Chapter 38
By Cliff
Beta and Clean up: Not done
Reviewed by Hotpoint and Cannonshop
1 Dec 3048 end of second run
New Circe L1 point.
It was two flashes of light that were so close in space, and in time. That they could have been mistaken as being only one event. One was a jump fighter from the battlecruiser SLS Rickenbacker, and the other was a cargo jumpship called the Styx coming back home. News of the return of the Styx was on the digital network, almost before the energy wave of the Colonial drive had dissipated into the surrounding space. Unlike the first trip, to the Inner Sphere. This run was not a secret, and her return would not be secret or withheld for any measurable length of time. Robert still could not launch the dropships to the surface to join the Hobgoblin. The Carrier was already near the same warehouse, they had used on the last run.
After two hours of waiting in high orbit over the planet. The special support ground crews on the planet were ready for the first dropship to come down from orbit. Robert had the White Rabbit 2 make the first run to the planet. Robert was still not comfortable with the main engine on the modified Union. He wanted to make sure that Traffic Control was aware, that the Union would be taking her time coming down for her first landing on ground controlled by the Star League. While Traffic Control was working with that, the dropship tug Hard Hat moved from the orbital navy support yard to the arrival point of the merchant ship.
Where it had taken the two small craft hours to move the 100,000ton dropship any real distance. The Hard Hat could do it in a handful of minutes, and it did not even bother the crews or risk any damage to the engines on the craft supplying the power to tow it. By the time that the White Rabbit 2 was on the ground, and safe. The Behemoth dropship was getting into final position for the Station to do her job on the newly arrived hulk.
The Styx's command crew was ordered not to put the ship into full hibernation mode. They were told that they only needed to prepare it for a skeleton relief and maintenance crew to come over. That new crew would take over command of the civilian ship. Those new crews for the jumpship would be headquartered on the Monarch class White Skies. Also, their two Landing boats would be helping out in landing any cargo that the jumpship might still have on board. They also would have help from other small craft around the local area, which were periodically available. With all of this help, it would not take long to get the jumpship emptied of both crew and cargo.
The Lisbon Maru was the last dropship to leave the Styx, and it was carrying the most cargo. But being a more trusted dropship? She could make a "normal" burn towards the landing pads on the space port. Six hours after jumping into the L1 point. Jules and Robert boarded a Colonial built but SLDF crewed Raptor, in one of the jumpships small craft bays. The pair were the last "normal" crewmembers of the Styx to leave the vessel. The White Skies was already attached, and that ship's crew already had taken over critical systems on the jumpship.
When the pair of senior officers had landed at the drop port. They were directed to the warehouse/living quarters they had used on the last returned to New Circe. They all quickly fell into the pattern of watching the dropships being emptied, and the interviews by another set of work crew. They again, started with the lowest ranked crewmembers and worked their way up with the face to face post mission interviews.
The people in leadership positions had to wait for all of the reports to be reviewed, before they were seen for the required additional interviews. A forward-thinking Copeland had already sent a copy of all the files on the Leopard. The people on the planet had started reviewing those reports, before the refueling mission had been launched. After that, then the officers were allowed to go home to see their families for about two months. Robert, again, was the last one to be seen for his interview. Only a week after returning to New Circe, he could also go home. Things seemed to be going very well for everyone. It was always good to have your bosses happy with you.
15 Jan 3049
New Circe.
A little over a month later. Robert was called in off of his vacation, to have a meeting with SLDF command. What was a surprise was that the meeting was not being held on "The Station", but at the main SLDF Navy building in the City of McEadey. He was even given a set of travel tickets pre-filled out with his information and other traveling information.
Captain/Commander Copeland was there in his full military uniform. He had not been told to come this way, in his written orders. He had a feeling that this was not going to be a normal meeting with Rear Admiral Xi, but some heavy hitters of his people. He would be proven to be right, but he just didn't know how many other movers and shakers that he was about to see today. By all rights, he should have been the coffee server for this meeting.
Robert was escorted into the meeting room, and he almost bolted back out the way he had come. Robert had been to many meetings, with the Navy leadership over the course of his very long and strange career. But this? It was crazy?! The center seat was taken by the Lord Protector herself. To her left and right were two of the most powerful members of the Parliament. Then there was Admiral Franks, the head of the SLDF Navy. Next to him was Admiral Whitfield, the head of personnel at one end and on the other end was Rear Admiral Xi the head of External Supply. There were another four senior military leaders also sitting at the one long table. That was counting only the ones at the head table. There were two more front tables along with a filled second row of tables behind the power players of the planet in a double U shape.
One of the front side tables held a different group of political leaders. There was the President of the Colonial City State, and her military right-hand man in the form of Admiral Adama. There were another five in some type of SLDF uniforms or expensive suits that he did not recognize. They were all on three sides of the room, and there was only the one seat that was set out in front of them. It was like he was on trial, or in an ambush box, or something he really did not want to think about. Robert knew quite a bit of Star League law, so he knew it was not that. It did put him more on edge, when you added enough heavy weights of brass to form a small black hole in the one room.
