found this stuff. I know that would be bad form, to do something like that. I would also bet that if I did. I would, and my company, would never see you again. And I'm so not going to do something that dumb. That is besides making the offer of being the first look."

Robert played along. A salvage company with a strong corporate backing, would only add to their cover story. That is if they did make any return trips to this area. Besides the foot print of MMM was not small. "Well, it was always nice to have a repeat customer. Plus, one that understand some basic rules of how the game must be played."

Robert did not let his thoughts color his face. "If you're within a half a year travel time of us? You have a deal. It would be helpful, if you can get me some books on what you're looking for. Yea, that would be helpful. The only reason I knew about these."

Robert points to the rows of cannons. "It was that kid, which was in the mech today. Somehow he knew what they were and could get one to work, with some help from the engineering crews on the jump and drop ships."

The rich man held out his hand again, and he had anything but a poker face on. "Now that is a deal, Captain Copeland. I will work with my people to get you any information we have to you and your people. I will also make sure you have some contact information, which you can use at any HPG for free. Then we can figure out how to do any future exchanges between us."

Mr. McDonogh got the feeling that this guy might have a few more high tech toys in his toy box somewhere. He wanted his name, and more importantly his company, on the top of the contact list. If this Captain did have some more stuff for sale down the line? That would be interesting. "Now to get back on track to seeing how much these weapons were going to cost me".

Now Captain. "How about we stick with your 300,000 C-Bill offer. The same as that offer you made back at the office?"

Robert was rocking from heel to toe in his boots. He could see Jess and Lora watching him out of the corners of his eyes. "I really should push for more money, than my first quote. Your guy, which we talked to first? He really got under my skin. I did have Lora write up the for-sale ads that I told him about, already."

Robert made a show of thinking about it. "Let's do it this way. Each one of the cannons you want? You will pay cash, and then load it on one of your cargo trucks. I will stick to the 300,000 price, but I want cash in hand before each weapon is loaded. Yes. I know it's petty, but he tried to make life rough on me in your company's name. So, it is a little payback. I want the word to get around, and not just on this planet, not to screw with me or my company. I'm sure you understand, all there is to know about a company's reputation."

McDonogh thought, "Well, that was unexpected." He let his poker face slip back into place. "Maybe he just wants to smooth the road a little bit, after showing he has a strong hand." Things have been going good so far, well minus what had happened earlier. Paying in cash was going to be a pain, especially this late in the day. However, it was not a show stopper by any stretch. He had hoped that he could get the weapons for 400K. He had no expectations of being able to get them, for the first offered price. That might not have been the smartest move the Merchant Captain had made. Then again. Maybe it was a smart move, if he wanted to do business with MMM in the future.

"That is workable. Let me make some calls, for the trucks and the money. Do you mind if we retire to a more comfortable location while I get some things worked out?"

Robert looked at Jess and waved her to come closer. "Jess. Why don't you escort our guest to the conference room? I will be up in a few minutes."

The implied task was to try to find out exactly how much things had changed in the Inner Sphere, which is besides the two new/old cannon designs that it seemed to have been reproduced. Jess also would like to personally see what else, like the double efficiency heat sinks that might be being worked on. She would dig to find out what else was almost close to being public knowledge. A source this high, must have access that was at an impressive classification level.

Robert stayed outside of the dropship helping where he could, but mainly he was just helping to keep an eye on everything that was going on around the two dropships. That was very hard to do, with so many strangers walking around their ships. So far, three times and counting. He had to run people off, that wanted to see what everyone was looking at. Robert did not think that the two long black hover limos, had help to keep the weapons sale low profile.

"Well, you can't have foreseen every minor problem or remember all of them from the past. Not from all of those years ago." Robert was thinking so hard. That he did not see the convoy of trucks approaching the dropships, until they were almost to his dropship. He had totally lost track of time, as he try to keep an eye on all of the moving parts.

There were several different types of trucks in the convoy coming to a stop near his armed dropship. Most were a type of wheeled flatbed cargo trucks with some kind of lift hoist mounted on the very back of the truck's cab. The second most numerous of the types of vehicles in the convoy, but there were only three of them, were a type of high sided van. Each one of them had Police Crowd Control markings on the side. The first truck in the little convoy was the only one of its type. It was a bank's armored car. Right behind it, was another sedan. All of them were coming towards the Mule class dropship at about 10kph.

Robert was standing next to the Cargo Master when it was obvious that this convoy was heading towards them, but Robert was the first one to speak. "Well, this just got interesting. That is a lot of cargo lift they are bringing. Cargo Master! Get ready for some moving!" The Captain pitched his voice to cut through the noise around him.

