Chapter 17
By Cliff
Beta and Clean up: Not done
Reviewed by Hotpoint.
3 Jan 3047
A new system 28.03 Ly jump:
Cate's Hold
One second the Tramp class jumpship was there, with three dropships clamped down to the sides. And in the next second? It was gone. The only hint that something had been there, was an expanding ring or bubble of energy. It was destroying all of the small bits of dust and detritus that had drifted into the jump zone, since the last jump into this section of the null gravity point. In only a few seconds even this wave was gone, leaving only an empty spot in space to mark where over a quarter of a million tons of ship used to be.
28 light years distance, in another star system, an Emergence wave announced that an interstellar visitor was coming into that star system. If someone did not have some special equipment? Then you did not have any warning, that several hundred thousand tons of spaceship was incoming. Even at the height of the most damaging secession war, this information and these skill sets had been kept on almost all of the major inhabited planets.
When the massive ship fully entered this new star system. It sent a message planet side, because just like Ltzehoe. This star system did not have any recharging stations or cargo hub in the area, to act as a jump point traffic control. It did at one point have two of the massive Olympic class stations in this system. They had put one at each of the two main jump points. The wars that had ravaged this area had destroyed both of them, long before the 1st SW had started to heat up. By now, even the wreckage had drifted so far away from the jump points. That nothing could be found on the jumpship's powerful radar system. It was like they had never been there. This information was not new to Captain Copeland and his command staff. It was just surprising to see what could happen to a million tons of high technology.
As the Styx was unfurling the recharging sail. All three dropships that the ship was carrying, were releasing themselves from the long ship. The little fleet would quickly adjust their formation and had started the long trip to the surface of Cate's Hold. They would need to stay in system for a minimum of one hundred and eighty hours or almost eight days, for the old jump engine to store enough power for the next jump. It would take that long for the sail to do its job and recharge the jump engine, from energy supplied from a star that was so far away.
Cate's Hold had fallen onto hard times. It was just like most of the planets in the area of space, that was call the Periphery. Unlike most worlds? It had started a comeback a few decades ago. One that had been started and noticed, before the last resupply mission. It was centered on the discovery of a large amount of radioactive, and other minerals in the planets crust. These minerals were the same ones, that are needed to support most high-tech industrial development post information age.
Up until then, the planet was known for a few other things. It was known for entertainment of all kinds, to include gambling. It was also a hot spot for Lostech prospectors, that would come from all across the Inner Sphere to try their own luck. That was due to a rumor that the old SLDF had a base on this planet, at one time. That base was supposed to help keep the MC under the thumb of the Star League. It had even been able to do that, at least until the fall of that organization. No one on the planet or off of it, knew what had happened to it during or right after the Amaris Coup.
On every resupply mission that the Star League in Exile made, at least one ship on the mission would stop here. Many times, more than one of the smaller splinter groups would stop by. These visitors knew something, which the locals did not know about the rumors of the Star League base. They knew that there were ground bases, not a base, that had supported many different SLDF missions in this whole region for decades. There also was a well-hidden main base. And there were a number of smaller support bases that had been emplaced around the planet, but they also all had been hidden by DoME.
They had been hidden by DoME, so well. That the exact locations of any of the bases had been lost, even to the Star League army that had left the inner sphere all those years ago. The SLiE were able to eliminate two or three of the possible locations, on every trip to the planet. Now they were down to only five possible locations, left on the whole planet. Nothing had been found for the last few trips, and quietly SLIC was getting nervous. After those last few possible sites were investigated. It would get interesting on where they would send people to look next.
After being picked to come on this mission, and not getting a slot on a major warship? Jess had been studying all of the data, that they had on the old SLDF bases and past missions. By now, she knew most of the data, by heart. She had the fever to find the location of the base, and the unknown treasures it might still hold after all of these years. She had her own ideas on where she wanted to look for the old base. She still would have to check at least one of the other areas, that SLIC wanted someone to look at.
The crew picked for this resupply mission was older. In fact, there were more often than not married couples that made up the majority of the crews. This would mean that some of the "normal" activities, that were the norm for most dropship crews. Those would not be of interest to the majority of the crews on these four ships. Once on the ground, each of the three dropships would go on a minimum manning level by SLiE regulations.
This planet was so insignificant, that it did not even have an HPG or even a ComStar compound of any kind. This was going to an R and R area for this crew. But not all would be relaxing on the camping grounds, horseback, or there analog riding. They still had a shopping list to fill, and they would need to sell some items for working capital. And they needed to make room in the cargo holds on two of the ships.
