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.

33. Chapter 33 20 April 3048

Chapter 33

By Cliff

Beta and Clean up: Not done

Reviewed by Hotpoint and Cannonshop

20 April 3048 the second run

Andurien System.

It had taken the Styx two jumps to make it only 16 light years of distance, and it was closer to 30 days to make that run. That was due to the need of the other two jumpships to trade, as they went along the route. Robert and his ships were not cleared to land, right off the bat on arrival in the capital system. They were held at the jump point of what most of the locals called the capital of the Duchy of Andurien for a full week. This system was filled with space stations, jumpships, dropships, small craft and fighters of all kinds. This delay worked out well for Robert and his people, and it paid off when the engineering staff asked for a full command meeting. The reason for the meeting was that the Engineers had reached the end of what they might be able to learn using shipboard references and resources, about the recovered battle suits.

The head of the techs on the Styx, and the ones on the other dropships for that matter, was looking around the table at the other leaders of the mission. "Thank you all for coming. My team as completed as detailed of an examination of this new type of Powered Battle Armor, as they can, with the limited resources we have on hand to work with. Yes, I said new type of battle armor. It might look like a Nighthawk suit, but it's not."

The head tech looked down at her notes, and then looked back up. "First! The armor mass is the same as a Nighthawk and offers the same level of protection for weight of that powered armor. It is also the same mass as the suits we are used to seeing. It even uses a clone of the same armored glove systems, as we are used to working with. What is different, is the type of armor that covers the thing from head to toe. The Nighthawk has what I would call standard stealth, for the purposes of this meeting. This suit, we think are called Tornadoes, by stamps we found on the software. They have a lower grade of stealth armor, which I will refer to as basic stealth for this meeting. None of my people have worked on suits, but a few of the security people have studied some of the literature. We are more or less making it up as we go."

She stopped talking for a second and an image of the Tornado suit was put on display. "It's still very good, as stealth systems go. It's just not as advanced as what a Nighthawk is supposed to be able to do. This suit makes up for the lower tech stealth system, by caring a powerful, almost freaky powerful, ECM set up. The other item that is different between these two suits, is that this suit does not have built in jump jets. I know that this is confusing information, but the reason I felt that we needed this meeting. It is, that I think. Well sir! We need to get home as soon as possible!"

The Captain of the Lisbon Maru was looking around the room, but the face was a dead giveaway to what he was thinking. He was not sure why this was being asked of the command group. He put his hands flat on the metal desktop and decided to find out the why. He was a captain of a dropship within the SLDF, that should give him some leeway to ask a few questions.

"Why the rush? We have been attacked, but we are not that far under strength. Not when you add in the crew from the merchant class and Rob Roy, that we picked up after the sale of those vessels on Canopus."

The briefer gave a smile that put Robert on edge. It looked like someone was about to be sent out to look for a can of rotor wash or a lefthanded torque wrench. "Sir? It's not the personnel losses or the loss of effectiveness of our ships due to combat damage. It's the suits we are now carrying. What has stopped us from making a major production runs of more Nighthawk suits, back home? It has been because of two major components that are key to the Nighthawks utility. One is that we could not make large batches of the stealth embedded armor. The other one is the small but very powerful jump jets the Nighthawk has." The only reason that the best tech in the SLS Styx engineer department knew this type of information, was that she had been helping with the hand making of the micro jump engines before being reactivated.

The tech looked around the room, and after wetting her lips. She kept talking. "I think with the eight fully functional or mostly functional suits, that we were able to put together from the dozen in the attack. We might give our people enough material to make more of this type of suits. It might not be possible, right now. I will tell you, that I think that they might be able to duplicate this suit in the hundreds or thousands per run. They will not be a match for the Nighthawks, in all ways. We still could save lives by improving the ground pounder and marine's ability to withstand battle damage and carry more powerful weapons. Think of the lives we could save? Even if we can only make enough of them to outfit our scouts and a few of our counter boarding teams?" Her tone went lower as she finished her line of thought. Most of the people around this table knew that she had lost her youngest daughter to a small Cylon boarding of the Zug on the last mission to old Colonial space.

Robert knew this and he could feel the pain coming off the woman. "That is some news, senior tech. I think that it's a good idea to plan on taking the shortest route home, when we leave here. That is, if we can do so with a full cargo load. We have a mission statement and requirements, which we must try to meet, and our command is expecting us to meet them."

He held his hands up to stop the woman from talking. "I agree. That we should not stop at just any place, and we will take the shortest track to get us back home. This is a regional capital, so it should have some of the more, hard to find items we have been looking for."

The meeting broke up soon after. Questions were asked, and some answers were given, but most of it was simply that they did not know that much at this time. They were limited with the amount and types of testing equipment they had on the ships of this convoy. Ten hours after the meeting had been closed. Commander Copeland was given clearance to land all of his dropships, at the main drop port outside of Jojoken.

It was a ten day burn to the planet, and for once. They were not told to hold in orbit, but to make a least time approach to the drop port at a very specific angle. This was the busiest drop port that Robert and his ships had stopped at, so far to date. It was even bigger and busier than the drop port on Canopus, by a few orders of magnitude. Before they even had landed. The White Rabbit and the Lisbon Maru were being contacted by groups on the ground.

Unlike almost all of the other planets that they had stopped at, on both trips. On this planet? There were people and groups, which had high ticket items for sale, or you could buy. Those same types of high-ticket items that might not come up on or be advertised on the "normal" markets. When new ships or trading companies paid a visit? It was news, and they would be looked at.

Word of what Copeland Supply, Salvage and Resale had been trading for the past year, had gotten around already to a lot of different ears in this whole sector of space. It did not take Robert long to figure out that they were going to need more than the planned five days of trading and both cargo masters. It was going to take dozens of man hours just to look at the sale and want ads.

They had only been on the ground 24 hours, and all of the remaining ultra-autocannons and computers were sold are set aside for viewing by interested buyers. The half dozen second generation PPCs were also moved out of the cargo bays. They could have moved the last ER PPCs, but Robert had stopped that. He had a plan for those last few energy weapons. His orders were questioned with only a raised eyebrow from the cargo masters. They knew that Copeland did not want to take any "normal' cargo back home with them.