Admiral Franks gave Robert a sly smile and pointed to the open chair. "Commodore Copeland please have a seat. This board is not a court martial, but a formal AAR of your latest supply run. For this meeting we will be using your now permanent rank of Commodore. Congratulations."
Robert was a little surprised. He had been "frock" to Commodore on the last mission. That normally just means that you get the rank, but not the pay. When he had returned to New Circe? The frocking had ended, and he had officially reverted back down to his permanent rank of Captain. This was something that he had heard a few rumors about while on leave, but nothing had been "firm". He was now thinking that he should have paid more attention to those rumors.
Franks gave a knowing smile and kept talking. "I will say! That you brought back some interesting items and information back with you, again Commodore." The head of the SLDF Navy stopped talking and then he sat back in his chair. "I have to say. Do you spend all your time looking for nuclear bomb shells, to bring back with you?"
Robert did not trust his voice, so he just smiled and shrugged his shoulders. He was slowly turning to face the "President" of the board and waited. He very badly wanted to look up, to see if an anvil was falling towards his head. Or to look down and see if there was a barrel of black powder with a lit fuse under his chair. It was in his experience that you got a surprise promotion right before you were thrown under the dropship.
Jennifer Vaun, the Lord Protector of what remained of the fallen Star League started the recorded meeting. "Commodore Copeland, according to your report. You tapped your capital accounts to the point that you feel that you will not be able to make another supply run. At least not without something major to trade within the area called the Inner Sphere. Is this still your assessment of your accounts? Query Affirmative."
Robert was in full salesman's mode, with a face that showed very little of his true feelings. He addressed the leader of his people. "Yes, Lord Protector. I knew that buying the Behemoth, at the last minute, was a risk. It put us to the point that I don't know if I will be able to fill my cargo ships, with the high-end things we need and is required by our mission statement to acquire. I will give it my best shot, but I cannot promise anything. I was asked on the first mission to get large cargo ships, and it did not matter if they were functional or not." Robert stopped talking and licked his lips. "Did I choose, poorly? Query Negative?"
A man in an expensive suit that Robert would bet had been made from some of the fabric, which he had brought in on this last run snorted. When all eyes turned to him? He felt that he should address this issue that the officer had just addressed. He was very proud of what his people had done with the massive hull.
"Bringing in that monster, was an amazing bit of work. She will be in full production mode by the end of the month." The man in the expensive suit threw his shoulders back, and it look like he was about to start strutting around the room like a prize-winning rooster.
Robert rose to the bait, which the bureaucrat had left out. "Full production? I am sorry, sir. I have been out of touch, on vacation for the last few weeks." What Robert had called a vacation was not what most people would have called it. But he had not been able to keep up with all of the goings on around the planet, much less around the whole star system.
The suit was very happy with himself. "Captain errr Commodore! They have taken your purchase and renamed and remade it, into what we on the station call the Hephaestus module. She was easily repaired and then modified for our use as part of The Station. She will increase the whole system's output of refined metals, by about doubling our total output."
Rear Admiral Xi could see that Robert was not fully getting it, and he was being blindsided by the details. "Robert, we were able to fix and them modified the engine on the "New Egg". They used some of the parts from one of the spare engines, set aside from the Yukon to be able to do it. Since we first were able to set up our main smelters in orbit, after we settled this planet. We have been limited to reducing the size of what we were working on, to about 200 tons in mass for our raw ores. They also can only be about the same width of a landing boat. Someone took an idea, about what that crazy Caspar did to the Cylons in that first battle we saw." She had to quit talking as a chuckle threatened to bubble up at the images she had seen of that battle.
"They put a type of thick box at the aft end of the dropship. Now all they must do is load the box with a given ore type or salvage, and then fire the engines up to idle. When the temperature and pressure are right, inside the cooking box? They start pulling off whatever is ready to be worked. The test run was done last week. It had started off as an almost complete arm that we had taken off a salvaged Basestar, and it worked a lot better and faster than anyone could have hoped for."
Robert was now able to do the numbers in his head, it was…impressive. If the new smelter could double the whole systems output? It would be the first time in his memory. That the manufacturing centers would not have to wait for raw metal and ores to be processed, before they could do their jobs. It was looking like mining was going to need a major boost to keep up. Robert gave a sly smile to the board.
When he saw "the look" coming from the leader of his people. He let them know, what he had been thinking. "I was just thinking. That you would only put in some office and maybe some small shop space, after gluing it to the rest of The Station. I had no idea it would be used in major manufacturing in any way."
Admiral Franks laughed, and Admiral Xi smiled so big, all you could see were eyes and teeth. With the head of the navy laughing, Xi connected the dots. "Robert! You did good! And if you can find another one? We could use it, or a smaller one. And I cannot believe I'm calling it smaller. A Mammoth or two would be great additions, to our orbital support base and general support areas. We have over doubled our warship mass, which we have in commission. We need to keep expanding our support footprint, or we are dead in the water on any expansion or replacements of our new smaller classes of combat vessels that are needed to fight the Cylons."
Admiral Franks looked to his right before speaking. "Speaking of support. We have looked at those PA(L)s, that you brought back. And by the way? That was another good job on being able to take them out, and then hide the suits until you made it back home."