"Maybe, I should have not brought up the Cash thing?" Thought Robert, "because that little good idea is about to come back and bite me in the butt."

When the new convoy stopped, a heard of people wearing police clothing exited the three vans in a wave of uniforms. They quickly started to form a line around the dropship facing out. Soon they had stopped anyone from seeing or getting close, to what was about to be exchanged on the drop port tarmac. They only had stun sticks or light pistols, but the metal badges were firepower enough to keep any of the on lookers at bay.

Robert was getting a little nervous about seeing all those armed men. That is until he notices the heaviest weapon they had was a medium caliber sidearm on one side of their hips. He was caught looking at them, because he did not notice Mr. McDonogh exiting the dropship. He most definitely did not notice the rich man walking up behind him. Maybe it was just luck, that he was able to do this, without making much sound to betray his steps.

Robert tries not to jump a little, when a voice came from behind him. It worked and it brought him back to his local environment. "Looks like my banker made it after all. I was starting to worry, that I might have to ask for a delay of payment for your stock." This had come from the rich man, which was standing behind him. This time Robert noticed that he had a full powered grin on his face.

"I take it you have decided which ones, of the cannons, you wanted to buy today." Now all Captain Copeland had to do was get his heart rate back under control. Well that and try to figure out, how many cannons he was about to sell. Then he could decide what to do with the cash. That last detail would come later.

"Oh yes! My head weapons guy said, that he wanted all of them. So, I will have to try to not let him down. You know how depressed those grease gun monkey types get, when they don't get all of their toys that their hearts are set on. I also checked with my department head, which makes the Shadow Hawk. She told me, that she was looking at being short about twenty Armstrong J11s this year. I am thinking we will use some of the ones you are selling, as their replacements. I think Magestrix Emma would offer up a nice bonus, if we could give her a lance of those modified mechs. Don't you think? I am betting that it will take some time, maybe six to twelve months to get the first one ready to hand over. After that we should be able to get all twenty done in a few months." What he was not saying was that the time line, he had just referred to. It had included building the new mechs from scratch, and not the time needed to just refit a machine already far down the production line.

Robert had not expected to sell all fifty of the weapons, at one shot. It had been planned that they might be able to sell thirty or forty at the top end. That was what the number pushers back home had thought. Many had said that there was no way that all fifty would be picked up for an entire planet. They were planning to sell most of the cannons off in ones and twos, to the military units along the way between the major worlds. That was how they had done it on every other time, which they had been on a resupply run to the Inner Sphere. If the numbers were ever released, to the general public of the Inner sphere. It would show that the Wolverines were the fifth largest seller of arms to this part of space. It would also point to them being the key supplier of "Star League" designs to the Aurigan Coalition to the Free World's League and every were in-between.

This one stop would cause a rewrite of any future operational plans. If other manufactures of a like size had this kind of money on hand? That alone would prove that things had changed in the IS, since the last supply run. "Looks like I will be able to keep the payment for the jumpship in the bank for a little longer. I take it that the bank truck is carrying fifteen million C-Bills in cash form?" For a second, Robert was hoping that it was not, but only for a second. That sounded like a lot of money. But to this man? it was the sale price of three of the Shadow Hawks his company made by the gross.

"You did say cash on pick up, did you not?" McDonogh smiled. He could tell that the Captain was trying to work out, in his head, if there was enough room in the two ship's safes for that kind of money. Each merchant dropship was known to have at least one good sized safe. So, Robert should have access to at least a pair of them on the dropships. "Sometimes it sucks, when you get what you were asking for." Thought Mike McDonogh.

"Captain, would you mind using your loader mech to help with the loading of my weapons onto the cargo trucks? It would speed things up. The drop port did not have any cranes available, for another few hours. I have a dinner engagement, that my wife would be very upset if I missed." Mike had a sly little smile as he addressed the merchant.

Robert gave a light laugh, before walking across to the Cargo Master. He leaned over and pitched his voice, so that only the Cargo Master could hear. When he turned back around towards the MMM man. The Cargo Master was already heading toward the stationary machine. By the time Copeland had packed down the money boxes coming off the armored bank car. The hard plastic and metal crates holding the weapons were loaded on to the flatbed trucks owned by MMM. As it turned out all the metal boxes, that were used to transfer the money, would not fit in the Mules single main safe. They still needed to use the smaller safe that was in the dropships Captain's quarters. In the end all of the heavily armored doors on the safes were able to lock. It was not easy, but they were successfully locked.