Robert had learned from the first mission, when to let the reigns lose on his people. While the dropship's Captains and Cargo Masters were doing their jobs. Robert and Jess went about seeing what might be of use back home that no one had thought of yet. It was fun, if you did not have to have four armed and big escorts with you every step of the way.

The first item to look at, had come from an advertisement that said someone was selling a Hoplite type battlemech. They claimed that it dated back to the FWL civil war. Jess and Robert set a meeting time and the location given was strange, but they went anyway. A car and driver had been "donated" by the local FWL garrison commander, as a measure of thanks for "helping" out when one of their worlds had been attacked by "scumbag pirates". Then again, it could have been the ER PPCs they bought earlier in the day. The FWL had always been short of that type of weapon, much less having access to a second generation one. When they had given the address to the driver for the day. He had laughed, but he had refused any questions on why he had given that response to the written down address.

The driver took Robert, Jess, Mike, and the escorts to the location on the notecard. It turned out to be a large strip mall on the edge of town. In a center park like area of the shopping area, was the mech in question. The lightly armored hover passenger transport came to a stop, right at the opening in a white painted knee-high fence. It was going around the machine of war standing in a green space. It did not take long for Robert to figure out what was going on. The current owner had painted the Hoplite in Wolf's Dragoons colors and was selling tickets, for people to climb on and around the 55ton machines or take images with it.

The large black painted hover transport had quickly drawn the attention of the ticket seller, whose picture had been on the posted sales announcement. Robert stepped away from the transport and intercepted the balding overweight man heading their way. "Tomas Davis? I'm Robert Copeland. You were told that we would like to check out your machine, to see if my partners and I would like to purchase it."

The sweating man with a receding hairline met Roberts open hand with a sweaty one and gave a bad breath and brown toothed smile. "Yes! Thank you for coming. Just give me a few minutes to clear out the last of the ticket buyers."

It took only a few minutes to clear out the fenced offed area around the mech. While Mike was checking out the war machine, Jess was going through the digital books or logs. That left Robert trying to stay away from Mr. Sweaty Palms. He was able to stay away from the seller by simply moving around the area "looking" at the battlemech from different angles. Mike and Jess did not have to track Robert down, when they were ready. They just radioed him any of the information, that was relevant for what Robert needed to do his part of the job. The bad part? Was now Robert was going to have to deal with Mr. Davis up close and personal.

Robert walked up to the ticket selling stand, were Tomas was waiting with his arms crossed over his big belly. Robert did not offer his hand this time, he was in professional buyer's mode. "Tomas let's talk some business. What do you want for your display?"

Tomas rose from his stool and gave a huge smile. He was thinking his payday was finally here. "Ten million C-bills, and you take care of shipping." This was his well-rehearsed demand.

Robert was a little taken aback. That was nowhere near what he had expected to hear, as the sale price. It had come so far out of left field, that his poker face fell for a full second. "Tomas! This is not a joke. How much are you asking for your mech?"

Now it was the turn of Tomas to let his face fall. He had been expecting to get that number for his fully functional mech. "It's a documented Wolf's Dragoons machine, in full working order, and so ten million C-bills is a fair price."

Now Robert knew what he was dealing with. This man was not a mech jock or a tech, both of those types of people would have led off with that comment about it being in full working order. This guy was out of his depth and Robert could work with that. "Tomas, what you have is a 55ton war machine that is very quickly going to be only useful for a backwoods garrison militia. In by soon? I would say in ten to fifteen years, if that."

Tomas turned white and then started sputtering. "But it was used by the Wolf's Dragoons!" He was holding onto that saying, like it was some kind of magic spell.

Robert had to fight a smile down. "Yes, it was used by the Wolf's Dragoons. And you even painted it to look like it had been in the Black Widow's company. I think both of us know that his machine never was used by her or anyone in her company. What I want to ask you is this? How many enemies has the Wolf's Dragoons made over the years? Whoever is piloting this machine? They are going to draw them to it, like a moth to a fire. The other idea is that anyone who wants to brag about taking down a Wolf's Dragoon mech? They will fire first at this machine, even if they are not mad at the Dragoon's. I'm kind of surprised that the Seventh Kommandos had not paid you a visit already. So, now that we have the facts on your mech out in the open. What do you want to get out of it?"

Tomas was still set, but his voice was getting weaker. "It's a Dragoons mech and it is fully operational, except for ammunition! Seven million?" The last part was delivered as a question and not a statement. He had not realized how much he had over played his hand, until just now.

Robert was back in salesman's mode, now that the other man was off of his high horse. "Seven Million? I could not find a price for the last time one of these machines was sold on the open market for. I did find were something like this should be worth 4.4 million."

Tomas's jaw swung open at the number that Robert had given him. "No way! I can make that much in ticket sales and rentals in that timeline."

Robert let a smile cross his face, which was not friendly. "A few years? I'm surprised that some of those Combine boys have not come over and blown it up on you, yet. You know after Misery? I don't think those crazy samurai were happy with the outcome."

Tomas was again doing the dead fish thing with his mouth. Robert had reviewed all the books that they had picked up on the last trip. He had been interested in any information about the Wolf's Dragoons that he could find. That was why he really wanted this machine as much as SLIC. There had been a dozen articles about the Dragoons using mechs that had not been seen in the Inner Sphere for a hundred or more years.

The Hoplite had been pointed out in more than a few of those reports that were on the open market. The last Hoplite, before 3005, had been seen in around 2835. The digital logs on this machine only went back to 3005, when the Dragoons first showed up in the Inner Sphere. This could be what higher command had wanted. It was not an Imp, but it was as close as he thought likely he would be able to get on this run. That is unless he went to Outreach and tried to pick one up from them, personally.

Robert thought it was now time to drop his hammer and jump the bid. "Five million is my top bid. That is 600k above capability price. What do you think Tomas? Do I need to wave and have my people leave in our rental? Or do we transfer the money, right now?"

Tomas did not know where he went wrong. He had turned down that much money before, but that had been over two years ago. What this off worlder had said, made sense. Too much sense, and Tomas was now wondering if he should have gotten out of this business a long time ago. He was seeing enemies at every turn of his head. Five million would barely cover the loan he had taken out, when he had first bought this hunk of junk. It would pay the loan off and leave him a few dozen k's in the bank. Then again, he had done a lot of ticket sales over the years. It was not the payday he had thought that he was going to get. Without knowing it, his hand went out to shake on the deal.