Jess and three other crewmembers, two of them were part of the security team for the little fleet, rented a four passenger off road truck that had a covered 5ton cargo box on its back bed. It was overkill for all there camping equipment. But it had the best off-road capabilities of anything, that the only transport rental company had left on the rental lot. That was more important to Jess. Comfort and cost were well down on the list, of what she was looking for in renting some transportation.
While her and the rest of the off-duty crews were enjoying a little rest, normal gravity, and breathing unfiltered air. Robert was reviewing the reports from the HPG team on the Styx, from his sleeping cabin. That specialized team was doing a job, that did not need to stop between star systems or under anything except combat alerts. He was looking forward to seeing what new scraps of data they will have uncovered from more of those intercepted messages, when they returned to the jump point.
For two days on the planet, Robert was reading those reports and writing more than a few of his own. This left the ship's Captains to run their crews, without having to worry about the mission commander looking over their shoulders. The HPG team had been decrypting as many of the intercepted messages, as they could. They had broken many of the encrypting keys, for the ComStar HPG messages. It had turned out that those messages were masked by a general traffic code.
It had not taken long for that teamed to find out that ComStar had what they were thinking, was two different internal message codes systems. Ones that had not been broken, yet. As the spy team worked, they were getting better or faster about breaking the coded messages. Robert was thinking, that by the end of the mission. They would be able to read most of the messages as fast as they were transmitted from any star system, they were in.
Just because they had broken the coding on the transmitting wrapper. It did not mean that they could read all of the messages. Some of the messages seem to have had an internal codes encryption, and that was on top of what ComStar was using in the first place. It would seem. That not everyone trusted ComStar to not read, what it was being paid to send across the stars. It had taken longer to fully decode those types of messages, and without an idea on who was sending what. There was not any context to some of those messages to fully understand them.
All of the messages had to be run threw a second decoding run. Any of the messages that did not make sense, when it was read by a real person. Then those messages would be rerun threw the decoding software, again. It was not a perfect process, but it was working good enough for now. They had also found, identified, and cracked one of the MC military code groups. The HPG Team had also found and cracked one of the MMM intercompany messages codes, in all of the messages that they had picked up. Robert had to admit that it was a good start.
This was the one message Robert had set aside, for later, when he had found it the first time in the stack of decoded messages the interception team had printed out for him. He wanted to take his time, when he was reading that one. It was the end of the day, and Robert was supposed to be picked up by Jess in a about six hours. He wanted to get some time out in the green fields and open air. Now that he had some open time, he pulled the MMM internal message forward to read. In the message there were not too many surprises. It was between McDonogh and the senior board members of the company on Canopus V. It was mostly about him and the Copeland Supply, Salvage, and Resale Company.
The general idea of the report was that they, Copeland's people, had found a cache of some kind and at an unknown distance from MC controlled space. It was noted that it might be up to a year travel time away. It had seemed like they were people of their word, and that they should be treated with respect. It also said that Copeland might have access to more Star league era equipment. If they could get more? That would help MMM keep up with the rest of the House armies, in there rearming to Star League Regular army level of technology. It was viewed by McDonogh. That it would be easier to work with Robert and his crew to access this type of tech, instead of trying to take it by making a raid on the FWL or the Capellan Confederation. The message also made reference to an updated Warhammer that was about to start coming off the lines by Ronin Inc. He wanted an update on how negotiations were going for a licensing agreement on that machine.
That made sense to Robert as well. Because if someone made a raid against one of those two major powers? It would be ugly. If it was found out by them, who had been behind the objective raids to steal Star League tech. Both of those powers were known for being willing to retaliate against those kinds of games with a lot more forces, than even a major periphery power had access to. Robert had just finished the report and was making some notes. He was hoping that he might be able to exploit this information, later on in their travels. When he was interrupted by the attention signal? The type of signal, was telling him that the bridge wanted to talk to him and it was important.
As soon as the phone hit his ears, a voice was talking. "Robert, we have a message from Jess. She sent the codes, that said that. They think they might have found something. They would like to know if you might be able to come out this afternoon, instead of early tomorrow morning?" Robert could tell that Jules was excited about the news. Both men knew why she had selected that one area, as her "camp site" for the last two nights. This caused Roberts heart to skip a beat.
"Tell them, that I will pick up a rental truck. I will meet them out at the tree, instead of them coming all the way back to pick me up. I should be able to wrap this up, and be on the road in about an hour. I wonder what they found. I hope it's not another dry hole, where someone has already beaten us to anything useful." Jules made a noncommittal grunt in agreement, before disconnecting.