Robert let his face fall and a little frown crosses his face. "Sir, I hope they are worth it. They cost my crews a lot of blood, to take them down. Do we know anything about them, and can they be useful? One of my people had a crazy idea about copying them, for our use." He tried to get his tone to go light. He was fishing, but he did not want it to seem that way.
A person in a military uniform, which did not have a name plate in front of them or on their blouse spoke up. It was only after the Lord Protector gave her a nod. Robert now knew what was about to be said, was still very much a secret from the general public. At least for now. Who knows, if it would be as closely held by the end of the year or even six months from now.
"Those suits are one of the main reasons for this meeting. We wanted our partners over in the City-State, to know that we are not holding anything back from them when it comes to major new combat systems."
The woman in the sterile uniform looked over at the pair to one side, and she gave them a slight nod of her head. "We have taken them apart for studying, and we have reviewed all of the reports from your crew. They are called Tornado suits, and they are made for ComStar. Who else might be using them in the Inner Sphere? We have no idea, at this time. We think they are made by the Krupp Armament Works on Terra. We have built-dates ranging from 2907 to 2960 stamped on the machines that the Commodore brought back to us." The woman kept right on talking as sets of shocked eyes looked at her.
"We do not know how fast they can make these things, but Krupp was a massive facility. At least it was before the exodus, and we know it was rebuilt after the war. Over 50 years of production? That lends us to think that they have "many" of the suits. They mass the same as the Nighthawks suits that we use, but they are different. The ECM package acts like a Camo/IR/ECM combination sneak suit. The armor outer skin protects the wearer against small arms, and even heavy weapons like the man portable Flamer. We think that they are almost made for the wearer and are custom fitted to the operator, just like the Nighthawks had been. We have found out, that the parts are not interchangeable with the Nighthawks. This is something new or was so deeply hidden, that we do not have any records of a weapons system like this."
The briefer from Star League Intelligence stopped talking and took a sip of water. "We have a few tricks up our sleeves. Then we have our few centuries of experience with the fitting tools for the Nighthawks, and some clan data we have collected over the years. This will give us an advantage that ComStar does not seem to have. With the items that Robert and his contacts have been able to bring back to us? We hope to have started low rate production of a copy of this suit by the end of the month. They are going to be basically hand built at first, but they will be ours. Also, they will not be as hard to fit or refit to a new user as the original design or Nighthawk suits still is. As we learn more, we might be able to see about working on that issue."
She stopped talking at Robert and turned to look more toward the Lord Protector. "If we can get the funds? Production should be up to 15 a month, within a few months. We maybe can have it as high as 50 a month before the end of the year, or not long after that."
Those sounded like impressive numbers. It would not take long, for these new Tornado suits to outnumber the number of Nighthawk suits on hand. It still would take a long time to outfit the full infantry division, that the SLDF could call on for defense. Jennifer did not move her face. She had expected something like this to come up in this meeting. There only was so much production capability that they could call on, and it was a game of give and take on what they could use it for.
The Lord Protector kept her face still. "We will have to see. We only have so much production capability, to go around. Would the head of Army intelligence please bring everyone up to speed, on the Hoplite Commodore Copeland was able to bring back for us to lose sleep over?" That was how she had planned to keep the SLIC on track for this meeting. She had been around too long to let them think that they could run over her in a meeting.
You would expect the head of Army Intelligence to be in a uniform, but he was in a suit for today's meeting. He shot a look at the female briefer; she met his eyes and visibly wilted. He was giving her a warning look, before answering the supreme commander.
"First I would like to add. That it was that you did a good job, in picking it up. I say that even though it cost me 100 Script, that you were even able to pull it off. Much less pull it off on the first mission after we gave you the RFI. We had put that additional line on, in just the hope that something like it could be found."
This got a round of chuckles from the room, even Robert joined in for a few seconds. The head of Army intelligence let it last for a few seconds before speaking again. "We have taken the machine apart and went over it with a fine-tooth comb, along with the documentation that was acquired with the machine. We are not putting it back together, just in case. We do know that it came from the Wolf's Dragoons, and that it was not built in any Inner Sphere factory. We think it was built on the Pentagon World of Babylon as a HOP-4Bb. If we had better records? We might have been able to give a better history, but we do know. That this machine was used by Clan Wolf, before it found its way to the cradle of humanity."
One of the other suits was wide-eyed. "That is it then! The clans are back! And they are early! What are we going to do? We cannot fight the Cylons and the rest of the Clans at the same time?!" The last part was almost a shriek that would hurt your ears.
Robert was speaking, before he knew it and before his mind could work on the word "early". He had months and months to think about this subject and he reacted almost like muscle memory. "I do not think so. They might be a scout force, or they could be hiding from the other clans. The tech on that machine was not even equal to late Star league tech, much less what it was like when we left clan space. I think we will be careful, but they have been in the Inner Sphere for 45 years now. That is almost four generations, for those Frakers. They have been rotating fighting for each of the major powers or Great Houses in that time. That is concerning, but now they are with the Federated Commonwealth. All of the news stories have it that they were almost wiped out, and they have been slowly rebuilding their numbers. I do not think that if they were connected to the Clan that they would be "Slowly" rebuilding. Query Affirmative."