Robert took the hand and shook it. Jess was nearby, and just out of earshot. When she saw the hand shoot out? She knew the deal was done. She quickly had her noteputor up, and had Tomas signing that he had agreed to sell his machine. Jess was surprised at the final sales price. Mechs were always a Sellers' market, but this was a regional capital. She thought that Commander Copeland could have gotten a better deal on the display. She would ask about it later. The deal was done, and they had just picked up one of the key items, that they had been asked almost by name to get on this run. When the last document was signed. She turned to her captain.

"Sir, I will contact a local moving company and see when they can pick up the mech for us."

Robert nodded looking around the long strip of shops. "Good, Jess. Make sure to tell them that we will pay extra, if they can get it to the drop port before midnight tonight. While we're here, why don't we all get some shopping done?"

Robert turned back to look at Tomas. "I don't mind if you keep selling tickets, but any damage done to my machine will come out of your pocket."

He turned and pointed to the shopping area, and the group started walking that way with sly smiles on their faces. Robert had already upped the personnel cargo space that each person could have for items. Stopping here was going to fill their ship's allowance. Jess nodded and in less than an hour. She had arranged to have the Hoplite picked up and dropped off back at the Lisbon Maru.

The strip mall was a full retail set up. The volume per item was normally very small, but they did have a wide selection of items. Robert made a mental note to pass this updated location to his crews. The prices were a lot lower, than the shops that were closer to the drop port. It was during one of these stops that Robert saw a 3D image playing on one wall. There was half a dozen like screens all around the mall playing a different round of advertisements.

Every third set of images was an advertisement for S.L. Lewis Incorporated. They were talking up the new Savannah Master, which was now being sold with new built Edasich made Omni 25 fusion engines. They had been using the supply of Omni 25s that the company founder had found years ago. While Robert was watching the images. Mike and Jess walked up to either side of him. The displays were now cutting between battle ROM and other images showing off the little 5ton hovercraft in combat.

Robert looked first left and then right, as they watched the flashing images. Then his eyes were drawn back to the flashing images. "I was thinking. Did either one of you, see that big report the news did on that one pilot?" He was not going to use words like Colonial, Viper, or anything close to that. Not at least till they were out of the Inner Sphere zone.

Mike was nodding, but Jess was not sure which one he was talking about. She had to dodge around the protocols, but she gave it a shot anyway. "Are you referring to the short blond top gun?" She kept the voice level as glass.

Robert did not make eye contact with them. He was watching a hover craft slide across some flat ground at an incredible rate of speed. The pilot of the craft looked to have meant to slide, because it fired a laser built into the round nose of the little one-man craft. Robert watched it strike a hover APC with a hand making a big Okay sign in white paint on the side.

"Yes, that is the one. But what I was thinking, is that. We have a customer that likes light and fast weapons platforms. They might have some interest in those little hotrods." Robert pointed to the nearest screen with his chin.

Jess pointed at some information displayed on the side of the images. "Sir? That looks to be some local contact information. I can see what they have on hand?"

Robert was nodding his head. "Yes do. They even tell you how much one costs." A number of 91,000 c-bills was now in flashing lights over a slowly turning 3 D image of the hovercraft.

They spent the next few hours shopping and window shopping, until Jess's computer beeped at her. She had a text message waiting for her. It was short, simple, and to the point of saying, that the mech transport was there. Robert and the rest walked the almost mile back to the little park, that was about to lose its center peace. It was not a sad time. The mech was going to a good home that would soon find out her true history.

"Jess do you remember that time we picked up that Wolfhound. I wonder what ever happened to that guy….. Don. I kept forgetting to send him a message." Robert was watching as someone was lowering the no armed mech onto the larger flatbed trailer. This trailer was huge, and it did not have wheels but tracks like a tank under the bed. This machine was used to taking a lot bigger load, than a 55ton oddly painted mech. Robert was betting that he was going to pay extra, but he wanted that machine in his cargo holds as soon as possible. All before Tomas changed his mind and tried to back out of the sale or anything, more stressful.

Jess froze, and then slowly turned to face her commander. She did not think that she had broken any of the long lists of rules, but now she was not so sure. "Yes, I remember him. I have sent him a few messages. I even saw him on the stop at Canopus IV. He had his surgery and it worked, but not as well as he had first hoped. He is working his way up quickly, at an Industrial mech training school. He owns two construction mechs outright, and he is working on paying off a third one. He asked me, twice, if we could give him and his stuff a ride off world. He does not feel that he is being used to his full potential, out on the edge of developed space."

Robert now was looking at Jess, but he did not look mad. "That is good to know. If you want to keep in contact with him? I am okay with it but remember the rules."

That was all he said. On the insides he was laughing, thinking back to the grief he had gotten over his relationship with Terry. The rest of the day and into the night went at almost an enjoyable pace. Then they had to return to the three grounded dropships, for the night. Robert went right to bed and was asleep all the way until, the alarm went off to let him know it was time to start the new day. That was one of the things about a large space port. There was a lot of security.

The next day started with a full staff meeting, well full minus Jules. He was still on the Styx at the jump point. Robert was the first one in the meeting room, and he took the free time to do the paperwork that he had not done the day before. Everyone was in a good mood, as they entered the room. But as soon as the fix mount clock said 0900? They all stopped talking. Robert made eye contact with Jess. She would be the first briefer today.

Jess took the nod and sat up straighter in her chair. "Yesterday was productive, with some key items being acquired. We had delivered, a Mech that was lost by the Wolf's Dragoons and then recovered by a third party. The other major item was the last two Leopard dropship engines, we were asked to pick up. This makes six that we have and the total number we were asked to bring back. The Captain of the Styx reports. That he would like to take up an offer of a 100ton Stuka, which was put on the market by a mercenary unit that is hurting for money. He will need clearance to transfer six million c-bills for it. He reported that it passed inspection, but it could use some paint and some armor plate. Other than that? It was good to go."

Robert looked over at the Hobgoblin. This craft would be flying off of his decks, so it was his call if they were going to buy it. "Captain what do you think? Do we buy it, and then move one of the Ironsides pilots to it?"

The Captain of the Hobgoblin was not caught flat footed with this question, because the Styx had been in contact with him before he had gone to bed. There had been almost half a dozen fighters for sale on and off of the planet. The number rose and fell almost hourly. The one thing that all of them had in common was that none of them were upgraded, in any way. Which was bad, but the 100ton Stuka could be a good counter dropship craft. The first one had proven it already. And it was best that you did not mix lance mates for too long.