It was the rare time where the clan would find an old SLDF base that had not already been looted, sometime in the centuries after the fall of the Star League or to support the Exodus. He could not count the number of times they had found a vault or old base. Only to finally break in and find that it had already been emptied. It could have been by the Exodus forces or someone else before or after that time. No one would be able to know, and the Exiles were out a lot of time and expense looking for another empty return. They were not always empty, but all most all of them were. The SLiE had even stopped stripping the armor off the walls in the finds after 3000, unless there was a lot of empty cargo space available.
Robert picked up a Jeep analog and headed out to the wilds, from a rental outlet office at the drop port's only exit. This trip had been planned, but not getting another rental had been thought about. All of Roberts camping supplies had been packed and ready to go for him, when he was ready to leave. He had hoped to spend the last three days of their planned stay on planet, away from any drop port or major buildings. He had the bridge staff call and let Jess know that he was on his way out to her, when he pulled off the rental lot. As he drove, he was of two minds about the change of plans. He had wanted some time off. But what if she had found something? That was going to cause him a lot of stress, and possibly a massive amount of paperwork. But if she found something, it might be worth a dropship's weight of paperwork.
It was a four hour drive out to where he would meet up with Jess, or with one of her crew. When he reached the meeting point, Jess was waiting for him. She was alone and setting at the base of some kind of very large local tree, with a laser rifle laid across her lap. Robert did not see another truck nearby, so he waved to her and opened the passenger door. She gets into the small SUV, almost before the metal door was all of the way open.
As soon as her butt was in the seat, and the rental SUV door closed. She was talking at the speed of a jumpship, as soon as the door had shut. "Captain Copeland! I was right! We found part of the base! It is not the main base, but we found two entrances into what I think was called Lobes or Sally bases." She was so excited. That she seems more like a preteen kid, than a highly trained intelligence officer.
Robert had to hold up one hand to get her to stop talking. "Well let's go see what you've found, Jess." Robert had seen this to many times, to show if he was excited or board. He had been looking forward to having a few days off the clock after all.
Robert started the jeep moving, and followed the directions steadily coming from Jess. Soon they were off the road. She got more excited, as they moved along the rough path through the woods that the small vehicle was occasionally bottoming out on. As they drove down the now dirt trail, periodically Jess would point out areas of disturbed ground off to the left and right. She would tell Robert that those were the sites that past crews had been looking for the old SLDF Base. Sometimes she even knew what team had done, what damage to the ground. Robert was impressed with the amount of information she had memorized about this planet.
Jess told Robert to turn right off of the dirt trail, and they started going up a narrow active creek bed. It was still an active water course, but it currently only had a few inches of water moving down the main central channel. Sometimes Robert could see spots where a larger vehicle had made this same trip, ripping into the creek bed with its larger tires. When they made a 45 degree turn in the creek bed? Robert could see the larger off-road truck off to his left on the creek bank. It had been parked parallel to the higher rock bluff overlooking the creek. The bluff looked to mark the flood level of this creek during the rainy season.
Robert had to put his foot firmly on the accelerator to make it up the first part of the creek bank. When Jess hopped out of the still moving jeep. Robert pulled up farther onto the flatter area out of the creek. He parked by the larger truck, before exiting the jeep and following Jess at a more leisurely pace. She had gone between the large truck and part of the rock bluff, that the high sided truck was blocking the view of from the creek bed.
When Robert made the turn to go between the truck and bluff? He could see a massive rusted and pitted metal hatch, that should lead into some kind of an opening into the bluff side. It was a little darker between the two tall obstructions provided by the bluff and truck. The area was covered from anyone looking down at them by a tent canvas, it even had a few yard chairs not under cover to give it the look of a sleep space. Jess started into briefing mode, as soon as she saw Robert was there and he could see the open metal hatch.
"We found the first tunnel, on our very first night. It was larger than this one. I think that it was a supply or maybe a tank company sally port, due to the low ceilings. It went in about a hundred meters before the tunnel was closed off from the rest, by a cave in. We spent a few hours digging into the mess caused by the cave in but called it off. We think you will need some heavy equipment, and lots of manpower to clear it any deeper. I know that we don't have ether items to spare right now, so we started looking for a mech entrance. One that should have been near to the support provided by the tank sally port. This is what we found instead."