Both heads of intelligence groups nodded to Robert, saying that they agreed with him. It was Jennifer that put it into words. "We also agree with what Robert has said. It is an issue, but we will just keep an eye on them. You all know that Clan Wolf was no friend to Clan Wolverine, the last time we crossed paths and swords."
The Head of intelligence for Clan Wolverine was not going to bring up that they already knew what mission the Wolf's Dragoons had been given, and how they will/are changing. At least how they changed in another timeline. It was just another data point that connected the maybe two different timelines.
Robert took the opening to ease his mind. "This has opened the door, for me to address an issue we ran in to on the last run. We were close to being outgunned, twice. I was told that we could not up gun all of our equipment, because even though we knew that Star League weapons were flowing into the different houses. We had no idea how much and how they were being used. Now we know that they are being used in more than just mechs in the most top of the line units around the Inner Sphere. I want my people to be able to drop a big hammer on someone or anyone, who Fraks with us the next time we are picking up cargos."
Admiral Xi was fighting not to smile. "To help counter any ground attack. We could update some of the 18 rusties, or we could take a few older units out of the cache." She had agreed with her subordinate. And she was not going to even open the door about anyone "down grading" anything that might be pulled out of those caches.
Xi was looking at the members of the board. She knew what way she wanted to go, but it was not her call. Thanks to the increase in products coming out of the City-State. They had started a major refit cycle of mechs, tanks and fighters in the Caches sites. It was only limited as the repair bays were open, and the supplies were available. Older types of armor were being replaced with clan grade protection. Also, older 2nd generation heatsinks were being replaced with new built 3rd generation models. It was slow going, but a few were being done every month. More than one comment had been made, that the main cache had turned into a pre-tech school on how to maintain and repair combat equipment. Most of the workers were people who were too old for combat or too young. The oldest generation was helping train the future generation, on the art of repairing war machines on a shoestring budget.
Xi was looking so hard at her notes. That when the voice came from the standalone chair, she was surprised by it. "I do not think that would be a great idea. I think, that if we just load up our people with good body armor, Colonial made Blazer rifles, and Colonial made assault rifles and sidearms. That along with the traps we tested on the White Rabbit. I think that will do the job on the ground, in most cases. If I can get some of those power armor suits? Query Affirmative? I would not turn them down. I would like to be able to pick up a few battlemechs on the next run, if I see fit. After that? We can work something out for upgrades on them, if we need them. Where do I think we will get hit? It will be in space, while we transfer between jump point and planet fall. That is where we have been hit the hardest on the last run." Robert was using this lever to get permission to update his Stuka, postmortem. If he could get a few other items, that would be great also.
Admiral Franks nodded to the other senior officers. This was a navy operation, and he would let them work it out. He didn't want to give an opening for the Army to step into, on what has always been a navy run program. This was a turf war he didn't want to have to deal with. "We are upgrading the four Ironsides back into Royal specs as we speak. They will replace the battered craft you brought back. I was told that they might just strip those three old birds down to the ribs, and then decide if they are worth putting back together. I understand that they will be doing the same thing to those 2 KR-61s you picked up. I did read a report about how hard you were on aerospace assets, and I was asked to pass along a note for you to be more careful with them. We are also working on that second Stuka you picked up. It will be modified like your test bird, but in place of the 20-tube launcher. It will be replaced with a 15-tube system with an Artemis system added for improved fire control. I was told that this will also help with the cooling issues. Your other Stuka will be brought in, and also rebuilt from the frame out to that same standard."
A gravelly voice spoke for the first time, in a very oddly accented English. "The Colonials would like to add a pair of fighters for the Convoy's defense, on its next set of missions." Every head in the room turned to look at the Colonial Admiral, who had just spoken.
One of the suits did speak, after a few long heartbeats. "I do not think a pair of Vipers would be a good idea. Query Affirmative. It would draw a lot of attention, having craft that have never been seen before acting as escorts. Besides how would they carry the additional fighters, or do you think that they should reduce the number of Ironsides to allow the Vipers to be carried?"
Bill Adama gave a sly smile to the speaker. The response was expected, and he was not pulling this idea out of his butt. His staff had thought long and hard about this subject, and more to the point they had looked at the capabilities of this modified Union that had been brought back. "I think that reducing the number of heavy hitters is a bad idea. I understand this Union class ship can carry a pair of aero fighters. Besides, I was not thinking about sending Vipers with Commodore Copeland. I was thinking about sending a pair of SB-27bs. They would be a good addition to the convoy fleet defense, and my people are very competent at using light and fast space fighters." Bill could not help but smile at the looks he could see out of the corner of his eye. There were very few people on the planet that would dare to argue. That his Viper pilots could not get every bit of capability out of anything that was light, fast, and flew in space.
A female voice joined into the discussion, and this one was also a new voice. "Adding two Colonial crewed and supported fighters would be a show of good faith that we are working together, to do all that can be done to fight the Cylons."