"Sir, I think we should get it. Fighters work better with the same craft in the same lance. As to manning? I know that there are two recently ex-aero fighter pilots in our crews. I would like to take them both on as pilots."

He stopped talking for a second and put a sly grin on his face. "Commander, before you ask. No, we will not be able to upgrade it to match the Sled we have now. We just don't have the parts that we would need to do something like that. They still will have the same speed and armor and most of the other support systems. The addition of this craft would put us only one fighter under strength, which will be a surprise to anyone who might want to cause trouble."

Robert turned to Jess and nodded his head up and down. Jess nodded back and made a note on her digital device. "Okay. I will send the Styx a message and give them the okay to purchase the fighter. Next item, Commander. I was able to contact a supply park, about the Savanna Masters. They have a dozen for sale at the listed price. I asked, and I was told firmly. That the list price, is the list price. They do deliver and shipping to the drop port is for free. How many would you like me to order."

Robert made a thin-lipped face. How many should he get? He knew, down to the C-Bill what he had been able to make for the Colonials so far. "Well Hell! I will get them all. It the Colonials don't have enough cash, when we land for the whole batch. They can buy them one at a time from our people like any other car. I bet someone will pick them up, after we land. Also ask if they can throw in a parts support package for them, the larger the better. If not, then see what you can get without it costing an arm and a leg?"

He had not said something out loud, but a smile was on his face has he pictured a Viper Pilot called Starbuck at the controls of one of those death machines. "Jess have all of them sent over. Worse case? The medium lasers and the fusion engines could be used other places."

Jess nodded again, and then went to the next item on her list. "We were contacted by a unit that noticed one of the items on the shopping list." She looked up at Commander Copeland, and then around the table. "I didn't send a reply, because I did not know if it was a joke or not. Why would the Colonials want water warcraft, like a Sea Skimmer?"

Robert looked at Jess, and he quickly picked up on a blind spot in her knowledge base. He found it very hard not to smile. "Jess, they are not worried about Cylons landing on the planet and having to fight them on the waterways of New Circe. They have that large river, which runs all the way to the coastal seaways. They want craft like that, to help police their own territory's waterways. Don't forget that even a few weeks before they were wiped out by the Cylons. They had problems with their different tribes not getting along with other tribes. They are looking at any and every hole in their experience after that wildfire. Please set up that meeting, and I will take point on this one. I met with the Colonial Admiral before we left, so I think it should be me on the blame line."

Jess made the note, but she still did not think this was a good idea. "Okay? The next item. Did you get a chance to read your private messages?" Robert gave her an odd look, then shook his head side to side. Jess decides to go ahead with the issue. "Sir, they are in your inbox. They are a few different messages, but all are on the same topic, and they all came from Kimberly and Lora. Did you have them looking for an up gunned cargo hauler, Sir?"

Now Robert was the one that was on his back foot. He had to spend a few long seconds racking his mind, to remember if he had done that. Then it hit him, and he had to smile. "I sent them a message, right after our ComStar surprise and had them looking to see what they could find. I take it they might have found something that we can use?"

Robert and now both cargo ship's Captains were looking at her with interest. It did not take long for Jess to react. "Sir? The message that was sent to us, as a staff, said they might have something. They also said the MC was very happy with the Rob Roy, and they are interested in buying the White Rabbit. But Kimberly has found a cargo modified Union class dropship. They pulled the mech bays out but left the fighter bays on the craft. The total cargo space will be within about 150 tons, of what the White Rabbit gives us."

The Captain of the White Rabbit head snapped to look at the Convoy commander. It had always been in the books to sell the Blockade Runner. The SLDF Navy hated supporting these craft, mainly due to their pasts and the whole idea that they were designed to be blockade runners. But they had worked out so well, on these runs. That the Rabbit's Captain had forgotten that he was only in temporary command of the ship.

Robert made eye contact with the dropship Captain, but he was talking to the rest of the room also. We knew that this might come up before too long. Getting a Union class would make supporting these missions a lot easier for the whole SLDF Navy. It was a pain having to keep parts and training for a one-off dropship like the White Rabbit, no matter how well she had done what we had been asking of her.

"I will review the messages and get as much detail as I need. What I want, is a detailed plan on how long it would take to get the Rabbit ready to turn over to any new owners from the local area. Give me the facts, so I can make an informed decision." Robert looked around the table and everyone saw that Jess was putting her notes away.

The Captain of the Hobgoblin was next on the briefing list. "I am happy to report. That all four of my craft are now fully operational, at 100 percent of expected capabilities. We have also refilled our parts and ammunition storage. We can launch at any time with the catapults, and a runway outside of my ship has been marked for emergency landing. We have been cleared to do any test flights, that we might need to do. I think someone from the local government passed it around, that we took some heavy damage fighting pirates in FWL space. Do you want me to do some "test flights" or not, sir?" Having kept the other Ironsides from being seen had now seemed to have been a good idea, as proven by the last battle.

Robert looked straight down the tabletop, for a few long seconds weighing out risk and rewards. "If you need to do them for safety or something along those lines? Yes. If not? Then no. I don't want everyone to know that we are getting back to normal fighting levels. I don't want to make it easy for any attacker to plan things out. I know it will not take long for word to get out that we are buying another Stuka, and that can't be helped." Robert gave a head nod and the meeting continued.

The Leopard dropship also put out its plan, for restocking its food stores. The Lisbon Maru updated everyone on cargo space and all of the different cargos due into them already. When it came back to the Rabbit, for its update. Its Captain had something he wanted to put out, which had not been covered yet.

"Sir, we have been tracking over a company of mechs on roving patrols around the drop port at all times. We also picked up more than a company of hover tanks, moving around the area around our dropships. The hover tanks are sticking to what look like established routs. The mechs seem a bit more random in their movements, but they are staying on the main routes around the port. We have picked up three transports "near" us, which might be concealed observation points. So far, all the signal intercepts have been of FWL equipment, and not ComStar linked items. From what we have been able to "gather". It is that they are primarily trying to figure out if we, are somehow connected to an undercover ComStar operation."