She pointed to the hatch over one of her shoulders. "As you can see a mech, not even a Wasp, would fit threw that hatch. Not even if they tried to craw one of them in. It goes farther inside, but stops about three hundred meters before it also stops, because of another cave in. The cave in was right behind a dropped blast door. We did not find the cave in until we had cut through the fraking thing. That was a letdown, after doing all that work of cutting the battle steel. In the end? We were able to cut through the blast door, but it is packed with rocks, and I don't think we will be able to make it deeper into the base this way either."
When Jess finished her little overview. She walked deeper under the tent overhang and went towards the hatch and now open tunnel. On closer inspection of the area, by Robert. The hatch was only about 2.5m tall and 2m wide on the outside. It looked more like a hatch for infantry to exit from an APC during combat, and not a massive door needed for a support base to function. The hatch still could be moved but it was not easy. Robert was able to move it a little just by using a lot of muscle power. They were waiting for one of Jess's team to finish laying out a power line for something farther in the dark tunnel, before they could step over the threshold and enter the dark tunnel.
Once he had moved out of the way, Jess and then Robert entered the tunnel. As they went down the tunnel, Robert saw Jess's team working on another hatch with some portable cutting tools. They passed three doors or hatches on both sides of the tunnel breaking both left and right from the pair, as they walked deeper into the hill side. These hatches were open, but Robert did not have time to look into them, because Jess was walking quickly going farther into the musty smelling tunnel. Jess had turned on a handheld light as well as a point light, which was on an elastic band that went around her forehead. If she had walked much farther away, it was going to leave Robert in the dark. It was not like the old SLDF put sky lights in places like this, a few centuries ago.
This was Jess's mission, and Robert was letting her run it her way. For now, he was just going to keep his mouth shut and wait. He followed her all the way to the large thickly armored hatch blocking the tunnel, that had been recently cut and pulled open. When Jess stopped and pointed the light behind the heat scar and jaggedly cut hatch. When Robert walked over. He could see that the tunnel behind the partially opened hatch was completely filled with rock and massive boulders, but surprisingly very little dirt and not one drop of water.
Jess was right. It would take trained miners or highly skilled combat engineers, to go any deeper into this complex. If the other entrance, that jess had found already, was like this one? It would take a major pre-planning of the needed manpower and equipment for the next trip out this way. It did look like there was a lot more to this area than what they had found, so far. Jess would have a line in the remembrance for this discovery, for sure. How many people could say they found not one but two entrances to a hidden and lost old Star League depot, in less than a week? None that Robert could remember, even if this pair of tunnels were dry holes so far. It was amazing work, even if the hatch and tunnel armor turned out to just be BAR rated junk.
Robert pulled his head back and gave her a slight nod of approval at her find. "There is no way we are going to be able to go through that, not with what we have on the ships. I don't think the Dig Lord would fit in this low tunnel. Even if we had someone who knew how to use it. Not without killing themselves in another cave in, this one of their own making. When we get back to base?" He was not going to let slip about New Circe. "We will kick it up to higher. Maybe they will outfit a special mission just to dig these two tunnels out, and see where they go."
"Sir, I don't know if we have time to wait. There are a few other groups, that are digging all around us already. They could find this base any day now. I don't think we would want to be here, when they do find something. Whoever finds the main chamber? They will not be able to keep it quiet for even a few hours. That will mean a lot of attention, which our people have been trying to avoid for a few hundred years now."
What Jess was saying was all true, but they were talking about a SLDF Depot? Who knew what could be inside? Someone else higher in the food chain would have to decide what to do with this discovery. Robert felt that it was over his paygrade. He would need to find out everything he could, to make a good decision. That meant finding out what information these exposed rooms might be able to give him, on what might be behind the cave in.
"You said earlier, that this might be a Lobe base to a Depot. What makes you think that?" Ask the mission commander to the head of his Intel section.
Jess turned and pointed back up the tunnel they had walked down. "We found four doors close to the main hatch. The one that is farthest from the exit hatch, was a bunk room with 34 bunks and lockers in the room behind a thin hatch. They were all empty of anything useful. I think that even any leftover clothes had rotted to dust, before we got here. The second room was a massive latrine/shower/gym combination area. That is when I called you, to let you know we found something that might be big. I was thinking that this was a standalone or independent part of the base, if it did not have the blocked tunnel behind that hatch. While you were on your way out here. We were able to cut open the third door, and it's only a kitchen and dining area."