Laura Roslin had both of her hands flat on the desktop. She was not looking around, but right at Robert. She understood a lot about the military, and this convoy mission was under his command. If he didn't agree to support this idea? That would make it harder and cost some political points, to get those two craft added to the convoy's mission over his objection. She would spend those points, this time, but it would be better if she did not have to.
Robert knew the ball was in his court, and he knew that he could veto the surprise offer of support from the City-State. He was the expert, and "normally" high command would at least listen to him on a matter like this. Then again, he was being offered two royal grade fighters with two very highly trained light craft pilots. That was not something that came up every day. "Admiral Adama is right. The Union has a pair of fighter bays, which we have not thought about filling. The Royal Sabers would add a fast and hard-hitting force to the convoy. The six medium class lasers that each carry would hurt anything, but heavy fighters and dropships. If the Colonials would offer to outfit the rest of the crews and security teams, with the Colonial made weapons that I had suggested? I do not think there is any reason to say, no. That is if the crews have been able to pass the protocol tests, and they will follow my orders as if they had been given by Admiral Adama."
Bill Adama let his damage face put on a slight smile. He had just won a bet with himself. "I can agree to this and make it so." He turned and looked at his wife. She was nodding back to what he had said. She did not smile. She also had a part to play in the political game going on in the background, and it was going to cost their people to supply those requested weapons.
Admiral Franks was smiling at the new Commodore. Robert's skin started to crawl, but he did not say a word. The SLDF Admiral had something he was hiding. "That takes care of fighters and long ranged strike craft for the convoy. I want to upgrade the ships going back. I do not think that we will have time to strip the hulls and update the armor they are packing. I do think that we can look at the weapons and heatsinks. Query Affirmative. I think that the value added by these two runs, has proven that it will not be a waste of resources to add this level of protection, to ensure that they can make it back to us." Franks was speaking very formally. He was not just talking to everyone in the room, but also to the recorders.
Jennifer Vaun looked at the head of her military. "I agree with you Admiral, but I will not waiver on more of the Protocols." She stopped talking, but everyone in the room could tell that she was thinking about something.
"Okay, I take that back. I will waiver the protocols on one-line item." She looked down the long table finding the person she was looking for. "I want two of these Tornado suits on each of the ships, by the time that they leave for the next run." She held up her hand and gave a look. "The reason, is that whoever used them to attack our people? They know that they had lost a dozen suits in that attack. It would make since that Captain Copeland might be able to piece together a few suits by the time they run into each other again. I think 8 suits might be pushing it, but the only way that they will know that he has that number. It is if all of his ships are attacked at once. I will say now. That these suits do not fall under any future protocols. They were made in the Inner Sphere. Query Negative. I will have to talk to a few Generals, but I think that I am cutting the funding to the Hyper Assault Gauss Cannon project. It is going to go to the bare minimum to keep the project alive. I will be shifting the funds over to the Tornado program. I think the scouts, headhunters, and ship's marines should be the first units filled with this "new" body armor." It was not often that the leader of New Circe stepped this far into operations of the military, but she felt this time it was warranted. She would deal with any ruffled feathers later.
Robert could see that some of the suits liked this idea, and others did not. Some of the ones in that last column had included some of the Colonials. He was feeling nosey, so he asked. He had not been able to catch up with all of the news stories, and even the rumors that had been launched while he was gone. "Hyper Assault Gauss Cannon Query-Affirmative?" That was a lot better than saying what the Frak is that?
Admiral Franks fielded this question. "Commodore Copeland. The Hyper Assault Gauss cannon or HAG is a joint project with the Colonial military, and our people. It takes our top of the line second generation Gauss Rifle, and then we add some items from the Colonial coil guns. We have two great data points on their coil guns. One from each of the different generation of Battlestars. What the R and D people think they can do, is instead of shooting one big slug. It will fire fifteen smaller, hard darts, very fast and at one time. The math says that it will have longer range and mass five tons lighter than our best fielded Gauss cannons. It could be a game changer against the Clans. But it will not have that much effect, against the current generation of Cylons. That is, if it works. Right now? They are still working on computer models, and what ifs models out of spare parts."
One of the Parliament's main mover and shakers leaned forward, and Robert could swear that the Lord Protector groaned when she saw the movement. "I would like the Commodore to address an issue that has come to my attention. On your manifest? You have a lot of expensive items, which were earmarked to go to the City State. Why was that?" This was a major shift in topics. It was mainly done as a power play by the MP, so that he could take control of this meeting.
Robert could not tell why people voted for this person. As soon as he started talking Robert wanted to punch him in the face as hard as he could, after only four sentences. He instinctively wanted to irritate the man, so Robert unknowingly dropped back into his Inner Sphere connected speech patterns. "I don't have my copy with me. So, pardon me, if I forget some items. I'm going to have to go off of my memory."
Robert used the second contraction on purpose. "I picked up a dozen 5ton hover attack craft. Five or six were earmarked, as being paid for by the City-State's money. There were two 25ton Sea Skimmers, which were requested by Admiral Adama and paid for out of City State funds. Those are the only large ticket items, that I remember, that were supposed to be shipped directly to the City State. I still would not call that major, not compared to the other 9,000tons of cargo we brought back."