Robert nodded as the younger man talked, and when he was finished, and the rounds of laughter had stopped. "Okay keep an eye on them. They might be locals or ComStar might have learned, that we were picking up on their communications equipment. They also could be a double blind, or something. If they want to watch? We will let them. We are not doing anything against the local laws, yet."

Robert looked around the table and made eye contact with two of the Captains. "Still, let's make sure they don't see too much. Also, let's not squander the information that the White Rabbit has given us." He looked around the table one more time.

"Okay, it seems like we are finished here. Let's be about our day then." Robert rose from his chair and started to exit the room. He was quickly followed by the rest of the command staff. Robert made his way to the bridge and waited for its ships master to show, after he had checked on his people after the meeting. He wanted to have a private talk with this dropship's commander.

You might think that Robert and his escorts, along with Jess, would have to catch a flight to some seaport or river port to check out something called a Sea Skimmer. Where else would you be going to check out water combat craft? That was not the case. A mercenary unit was just coming off of a long garrison tour on a water rich world, somewhere in the Inner Sphere. They were going somewhere else now. Someplace undisclosed that they did not need as many of these types of vessels to do the mission they were hired to complete.

Robert had no idea where the unit had picked them up. They were selling them, and Robert was looking to buy. That was all he needs to know and that could be a match made in heaven, or hades. It kind of depends on your point of view at the time. The location on the meeting was on the other side of the drop port, about ten miles from the current location of the three dropships. The area was listed as long-term landing spots, on the drop port map. The rates here were cheaper, and units and companies could stay in one location for anywhere between a few months to a few years. All without being in the way of faster turning around transports and cargo haulers.

When Robert and his entourage exited the hover transport? They were met by a woman between 40 and 45, but she could have been younger. She was in some kind of military type of field uniform; which Robert had not seen before. The silver oak leaves pinned onto her shoulder? Now those he did know. When Robert was out of the transport, he makes sure his uniform looks good. Then walked quickly to the waiting officer.

Lt Col Lisa Travis had just step out of one of the warehouses, which her unit was renting along with the landing pads on the back side of the building. She was expecting a meeting with a visiting merchant. Her commander had set this up the day before, without letting her know. The note to her, had only asked that she try to get some of the unit's money back from picking up some upgraded weapons. Until she had read the note? She had no idea where her boss had picked up two of those high-end weapons. As the second in command of the military unit? That did not make her that happy with her commander.

It was her primary job, while they waited for the next contract to start, was to help the Old Man reorganized the unit. That included starting to put in the groundwork to help it grow to a full Regiment. They were not there, yet. But if she could sell this stuff? It would help. If she could keep the old man from buying too many shiny new toys from any sellers? That also would be a great help in the long term. She was having flash backs of those Vindicators he had almost picked up a few years back. That would have been a nightmare to support.

She saw the large passenger transport coming her way. She was hoping that it was the appointment that she was NOT looking forward to having to deal with. They were almost a half an hour early, when she saw a tall man in a ship's jumpsuit get out of the transport. She was impressed, by her first impression. He did not have a "rank" tab, but you could tell he was in command. He checked his uniform, before coming over at the quick step, and offered his hand to her. She smiled, but smiles were not her cup of tea. Putting her foot up someone's ass? Now that was more her cup of tea. The Old Man was good at smiling at the right times.

"I'm Colonel Travis. You must be Captain Copeland."

The hard-looking woman had a good grip, as Robert took the hand. "Good to meet you. I understand that you might have some items in excess that I'm looking for."

Lisa nodded and let go of the hand, to point into the open warehouse door behind her. She knew that her face was saying more than she wanted. "I was told that we do. If you and your people will follow me? We have all of our "excess" in this warehouse."

Lisa led the group deeper into the well-lit warehouse. It was filled with "stuff". A lot of the items were for water-based operations. Towards the end of the warehouse. They passed two massive pipe shaped vessels, which might have been submarines or huge missiles. Jess could not help herself. She had gotten out of practice of being quiet when she had a question.

Jess stopped walking and points to the cargo on one of the long flatbed trailers. "What is this Colonel?"

Colonel Travis stopped and looked at where the younger woman was pointing. "That is a Neptune class attack submarine. We have two of the 100ton vessels. That one has some battle damage, but it's on the side that you can't see from here. We were not able to fully repair some of the equipment, but we have a detailed report on all damage."

Robert used the opening to find out some more information, which he did not need but wanted to know. "Battle damage? So, where did you get this stuff? Am I going to be looking over my shoulder for the last owners wanting to do a little repossession?"

Col Travis locked eyes with the merchant, and he lost a few points in her book. "We were on a mission on a Cappie world, putting down an uprising for a year. It turned out that it was the Federated Commonwealth that was supplying them. We took out two of the units that the FedCom had hired, before our contract ran out. Everything we are selling has been registered and cleared for legal sale by the FWL, at the national level."

Robert tilted his head at the hit, and then tried to patch things up between the officer and him. That was as about as legal as you could get. As long as you did not upset someone very high on the food chain somewhere, these were clean goods. "Sorry Colonel. We have been on the edge of space for too long, it seems. I am sorry to say, that I don't have the money or the clearance to pick up those two." He really wanted to pick them up, for use back home. The idea of being able to fight underwater? That was intriguing to a spaceman. Robert was thinking that, this was too much money to risk on too many unknowns. So, he was going to have to pass.

Col Travis took the apology and nodded back and started walking again. At the very end of the narrow building, was what Robert thought he was looking for. They stopped at the knife shape bow of the first vessel. "Okay, Col Travis! What have we got here?"

Col Travis slapped the smooth knife sharp bow near the bottom, and this time the smile fit her hard face. "These are a pair of 25ton Sea Skimmer class Hydrofoil ships built for the LCAF. She can cruise at just under 130kph, with a rated top speed of 194kph. I will tell you that she can reach that speed, and it was one hell of a ride when it gets to top out."

She was still patting the hull like it was a pet, and she had a lost look in her eyes for a few seconds as she remembered something. "Our contract gave us 50/50 on all salvage we could get, as well as a first claim on the recovery of any battlefield salvage. We still got screwed, and they kept taking the good stuff that we pulled out of the battles with our own equipment. They were only leaving us the dregs, for the most part."