Jess started to almost vibrate in her boots. "If I'm right? The last door will be the armory for the infantry platoon, that was stationed out here. If it is? It will most likely be empty, but a full load out for a SLDF Infantry Platoon would be nice. Even if it's mostly empty, it still will be a nice find. The Colonials are short on any weapons, that have any real damage capabilities against Cylons. Besides shooting Cylons or some standard infantry? There weapons are not that great against harder targets, like we might have to face in the future."
What she did not need to tell Captain Copeland, was that even the Cylons were fielding harder and harder to kill warfighting machines every few months. Still the Cylons were not even up to early age of war hard to kill level, but they were getting there quick. Then there were the Clans to worry about. The information coming to them about the Elemental style powered battle armor, was scary. Some in SLIC thought that it might be exaggerated, but those were the minority in that organization. Most thought that they would be even more deadly.
As they passed each door off of the tunnel, they would stop. Robert and Jess would enter and look around each of the opened rooms. They would open each inner door and see if they could find anything, as one final check of that space. Just as Jess had said, everything that was made of cloth had rotted, but nothing metal had rusted. It looked like the seals had held on both of the hatches, so water had not entered this area of the base. If that was true in the other rooms off of this tunnel? Then it was a good chance, that any weapons left behind, might be at least repairable. Finding a working weapon right off of the rack after so many years was a fantasy, in Roberts mind.
They were at the last of the doors. They were waiting as two crewmen worked on cutting the door open. It was easily apparent that it was a lot heavier made, than any of the other hatches coming off of the tunnel. That is except for the two hatches on the main tunnel, which Robert had just seen already. Jess and Robert thought that this was a good sign. The cables that the men had been running down the tunnel, when Robert had arrived, were for the lights and to run some of the powerful cutting equipment Jess had the foresight to bring with them.
The sun had gone down and those small light stands were the only lights, beside the shower of sparks coming off the cutters. Jess passed her boss a set of colored glasses to protect his eyes from the glare of the cutting tools, when they came to a stop and it seem that he did not want to wait outside. That had not surprised her. She also did not want to wait outside while they were cutting. The pair of them were just standing and bracing the opposite wall of the tunnel. That was when they all heard and felt a loud THUNK, come from the object of all of their attention. The hatch had not moved, but you could tell that the sound had come from it.
Both of the men cutting and trying to open the door, stopped what they were doing and looked at each other for a second. Then each of them grabbed small pen lights and started to look down the glowing hot lines, that they had cut in the door so far. The taller of the two started looking closely into the hole and lines, cut into the top of the metal wall like hatch. The shorter man started doing the same a little lower. The taller man made a loud series of curses, then the second man did the same thing but on a different cut line.
A dozen thick alloy rods had deployed from the center of the hatch into slots in the hatch frame, tightly locking the hatch in place. This event was both good and bad news for Jess and Robert. The bad part was now it was going to take a lot more work, to get into the next room. The good part was that this was indeed a security hatch, and those devices were not put just anywhere in a SLDF base. They were not cheap, even for the old SLDF to emplace. They were only used on certain areas that needed extra security, like command centers, power rooms, life support, and armories. The other good thing was that someone had thought to leave this security system activated, when they left this place the last time. Robert just hoped that it was left active for a reason. Other than someone had the time and wanted to make life difficult, for anyone who showed up after this base had been shut down. Soldiers threw out history, always had an odd idea on what was funny and what was not. Most of the time it would depend on who was the victim, and who was the instigator.
The cutting crew stopped working for a while, to have a hot meal and to take a break from the work. This is when Robert found out that the missing fourth person had been on guard duty outside. He was told it was so that no one could sneak up on them, while they were blindly working in the strange dark tunnel. After the sun had set. The person outside had started up the campfire, and he had set out some camp food out to begin warming for the rest of them. For the group it was not being tired that caused them to stop working, but their stomachs telling them it was time for a break. One of the metal cutters had to stay outside for the next shift of guard duty.
When the four people went back into the tunnel, Robert picked up a cutter from the missing man. He was not as fast or as neat with his cutting as the missing man had been, but it was better than nothing. And he was physically fresh, not having been wiped out from a long day of physical labor. Everyone in the group wanted to see what was in this last room, even if it was empty.
By midnight the bottom of the hatch had been completely cut threw, to include the locking bars that had deployed while Robert had been watching. It had been done by the better trained primary cutter. Robert had only the right-side locking rods cut. With the bottom cut, Robert moved out of the way of the better and faster metal cutter. Robert had cut on three of the side rods, when the second cutter made it back down the tunnel. It was his sleep time, but he said that he was way too excited to get any sleep. He thought he would come back down and see if he could help. Robert was not going to complain, it would speed things back up with a more experienced cutter on the job.