The political toad swelled up, like he had swallowed a balloon. "That is part of it. But there was the 100ton attack submarine, is there not? That does not count the 50ton overgrown Viper of an aerofighter you brought back. There is no way that those small arms were enough to cover the cost of all of that. Query Affirmative." The toad had lost money, when word had come down that the City-State had won a contract to update the fighting units in the cache's sites. He was waiting to get some payback from that lost deal that he had worked so hard to get.
Robert felt his fangs come out. He did not like being second guessed, by someone who had been a thousand light years away from the decision point. "Sir? The Blazers and Colonial rifles were sold, for well above what we thought they would. When you add in the two Vulcan 80ton fighters, that we sold at the first stop? They had a good-sized bank on my accounting books. That was enough to cover me, in purchasing those items. I will tell you, something else and I think you missed it in my reports. That the Neptune? It was not earmarked for the Colonials, but I think they would have like to pick it up. That is, if they had the money? I filed a report, on my ideas about how the SLDF might use it on some special operations. The Corsair was "given" to us as battlefield salvage, and we could not turn it down and keep our cover story. Query Affirmative. It was listed as general cargo, but I must admit that it does look a lot like a massively enlarged Colonial Viper. Maybe it could be used as a gate guard, or it could be sent to an R and D team. I was given to understand that the main space frame is less than 2 years old."
The Toad was not done, and he tried to jump around the blocks that Robert had tried to throw in his way. "Those two Vulcans belong to the people of our clan! Not to the City State." He almost came out of his seat, but at the last second changed his mind.
Robert could see the military members in the room starting to flex their shoulders. Robert decided he had the less to lose and threw himself on the grenade. "I'm sorry sir, you are wrong. The Colonial Battlestar Pegasus recovered both of them and returned them to New Circe in September 3046. She had been working alone at the time, if the reports I read are correct."
That bit of information deflated the toad. Robert decided to push one more straight pin into him while he had the chance. It was not often that you got to challenge some people like this. "I thought that the last six or seven Savanna Masters will be put up for sale on the G-bids site. Query Affirmative. I will be one of the bidders, looking at them. I find the idea of them, fun as all frak. I know of this area in the river delta, that my kids used to like to fish off of. Never mind." Robert let a sly smile come to his face. He was making it up, but he was betting Mr. Toad didn't know that.
Admiral Franks bit his lip to keep quiet, and the head of SLIC was beaming. Both men knew Robert well enough, to know that he was trying to get the PM's goat. Before Franks could defuse the growing bomb. The Head of SLIC took the bone. "Yes Commodore. We did get that memo, and it is full of ideas. I am sure you are familiar with Callaghan Munitions. Query Affirmative." The Intel person stopped talking and with the tilting of the head to one side. He was hinting that he was waiting for Robert to reply.
Robert did not want to say too much more, but it was obvious that someone was keeping some close tabs on him. "Yes, I do. They are a small Munitions works, that makes mostly Streak Short ranged missiles and inferno rounds for our infantry to use. They just opened up a joint venture within the City State to supply their ground forces with shoulder fired short ranged missiles and launchers. The idea is it will help them defend against the increasing number of Cylon Praetorians being seen on the battlefield. I also own a little over 10 percent of the company, as of a week ago. When I get my cut of the profits from this second run? I will own more. How much more? That will depend on what my take home is going to bring in. That is also where most of the funds from any cut of the sales of my private cargo allowance is going to go." That was not totally true. He had some other ideas on were a good-sized chunk of those funds might be used for. He was not known for putting all of his eggs in one basket, even if that basket was large and well padded.
The eyebrows of both Colonials climbed high into their hairlines. This was information, that they had no idea of as of this meeting. Bill made a mental note to thank the convoy commander in this meeting. He would do it in person over a private dinner, later. He wanted to keep the good will, but he also wanted to let the other man know. That the Colonial government and military would not give him any preferential treatment.
The Colonel for the Intel department shot a look to her boss. Then she smiled, a little knowing smile that she made sure certain people in this room could not see. She was not going to make a comment about the note in the report, which said Robert had bought a few blocks of shares of MMM on his last mission. His people were looking at that idea, very closely. If the numbers worked and the legal department like the idea. They might have some interesting options, if they could get some key people on board.
"Yes, that company. They bought a ton of each type of torpedoes that this Neptune uses. No one on this planet had a record of trying to make underwater weapons, in centuries. We think that this would be very helpful, in a number of potential situations in our fight against the Cylons. The report that they sent to me, is that they think. That they can duplicate the drives in a few months. They also think that they might be able to convert their and our Streak and even NARC missiles systems into working underwater as well."
The Colonel looked around the long table to her left and right. "This was going to be brought up later, but now is as good of a time as any." She sat straighter in her chair. "We think that it would be of a benefit, if you can find three or four more of this class of vessel. We would like them mostly intact or in the same condition as the one you acquired. We do not have the experts to build them ourselves, or the resources to do it. So, the better condition would help us. Query Affirmative."