She had a twinkle in her eyes as she kept talking. "Before we pulled out? One of our people saw these babies just sitting around the drop port not far from us. They were even on trailers ready to ship out. I thought they were ours, so I had them loaded right before we blew that pop stand." She stopped talking but she had on an evil smile. "It turns out they were for someone else. Oh well, now they are listed as belonging to us as legal battle salvage with MRB. It will not replace even the two light mechs we were still owed, but it was something. And something is better than nothing."

Both Jess and Robert were now smiling. This was not the first story that they had heard along those lines. But it was the first one, where the hired people could get one over on one of the major houses or their flunkies. Robert took the lead, and he let a smile come to his own face. "Colonel Travis, I like your style! I would like for my people to check them out, as much as we can and not be in water. When they are done? Then we can talk about some numbers."

Colonel Travis did not even nod at the statement she had heard. She only handed over a noteputor with the information on the ship. Robert passed it to Jess and three of his escorts. It would be an hour later, but each ship passes inspection. They were told that they looked close to factory fresh. Not one bit of battle damage could be found or marked as fixed by the latest owners. "Someone" had spent a lot of money doing any repairs that "battle" salvage should dictate.

Robert was standing beside the mercenary Light Colonel and they had not said a word while they waited, and they did not need to. That is until Jess came out of the top hatch of the last vessel and gave a thumb up sign to her commander. Between the sign and the huge grin on her face, Robert knew enough. It was very rare to have something to be 100 percent as advertised.

Robert turned to the Col Travis. "Okay Colonel. I'm interested. What do you need out of these two boats?"

Colonel Travis was happy, but it did not show on her face. She was ready to start skinning this cat. She was hoping that they might want one of the boats. If she had the money, she would have wanted to keep one for herself. Until her first ride in one, she had not known that she was a water woman. "We need 350k per boat." She was eye locked on the merchant. Her face had not moved an inch, the words had fallen out of her mouth only about a second after Robert had asked.

Robert had to fight to keep his eyebrows from climbing. That number had been his planned opening bid. He bit his lip on one side of his mouth. Did he want to drive the price down, or not? These boats were listed as being about 370k straight from the factory. He didn't like screwing someone over that needed the money. He really did not want to mess over someone who had just gotten a raw deal from someone else. So, in his heart. He knew what the right thing was to do. Now it was up to his pocketbook to agree with his heart.

Col Travis had seen the face change on the merchant and thought she might have blown the deal. Sea Skimmers were not something everyone was looking for every day. She was about to ask what his offer was, when she was shocked by the hand coming up for a handshake. She almost did not hear what he had said.

"It's a deal Col. Travis, and we will take both boats at that price. I will have a tow truck, or something sent over here as soon as we can to get them."

Robert could see the twinkle in the mercenary officer's eyes. He saw Jess jump down from the trailer. As it turned out. She had firsthand boating experience, from back on their home world. It was not in large or underwater craft, but she could sail the cold waters of her home planet. She could even run a good-sized power boat ten or twenty miles off the coast before she was drafted. Robert pitched his voice to carry the twenty feet to his right hand "man".

"Jess we are getting both of them. Please contact a moving company and get them to our droppers."

Jess nodded then wiped sweat that was coming off of her forehead in sheets of saltwater that had never seen the ocean. She pulled up her noteputor and started punching in numbers, as she closed in with the mercenary and her commander. She was surprised at the low number, for an almost new high-speed combat vessel. When she was done with everything, she nodded to her boss.

"Sir, they will be able to get a truck over here in a few hours, and at no extra cost. The funds have been transferred to the registered accounts for them."

Robert turned now and looked at the Colonel. "Okay Col Travis, now that you have almost recouped what your unit spent buying the cannons from us. I would like to get a better look, and some more information about those workmechs we passed standing by those Neptune's."

This was the first that she knew anything close to about the cost of the new weapons her boss had picked up. 700k was only about half the cost of a bug mech, but it moved them closer to that goal. Trading useless, to them boats, for almost the cost of two Star league tech weapons? That was even better. They had not wanted the damaged Neptune's, but now they wanted to check out the 4 extra workmechs they had been given to replace two combat machines. She let her face drop a little. Now she looked less like a warrior with a toothache, and friendlier. She pointed the way and started talking. Now it was time to see how close she could get to the cost of a new combat machine.

"We have four environmental sealed workmechs in the Buster class. They were used for loading and offloading ships and cargo submarines in shallow saltwater. They are not combat damaged, and we have a full inspection done when we landed. We took the supply port by surprise, otherwise they might have tried something dumb. It has happened before." Travis let a frown deepen on her lined face that seem to go on forever as she had flashbacks.

Jess had Mike check out each of the machines. By the time that the single tow truck had picked up the second Sea Skimmer, they were done with their inspection. Jess was still doing the paperwork, while Mike walked the first workmech out to the White Rabbit. Robert spent four million C-Bills on the mechs, when it was all said and done. Robert was split on if the workmechs would be used in space or on the water, when they got home. Either way, they would be very useful to his people. The Colonials might not touch them with a 10m pole, but Clan Wolverine would.

While the off-planet group was driving off of the drop port for some dinner. Col Travis had three of her people take the remaining workmechs over to Robert's ships for loading. They would be getting a taxi ride back to their home. The mercenary had been very happy with the deal and had offered her people up to do the job. Jess noticed that her commander was staring out the windows and saying very little to the rest of the group. She didn't know if something was wrong, but she did know that this was not the place to bring it up.

Dinner was held in a nice restaurant, with just the five of them. By this time? Even the escorts could feel that something was wrong, and like Jess. They know that this was not the place or time to ask about what was wrong. They did check their weapons, just in case something went sideways. It was this movement that did not go unnoticed by the people around them. Their reactions brought Robert back to "the World."

Robert now noticed the actions and thought he knew why, after looking closely at Jess. "Oh, it's not really anything Jess. I just have been thinking about those 100ton submarines." A switch went off in his head, and he finished his glass of very good wine in a single long pull. "Let's head back to the ships. Jess, I need to see you in the briefing room when we get back."

Robert paid the dinner tab and the group left the restaurant, but most in the group were not smiling. They did not go straight back to the drop port after all. Robert had to put on his Commander's hat, and he went to see the local lord of the area. And by area? It was not just the planet or system, but this region of explored space. While he had been paying for dinner, a message had come to him. It was an "invitation" to a meeting that was currently on going.