Now with the two more experienced cutters working on the job, it only took two hours to finish cutting the hatch open. They knew when the final cut was complete. It was when the heavy hatch snapped the last bit of hot metal. The hatch fell into the 2inch gap, that had been cut between the bottom of the hatch and the outer frame. It went with a loud metal clank, which caused everyone in the tunnel to whence in pain at the loud sound. The sound caused only a short delay, as four heavy metal prybars were shoved into the sides and top gaps that had been cut into the thick hatch. The four all had huge grins on their faces, as they slammed the prybars into the cut lines.
With a lot of sweat, some colorful words, and not a little grunting. The heavy metal hatch fell forward, into the exit tunnel. It had barely missed four sets of toes. The hatch did not lay flat on the floor, when it had fallen off of the side of the tunnel it was hiding. The top edge was only about half a meter off the floor of the main tunnel. It had fallen at a slight angle. It was just enough of an angle that it was going to make your footing unsure, and still be a trip hazard on the other end. It was however, not enough to block access to the room for the fivesome. It only made access a step up, then take another step, that was at a slight angle going down to the hatch. Once past the still hot, cut hatch lip there was a step down to the original level of the floor on the other side of the hatch frame. The group did not even notice the little dance steps they needed to do, to access the new room.
The four flashlight beams played across the now opened room. It was not empty. The small but powerful lights played across filled weapons racks and closed and locked storage lockers. This was not an entrance to another tunnel. It was something that was worth putting a security hatch in. First one light stopped and then another light followed, until all four lights had stopped on a crest painted on the back wall of the hard to get into room. To either side of the odd shaped Cameron star were the well-known patches used by the SAS.
The 331st had been a Royal Battle Mech Division. The unit had dozens of stories, about working with these elite units from before the Star League had fallen into the dust bin of history. It was using some of that knowledge and experience gained by working with those units, when Clan Wolverine came back to the Inner sphere that had paid dividends. They had been fleeing the abomination, that had become the Clans thanks to the General's Son. They were able to find over two hundred sets of Nighthawk PA(L) armor systems that they were still using to this day. That alone, had been directly thanks to notes and stories about working with the old SAS.
Robert was stunned, like the rest of them. But he was older, and he came back to his senses first. He was also the first to speak of the group. "Well Jess. I think you hit the jackpot. This might get us a return trip out this way a lot faster, than anyone of us might have thought possible. We need to get an inventory done, but if I'm not mistaken."
Robert played his hand-held light against one wall, that had oddly folded and unidentifiable equipment stacked along it. The odd folded equipment went almost to the ceiling of the vault in several tall stacks. "Those are Nighthawk systems, all along that wall and stacked to the ceiling."
"If this turned out to be a SAS platoon support base? High command was going to lose their minds," thought Robert. "Jess, I really hope you have an imaging system with lots of storage space with you. I want as many detailed images as you can get of this room, before we move anything. We need to know what was here and were it was, when we get back home. The Archivist Department will have our hides, if we cannot articulate the most minute details about this find of yours to them."
Robert smiled at the younger woman. "I bet she has not thought about, how this might be received when they got back home," Robert thought to himself. "That is why I get paid the big bills." He did not know it, but a sly little grin had crept onto his face that the others could see. It did not, for some reason make them feel easy about anything. The Captain only smiled like that, when you had stepped into something smelly up to your hips.
Robert grabbed the two cutters/bodyguards and left the room for Jess to do her tasks. He took the two other men to the last room, the one that would have been the bunk room. They went over every inch of the room, with a fine-tooth comb. It was through many hard-learned lessons, during their time in hiding. That now, they were also looking for any hidden rooms that might be in the exposed area. None were found, but you had to take the time and look for those items, when you dealt with special forces hideaways. The group of three, were also looking for anything that might be worth taking back to their home planet for testing or use.
After a little over an hour of looking at every little seam in the opened rooms. They were getting tired. They had only found a few items of personal or military equipment that might be of value, after it had gone through a lot of detailed cleaning. It seemed, that whoever had lived in these rooms? They had packed up everything they wanted, before leaving. In one of the two rooms off of the main bunk room. They had found, that one only had a single bed and a long dead computer on a small desk. They carefully picked the computer up and carried it to Roberts rented small truck. Robert made sure that it was packed down and protected. The two cutters had pulled out there sleeping beds, while Robert went back down the tunnel to check on Jess. The two cutters were running on empty, now that most of the excitement was over. They know knew what was in the last locked room, and it was a major find no matter how you looked at it.