Robert rolled his eyes, and it was not subtle. "If you would have told me before? I could have had one of our contacts order them. They would have been delivered to a "friend" and held for us until we came back. All I would have to do, is leave the money to buy and store them. They are made in the old House Davion area of space. That is going to take some time to get them that is unless we stumble on another one like this one." Sometimes he got the feeling that people thought he had a magic wand and just make whatever was wanted to show up in his cargo holds.
Admiral Xi decided that she needed to defuse this, before Robert sunk his career with his fraking mouth. "This is going to about do it for this meeting, but I believe Admiral Franks has a new set of orders for you Commodore Copeland. I am sorry Robert, but your days of sleeping all morning are again over."
Admiral Franks nodded to the Commander, and he didn't wait for the Commodore to reply to his first line supervisor. Before Copeland could bolt out the door. "Commodore Copeland! You are officially recalled from leave. You will be working with the Colonials and our planning board. We have a rescue mission to perform. The first meetings have already been done, and you will have some catching up to do. Please pick up your orders at the desk outside."
Robert stood from his chair and saluted the group, before turning and leaving the room in one smooth motion. The guard in the other room hands Robert a thick packet, which was sealed. On the outside of the packet were directions to his next meeting room. It did not have a date or time. It just had a building and room number printed in block letters on the outside of the brown paper wrapper. To say that this was not "normal" was an understatement. It was just another example of how this war had changed some things.
Robert followed the directions and while waiting for a shuttle bus. He started reading the files in the folder that had been handed to him after his grilling. A lot of it was historical, but a lot of the items Robert had no idea about. That was due to a mix of him being gone, and that he had not been cleared to know about some of these things before or after his recall. The rescue mission was going into the system that the Caspar now named SLS Nike, had been watching over.
The planet was out at the end of charted space, even to the charts that Clan Wolverine had access to. It was now listed as a failed Star League colony. The reason it failed, was that when war had broken out closer to home. It had been forgotten about by everyone back on Terra or within the many departments of the SLDF, and the larger organizations head quartered on Terra. As it turned out, the planet had an ugly little prion in the local water. One that once the high-tech filters started to fail, it had ravaged the population that had been stranded on the planet's surface. It did not take long for the population to be cut down to only a few tens of thousands of survivors. Those were the ones that the prion did not like for some reason.
With such a small population base, they could not maintain the limited tech base that had been left behind by the last jumpship. The population quickly went all the way down to hunter-gather level of civilization, after only a few generations. By the time that a Caspar desperate for someone to save had found them. They were growing their tech base again. They had stories and a few books, which told them what they had before the fall. It was just that not one of them alive, knew how to do what was in the few remaining carefully copied books. What they did know? It was that others would come and take their people away or kill them with strange and powerful weapons. It didn't take them long to find out that the weapons, were like the ones described in those few books. These facts had moved the books from fantasies to facts after some decade of debate.
All of that had changed when the Caspar, which was now known as SLS Nike, had stopped the last attack on their world. It had announced its presence by blowing the jumpship and its attached dropship to dust. They had been at the well-known local pirate point, near this planet. By this time the locals had made it back to animal power and stone castles, when the stars started to act funny. It was not taken as a good sign by the people living on the surface of the planet.
They could not stand up to a force, which had air power. And when the night sky had flashed with the warning wave of another slaver coming? It was met with universal dread by the people on the planet. Then the massive explosions that had never been seen before, had happened over their heads? The people on the ground did not know what had happened above their heads. About the only thing they knew? It was that for months later and no one had reported any slavers attacking their villages, after the massive fireworks had happened in the night sky.
What the Caspar drone did not know, was that it had missed something, when it had taken out the jumpship and dropship combination with heavy weapons fire. One small landing boat full of people had made it safely, if damaged to the ground. Only 22 people out of the several hundred souls, which had been on or had been carried by the jumpship and dropships had made it to the ground. Quietly they set up a little village, with a windmill near the "landing site" of their craft. They even were able to put together a small steam engine, to provide power and hot water after a few months of being on the ground. The group of lost pirates had not been that close to any of the preexisting settlements. With them not knowing about the water issues? It had doomed them, and within three years. They had all died, and they had never been found by the locals that called this planet home or the guardian of the night skies.
That little village set up around the force landed Mark VII landing boat, had been found not long after the last pirate had died and while the Caspar had slept once more. It had not taken long for the word of the strange village to make it to powerful ears. They had been able to figure out first how to use the Windmill to make their lives easier, and then they learned how it could make the lights work again. Electricity was now in use at night, at least to those few who had the finances to afford it. They worked on the steam engine that would not rust. It still took them years to figure out how to make more of them, but they would rust. That project had not been cheap of cost in gold and blood. But they were able to make more of them, and they slowly improved on their own home-built designs over the years. With each new improvement, brought about more uses for the device.
By the time that the SLDF navy had found them, while they were looking for fuel to mine to feed the growing number of Colonial made jump drives. It was just too bad, that then the Cylons had found the small group of SLDF vessels. The locals had moved from Late Dark Age tech to Victorian level of technology in just 30 years. The Caspar had not noticed it, in the brief time she had been awake to defend them from the starfish shaped ship. She left with her new crewmen to top off her tanks of badly needed fuel. All the while not noticing that the colony under her watch, had been advancing very quickly. They were pushing the boundaries of what Earth had been able to do in the 1890's, and it did not show any signs of slowing down.