While Robert was taking care of that, not to small of a problem, something needed for the future was done. Just before McDonogh left, the head of MMM passed to Jess a hand-written note. On it was a list of points of contact printed on one side. This is what they could use, when it came to contacting MMM in the future. It was a late dinner, had by all parties that night.

Captain Copeland called a pair of food catering trucks over to the landing pads his ships were using. Everyone would have a nice meal, and it would all be pay for from the sale of their cargo. It was a nice break, because now no one would have to cook or clean up all the dishes left after words. Both jobs were not highly sought after on a normal day, much less on a day that had entailed so much heavy labor under a hot sun.

Robert, Jess, and Lora all sat together on one table, while they ate under the open night skies of the drop port. About the only time they were not eating, was when they got to watch a dropship light off its engines and it fought gravity on the other end of the drop port. It was during one of these lulls that Robert brought back up the real reason for the mission.

"Lora have you posted the message, that we will be looking to buy certain cargos?"

"Yes, I did. It should hit all of the major commerce sites, by midnight. I thought we would have more time for them to sit out there. I'm not complaining, mind you. This has been both busy and a productive two days."

She looked down at the expensive time peace on her left wrist. She had been surprised at the power player that had been sent out to the drop port, and was glad that he went right to Robert to do the negotiations. That did not mean that she was not pulling her weight. "I make it about three or four hours from now, and then it will be on the world-wide network, with a bullet." She stopped talking to take a sip of some kind of cold drink from off one of the food trucks. It was a brand that Copeland had never heard of before tonight. She was positively beaming when she started talking again.

"The deal for the jumpship alone will make my career. Not wanting to sound ungrateful or anything, but I would like to transfer my fees out of your accounts as soon as possible. I don't want any unwanted attention from the local authorities, and my accountant will need to start working on protecting it from any surprise penalties."

Robert looked at the local member of the Family and nodded his head to her. "I understand. We have attracted a lot of attention already, but as soon as the C-bills are in. We can work to have some of them transferred to your account."

He looked around and made eye contact with Jess. "I think we need to have a meeting tomorrow, say 0900 local. We need to see if we have had any bites on those posts. We also need to pool all the information that we have been able to find out. I want to put it on the table about all of the major players in this local area." Each of the other two people around him shook their heads, in acceptance of the plan if not order.

Lora stood up and stretched her legs, working out the kinks that had developed while setting on the portable table the food truck had brought out for the diners to relax and eat at. "Well, I need to get home and get some rest. It has been a long day. I will see you all in the morning. I have a feeling that tomorrow is going to be a longer one, then today was." She gave an off handed wave and started to walk to the transportation stand that was set up to take ships crews into town for a night of "entertainment".

"Jess, I think she has a point. I think a bed is calling my name."

Robert rose from the table and walked over to the catering truck. It took him a few minutes to get the owner and operator of the truck to come over to talk with him. Robert settled the bill and gave the older woman a nice tip, before turning and walking up the personnel ramp to the dropship. As soon as she re-entered the truck, a light sign said that she would be closing in half an hour and it was "Last Call". It did not take long for Robert to be asleep, in his cabin for the night.

Jess watched her commanding officer, until he disappeared from her line of sight. "Well I better get up and get going. Today's reports and notes will not get written all by themselves." She was still working out how to best manage her time, so far it had not been that bad. She was hoping that she would be able to get a few hours' sleep tonight.

She rose and left the plastic table on her way to the dropship's ramp with more energy than she felt. She did not go to her cabin, right away. She went to the main conference room. She had a lot of recordings and TRI-V images to review, before she can get some sleep tonight. She makes a mental promise to herself, before she starts the paperwork. That is, that she would not stay up passed midnight local time. That was because she thought that Lora was right, tomorrow was going to be another long day. She knew that she had one advantage over Captain Copeland. When they lifted off of this planet, she would be able to sleep as much as her body wanted to.

Notes.

How would you deal with a major weapons manufacture? Now MMM is not in the league of Cal-Boeing or Corean Enterprises, but you get the idea about how it might happen. Also how do you sell a lot of lost tech, without someone just taking it.

Emma. No, I did not know that the current leader of the MC was called Emma when I came up with the name for the Emma suit.

The Wolf's Dragoons. We all know about them, but to the SLiE they are just another mercenary group. Think of that magazine as something about history at your local drugs store. What got their attention as not the large mercenary unit? It was the image of three iconic Wolf's Dragoon mechs in one shot.

Noone. It is one word, and the E is silent. It would sound like Noon not No one. Yes it is a name and it thought that it would be fitting.