Jess was still in the armory, when Robert found her. She had hopped up onto a worktable and used her backpack as a hard and lumpy pillow. She already was deep asleep, and Robert would bet. That she would start to snore any second now. Robert left her there and went back out to his rental truck and pulled out his sleeping bag, with his thick pillow and sleeping pad. He was too old to "like" sleeping on the hard and lumpy ground. He was a jumpship commander after all, and not a ground pounder or tank driver.
Robert woke himself up early. The sun was just starting to rise, and you could just barely tell the difference between a white thread and a black one at arm's length. Any more sunlight, and it would have spot lighted him out in the open on the exposed side of the truck and tent combination. He relieved the current guard, so he could get some sleep and be useful later by Jess with her mission. Robert drew some water from a large container and started heating it up, by the open and still burning campfire. He added some more ready firewood to increase the heat production, for the water and soon to be needed warm food.
Robert did not need the night vision device, which the last guard had been using for his watch. Robert just had to keep a look out with his own eyes, but he also had a set of cheap locally unmanned sensors that had been placed around the camp by this team. These devices were to help alert them; in case anyone might come near them while they were working. Besides it had more scouting skills than any of the duty guards. It would have been different if one or two of them had been first trained as Infantry or scouts. It was around eight in the morning local time, when the rest of the prospecting team joined Robert around the fire. Even Jess came stumbling out of the tunnel, not long after the other two had taken seats around the nicely burning fire.
After a quick meal, Jess and Robert went back into the tunnel. They would be working alone for at least a few hours, before they would be joined by anyone else. That was okay with Robert, because this next part was not the most fun for anyone to have to do. That would come later, but this had to be done.
Jess and Robert were able to complete the detailed search of the latrine and the kitchen, before they were joined by a third person. The Latrine and gym were of no use to anyone, but a scrap dealer. The equipment was not worth the effort to move, and the lockers had been cleaned out already. Even the extra bath towels seemed to be gone. They had not rotted into dust, but they had been removed from their holders. Maybe by the unit that had been here, and had left for the last time. This was noted by Jess and Robert, to be added to their post mission reports. They did find what was left of the small washcloths, as a pile of dirt in the marked holder.
What the three had found in the kitchen, had cause the three to talk and do some on the spot brainstorming. Everything had been removed from the kitchen. It was almost like someone had packed up all of the food and had moved it out of the facility. The only thing that had remained behind, had been the odd stack of flatware and plates left in bare cupboards. These were just the generic types and not the unit embossed items, that had been found before in sites like this. It was odd that these had been taken, and there was little doubt that they had been taken. There was a marked area in the shelves for them, that was very empty of anything but a thin layer of dust.
The only thing that they had found of interest, was a plastic map mounted on one of the walls. It showed some of what might be beyond the cave in. It looked like there was at least another four rooms down the line from the location of the cave in. The little map did not have that much information about what those rooms might be, only that they had firefighting and air filtration equipment for emergency use. You would just have to dig threw an unknown number of tons of rock and dirt, to get to them.
Robert and Jess knew that the first room from the cave in, should be the main ammunition supply point (ASP) for the platoon. Then you would have a land vehicle maintenance area, another barracks, and then a small hospital or medical bay. After that? They had no information, unless they found something in the arms room near the exit hatch. The map did prove that there was more to this tunnel that might be of value, besides what they had found already.
Jess was showing Robert the images that she had taken of the arms room. With her intelligence background, she knew how to quickly and expertly record what had been in the arms room. When there third person showed back up, from a latrine break. He had his own noteputor, and that brought the number to three in that room. Each one of them had at least two different camera settings that could be used. They went about the business of going into each locker and drawer in the arms room. As they were going around the room. They could see that some of the weapons were missing. It was by the open slots in the different weapons racks, as they passed the cameras viewfinders over them in a steady sweep.
When Robert made it to the location where the crews served weapons were placed, the only ones that were present were the tripod only mountable weapons. All of the weapons that were modified to be mounted on a vehicle of any kind were also missing. There should have been half a dozen of them, according to the empty slots in the racks. But all of those spots that should have held the heavy weapons were empty. It was possible that they never had been there in the first place, but Robert did not think so. If the SAS needed or just wanted something? They would have gotten it, one way or the other. Most of the time they would get three or four of them, according to rumor.