It was only a meeting to review data, which was now coming in from the last few systems they had visited. It was not a public meeting, but it was a very popular one. This was much to Robert's dismay. Three of the people that were there, were from the local ComStar offices. The general gist of the meeting was that the locals were buying the ComStar version of events. That it was just a random pirate attack, or maybe a rogue mercenary unit with some fake paperwork. Robert was not happy, but at the same time. He also was not that surprised with the turn of events. He left the meeting, making sure he did not shake hands with the robed clad group when he left the high-level meeting. He had already peed in that pool, and he was still out of chlorine.

When they finally made it back to the White Rabbit. Robert went to his meeting room to get back to working on his reports. Jess went to her room and worked on her short-term projects. When she had most of them done, she walked to the meeting room. The hatch was open, so after striking once on the hatch she steps into the room.

"Sir, you wanted to see me about something. You didn't want to talk to me about it in public? I have my reports done. Do you want to talk, now?"

Robert looked up and waved her to a seat. He did not say anything for a while and then he made a sour face. "Yes, I would. I can't get those Neptune's out of my head. I was trying to remember about one of the reports from "the group". It's not like we have those types of files that we can review while on these runs."

Robert looked up at the metal roof of this meeting room. "Do you remember something about one of the planets "back there", which was mostly water?"

Jess was blinking and thinking as fast and as hard as she could. This was skirting the edges of "The Protocols" with a very fine edge. It had not crossed the line, but it went right up to the line and peeked over it. Still she had to answer the question also without breaking those same "Protocols". It took her a full minute to remember the information and work out how best to phrase it. "Yes, I remember one like that. So why is that bothering you?"

Robert was still looking up. "Jess, how would we be able to scout that planet, and how effective do you think our stuff would be in doing that recon? What if we could drop this submarine there? And then just let it do its' job?"

Jess now was confused and was thinking as hard and fast as she could. "Sir? I can see that but, its low tech. I mean they need an internal combustion engine to power the damn things. How would you keep it fueled on any long-term deployment behind enemy lines? Why not just use a dropship and hide it underwater, or something along those lines? A planet is a big place to hide something the size of a small dropship."

Robert looked down from the ceiling and made eye contact with her for a second. Then he pulls out a data pad and reviewed some private notes and reports. "Yes, it has an ICE, and it needs something called a HyPerOx to make it run. The engine alone weights in about 29tons. Think about how much cargo space you could gain, if you swapped it out for a high-tech Extra Light 270 rated fusion engine. Also think about the Torpedoes they were talking about. I had no idea what they were, until I looked them up. They are things that we don't know about, and we cannot make back home. It would add another set of weapons to fight "Them" with, and "They" could make more. Since most of it, is as you said are low tech devices. Now, as for just using a Dropship to do the same type of mission. Spaceships are great at keeping pressure inside the hull. They are not so great, at keeping the pressure out of the same hull. They are only good for going down a few hundred meters or so of water, as far as I know. That does not even count what saltwater can do to the engines that are exposed on our aft."

Jess took in the information, and she was again amazed. That Commander Copeland could think so far out of the box, it was more of a colander for him. "Your right, Sir. The fusion engine would not need fuel, and the additional open space would let you take maybe a few squads of Nighthawks on the mission. They also could take enough food, meds, ammunition, and spare parts to last six months or maybe more in the freed-up space. And I had no idea that dropships could only go down to that depth. So, what is stopping you? If this is such a great idea?"

Robert smiled at Jess. She was accepting that this was a teaching moment, and she was ready to learn what the mission commander had to teach. "It has some risk. What I want you to do, is contact Col Travis. I want to know if she can get one of the vessels fully repaired by the time we leave. I want it certified by a third party, and I want a few reloads for all of the torpedo launchers. Tell her I want to be able to drop it off, and it work for whoever buys it off of "me". If that is not do able? Then we will take our 4.6 million C-Bills, leave and spend it somewhere else. That is a hard and fixed price. I will not go higher than that number."

Jess did not say a word, and she took it all in. Commander Copeland was right. There were a lot of "ifs" in what he said. She agreed to the orders and she went to work seeing what she could do to make them work. She knew that if she failed, her boss would not hold it against her. Copeland understood words like no and I could not make it happen.

She spent the hour working with the mercenary Light Colonel. Robert went back to the paperwork he needed to do, and Jess left the room. She had some work to do, and she felt that some of it was going to be best done face to face. By now, she did not need to let her boss know all of the details of how she was going to try to complete the task she had been given.

The next three days went quickly for everyone. Robert's crew knew they were being watched, but nothing was overtly done to them. On the last full day on the planet. There was another full command meeting for the staff on the ground. Robert felt like something was moving in the background, and it was not going to be good for them. It was time to start looking towards the exit, if it was not to late already.

One of the major surprises on this stop had been from the military liaison office. They had turned over an open sided crate that visibly held what was left of a Corsair class aerofighter. It had been recovered from Xanthe III and was being turned over to them as "rightful" salvage from the incident. It was a wreck, but there was not any way that Copeland's people could turn it down. After all they were a Salvage and Resale company. The Cargo Master had just inspected the hulk and signed were he needed, and it was stored in a cargo bay.

Robert was in his place and when the time was perfect, he started. "I wanted to have one more meeting on our last day. Before we leave this planet at local dawn tomorrow. I wanted to go over our current cargo load out and get everyone on the same sheet of music."

Robert stopped talking to look around the room. "I am happy to say that the Lisbon Maru is within 200 tons of a full load, and that is as of this morning. That is a big difference, then when we came to this world last week. The Mule being only 200tons light, when we launch is an amazing bit of work by the Captains and Cargo Masters."

Jess looked down at her noteputor and cleared her throat. "Sir? That is not an accurate number. I was sent an electronic note just before the meeting. Lt Col Travis will be sending over the Neptune, before noon. The vessel passed the final inspection late last night, and I have the certified copy that said it is good to go. In her words, "Its done and its fully combat ready". It's not pretty and it could use some fresh camouflage paint. She will be sending three complete sets of reloads for the short and long ranged torpedo launchers. They will be within the same packing trailer, and ammunition will push it up to about 150 tons. We will need to get it loaded today."

Robert was all smiles. He had been wondering where Jess had been that had caused her to almost be late for this meeting. "Great job Jess! Make sure we have someone to double check the local paperwork, before you send any money over to them. They are mercenaries after all, and they might try to pull a fast one on us. When it passes, make sure she gets her money and a thank you note with my signature block."