Robert had them load up first the jeep, that he had rented, with some of the items from the treasure chest. It only had about a 250kg cargo capacity, according to the manual. They also could not put anything in the small SUV. That someone passing him might notice, that he was carrying something odd or SLDF in origin. That meant that most of the space in the seating area was not used, no matter how much they might want to. Robert had to get back to the dropships. He needed to plan out a way to clean out this find. It was going to have to be done quietly, and above all it would need to be done secretly.
The group of four loaded a mix of armorer's tools, small weapons, and whatever else would fit around the complete computer system already loaded in the small truck. They used some of Robert's camping gear to pad and conceal the items. Those last two operations took longer than loading the vehicle had taken in the first place.
Robert drove slowly and carefully down the creek bed and dirt trails. He kept the speed down all the way back to the hardtop road, that would lead him back to the drop port. He did keep his side arm within easy reach of his firing hand during, the entire trip back to the ships. He was carrying treasure, and it seemed like the right thing to do at the time.
Robert continued taking his time on the drive, even after he got into higher traffic capable roads. He was using the time to try to work out a plan in his head, on how to empty their find without drawing any unwanted attention by locals or anyone else. There was not an HPG on the planet, but there were ships leaving this system at least every other week or so. He hoped to be able to leverage the find, in such a way. That they might be able to come back and find out what else might be hidden in the facility. He thought that they had only scratched the surface of Jess's find. When Robert passed a wide field that had been filled with beef cattle, which were waiting to go to one of the local slaughterhouses? That was when a new idea started to form in his mind. Now all he had to do, was fill in the holes of the base plan or idea.
When he was closer to the drop port. He called ahead and made sure that the large main loading ramp was down and locked, on the Maru. He drove the rented jeep right onto the drop port without having to be inspected by the half-asleep guard, and then right up the loading ramp of the massive Mule class dropship. He pulled the jeep off to the side of the open hatch, so that it was not visible from the outside no matter what angle they might have on the open dropship hatch. Waiting for him was the dropship commander and the Cargo Master. Both people had a very concern look on their face, when Robert exited the mud-covered off-road SUV. He had not showered, shaved, or changed clothes since he had come on shift early the day before. This was very out of character for the mission commander.
Robert waved to the two other men to come over. Robert put on his poker face, when he saw that they were walking over to their commander with odd looks on their faces. Robert used the time to open the back of the small cargo compartment. He only had to wait for a few minutes till they joined him, there at the open back of the rented small SUV. He was playing dirty pool, but sometimes you had to do what you needed to do as a commander. Him having fun was just an added benefit.
"Gentlemen! It would seem, that Jess has been right all along. She has found two entrances to an underground bunker or bunkers, while she was out in the woods. Now both were blocked a few hundred meters into the underground areas. The second one had a few rooms that we were able to check out, before the tunnels were blocked by cave-ins. But at least one was not a dry hole."
With the last words, Robert pulled off a tarp, that had been used to cover what had been hidden underneath it. What was now on display, were a pair of old laser pistols with clearly visible SLDF markings on the grips. "I want this truck emptied, and everything put in shipping containers. I want those containers separated from anything else on board. Command will want to make sure we do not contaminate or lose any of it, before we can get back home. I also want it under a guard with a concealed weapon. And I want everyone watching what is going around the ships from now on, just in case until we leave this system."
Robert said the last with a slight smile on his face. "The area that the bunkers are in, might be one of the hot spots for others looking for the old SLDF depot. We are going to have to recover what we can. All without letting anyone else know what we are doing, or that we had found there. I have a plan and it starts with the red meat shipment, that is due to be delivered to us in the morning."
Over the next few minutes, Robert gave a rundown of what he was planning to two of his senior staff. It did not go over well, but neither of the other two men could come up with a better plan on such short notice. They would just have to make do with what they had, or what their commander had pulled out the place he had been sitting on while he had been driving back to the drop port.
Notes:
Cate's Hold: I did not know about this planet, until I had been working on this project for a while. I just could not have the SLiE not stop by this place, after I found out about it. It also would make sense that they would have also been looking for the old base on the other supply runs.
Lostech prospecting: How do you keep what you are doing quiet from those around you? How do you balance risk vs reward? I was thinking it was a lot like the old gold rush days with claim jumping. I had a run in with someone looking for the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine while on a trail ride in the Superstition Mountains. Let's just say that it almost got ugly, and all I was doing was looking to make a cat hole.
Data on old SLDF: It is very hard to find any canon information on Brain Cache, so I just kind of made it up.