Jess was smiling from the praise and for the attention, and she nodded to her commander. Robert looked over to the senior dropship Captain. "Good! Now for the next Item on our laundry list. We will be going back to the Canopus system of the MC, by the shortest route we can. I notified our jumpship captain, that we will be charging the engines from the reactor and the sail. We will not be Fast Charging. I just want to cut a few days off of each leg on our route, if we can."

Robert stopped talking, as he let that information sink in. When he was getting a lot of strange looks, from the other officers. The only one who did not give him a look, like he had a horn growing out of his forehead, was the Captain of the White Rabbit. He had been in more of the private meetings with the convoy commander, than any of the rest of the other officers for this topic.

Robert decided to let the rest of them in on some of the information. "I have been in contact with some of the different members of the Families. They have set up a deal. One that is real and is of significant value to us, and our people. We are picking up a modified Union class dropship. The one we are picking up, had the mech bays taken out. This we knew about, but what was not covered in the first message was important. It is that the open cargo bays are fully plumbed. It does not have the pressurization or climate control units to carry most types of liquids, but the hard part of the modifications has already been done. After our mission is done. I think that it will be a nice little tanker that can carry tylium, to the rest of the fleet while on long ranged missions."

Robert stopped talking for a second. You had to let stuff like this settle for a little while before you truly understood it. You didn't want to overload someone with too much information, all at one time. "How are we going to pull this off? We will be doing a full "failsafe" protocol. We are going all the way down to, but not firing the scuttling charges. Just like we practiced before our first run. The Captain of the White Rabbit will use the time, after liftoff to make this happen. He will be stripping all Colonial and SLDF data and hardware." Those restricted items were designed to be quickly pulled out and jettisoned in case of an emergency. They knew that the White Rabbit was going to be sold off, if the opportunity arose.

"When we land in Canopus? We will off load all of our gear into a hangar. It has already been set up for us to use but it is being kept under a false name, until we land. When we clear the Union? We will reload all of our gear onto it. The Rabbit's crew will be pressed hard to do this without a lot of support or spending a huge amount of time on the planet's surface. I have authorized him to call on any and all hands to make this happen in a timely manner." He looked around the room. "This should not be a surprise to anyone sitting in this room. It was planned all along to be able to do something like this. It just sucks that we will now have to do this, while we have a full load of cargo to deal with."

The meeting went on for only about half an hour more. They needed to work out some details, but everyone wanted to make the most of their last day on the regional capital world. The three ships were very busy as they got ready to spend a lot of time away from anyone. The route posted to the local traffic control, was not anywhere near what Commander Copeland had planned to take in real life. The route they would be using had systems that had no one living in them anymore or had never been occupied in the first place. It was risky, but it also was safe in most ways to use lifeless systems to travel threw.

The trip from ground to orbit was normal, and even the trip out to the jump point was restful for most of the crew on the three ships. When they docked with their way out of this system, things now were not normal. They had done their checks on the dropships, and when they approached the long Tramp class? They had checked her out. It was just what they did when they left every system on the last two runs to the inner sphere.

Robert was in his office aboard the Styx, and he was not a happy fleet commander. All of the ship's Captains were in the room with the Convoy commander. In the center of the room on the briefing table were the objects of his unhappiness. It was kept in place due to the gravity deck turning around them. The massive hamster wheel was going in order to keep their cover intact. Robert looked around the room.

"75? 75! Radio trackers were on my ships! They were on every ship! So, it was not a lapse of one, it was a lapse on all of us!" Robert was so upset, that he was sweating. He was getting tired of these items showing up on his ships. On this trip they had stopped most of them at the cargo hatch, but for some reason that method had failed. "What do we know about this bunch?"

The Captain of the Lisbon Maru stepped forward. "Sir. My crew have been checking out each one we have found, so far. What we know, is that we have seen these before. We found them in the ComStar connected items on the last major supply run. We even know how this group works. They are pinged by a radio burst at the right pulse rate, and then they ping back. All someone needs to do? Is keep pinging them, and they will talk back to the sender. They do not store any data, and they are limited to speed of light transmissions." The young captain had been upset about the numbers of the things found, but he could not fully understand why the Commander looked like he was about to have a stroke or something. "We can dump them out an airlock before we jump, and we will not need to worry about them anymore. Until we land on Canopus, and I will bet that we will pick up more of them. We have a plan that works on how to deal with them."

Robert did not say anything for a few minutes. It was a long enough pause. That the Captains in the room were starting to get worried. He still was not "looking at them", when he came out of his little trance. "No. Not this time. I want that lead lined container for carrying radioactive metals. I want these." Robert pointed to the pile of very expensive electronics on the table. "And I want any others that are found to be put in the same container. That should keep the radio waves away for them for a while."

He stopped talking and his lips were turned down in deep thought and stayed that way for some time. Now the other members of the meeting were really starting to sweat. Their boss was up to something, they could feel it deep in their bones. Robert's head came up a minute or so later. "Thank you all, for bringing these to me. After each jump. I want a full scan of each ship, just in case we missed any of these little devices. If any more are found? I want them put in the same box as the rest of them. I need something made out of ships stores. What I want is a box that will block any and all radio signals. If my idea is not due able? I need to know. If it is workable, then have one big enough made over in one of the machine shops."

He gave a curt nod to the group, which they took as the command to clear out. Not one of the officers stuck around, not even Jess. They could tell that the Fleet commander was mad enough to win an arm-wrestling match with an Atlas. Most of them felt like they had let their boss down by not finding these devices, when the cargos were first brought onto each of the four ships of the convoy. That hurt them more than any "real" punch to the guts.

Notes:

Savana Master. I saw a BMW on display at a local mall the other day, and all I could see was that hovercraft instead of the sedan. Also, who has not thought about Starbuck strapped into one of these things? Yes, I know I am touched in the head. My wife often tells me, much the same.

Wolf's Dragoons fire magnet. In the RPG groups, someone always wants to have some connection going back to the WDs. Sometimes that is not a good thing, Waco Rangers come to mind and a few others.

TRO 3026. Can anyone tell that TRO 3026 is one of my favorite books? See end of first note for this chapter.

Armor and small jump jet issues for PA(L). There has to be a reason that ComStar did not just copy the Nighthawk suits and went with the Tornados.