While Nike had broken the Lebon Cylon, one of the Colonial ships with an attached dropship had been sent back to this lonely system. The small armed Titan jumpship was there in case the Cylons made a return visit to this part of space, the dropship had a different mission. The dropship crew landed and sent out small contact teams to the different "major" towns on the planet's surface. Within a few weeks? They had contacted several people, and some of them were even the right ones. There had been a few close calls, when they were confused with slavers.
The ground teams had the information that the Caspar had given them. So, they were able to avoid some issues with first contact, but not all of them. The contact teams were able to tell the locals about the Cylons, and what they would do to this planet. A few hundred locals were talked into leaving the planet, most of them were experiencing different medical issues. It was hoped that these new visitors would help them. If they stayed there on this planet? They would die, in anywhere from a few months to a few years. The local leadership and volunteers just didn't have much to lose, if these were just an odd group of slavers.
Much to the surprise of the leadership on that backward planet, all most all of them had returned to this planet months later. They were all telling the others fantastic stories of their visit to another planet. This was the first stone that started things moving on this planet. The habitable areas of the planet slowly started to evacuate from the risk of Cylons. That was about the time of the second Cylon force to have showed up in the star system. These unwanted visitors were handled by the Beast, and four Cylon Basestars would not be making it back to the Cylon colony ship after liberal use of nuclear warheads, capital lasers, missiles and heavy cannons. She had been rushed to this system after fighting a major battle in Colonial space with most of the damage unattended to.
Lee Adama would not let his ship leave this system. His command was damaged and low on food when they had arrived. His ship had taken out all four of the Cylon capital ships, but not before two major river delta "towns" were wiped away in Cylon made nuclear fire. His ship took four weapons of the same type close to or on, his hull before the fighting was done. Still he had stayed as a Colonial made liner was slowly filled, and it made its first jump away from the planet with her load of precious cargos.
It took a long time, but after about a dozen runs of the liner going between the two-star systems. The Mercury class Battlestar was pulled off of station, and she was replaced by the Texas class battleship Bismarck under the command of Captain Buckler. It took time and it was slow going, but people were leaving the at-risk planet. Word was spreading to more willing ears, and more people wanted to risk being taken as slaves. It was just very slow going on a planet, that had a population this spread out and it was not supported by an integrated information network. Letters were passed by a literal pony express to the different towns and villages on the planet.
A SLDF scout had picked up a new Cylon fleet moving towards what was being called Nike's World and its star system. It would be there any week now. The SLDF was going to use one massive lift off of people from the planet. That was what the planning meeting that Robert was going to was working on. Robert walked into the meeting, and almost ran into Colonel Gao coming out of the room with a full head of steam. The hard woman was on a rampage, and only stopped when the newest addition to her mission showed up out of the blue. She took about ten minutes to catch Robert up on the plans, as they currently were. The downside of the meeting was that they were going to be leaving no later than the first of this month.
It was during this update. That Robert found out how much umph, was being put into this effort. Robert was going to be back in command of the Styx. Jules was recovering from a set of broken ribs, which were not healing as quickly as they should. He had been playing with his grandkids and had fallen out of a tree of all things. That was why Robert was pulled off leave early. He was Jules last minute replacement. Jules was going to have to wait a little longer to get his squadron level command time. Robert knew that Jules was not going to have liked missing this mission.
This was a mass lift, and for that? The Hobgoblin, White Rabbit 2, and the Lisbon Maru would not work. Just before Robert was about to say something to this effect. Robert was told that the General Bradly and General Jackson were almost ready to lift off from New Circe, for the first time in generations. Both ships were heavily modified Mammoth class ships. The long list of modifications turned them into massive Infantry, support troop carriers, or mass evacuation ships. They had only one of this class that had survived, when the Wolverines had been on the run. After seeing how well it had done its job. That a second ship had been made at great cost. It was just in case that they needed to run with as many people as they could on short notice. They had taken to heart every lesson from the operation of that first General class ship.
Higher command had taken one of the standard Mammoth class dropships and turned 90 percent of the cargo bays into massive Infantry bays. The last 10 percent of the cargo bays was used to supply and maintain the infantry bays, which were needed for some of the possible long trips. They could lift 188,000 troopers, all at once. It was a tight fit if they were not trained ground pounders, and that made for some special issues. There were not even plans for the SLDF to grow to that size of an infantry unit, to fill one of those specialized ships. Then again, this ship was not designed for heavy combat. Now, if you were running with your family for your lives? You could deal with those overcrowding issues, because hands down overcrowding beats death.
The last of the three dropships that the Styx was going to be carrying, was the Bovine. It was a recently "found" Mule class ship. For the last six months, it had been slowly modified to carry all forms of livestock safely. It was not a glamorous job, but it was one that had to be done. The core idea that they had started with was to see if they could come up with a way, for Copeland to pick up a full load of live animals to bring back to New Circe. When it was found out that the locals on Nike's World did not want to leave there multi lives work behind, to be turned into radioactive ash and glass. The ship had gained a new mission. The SLDF also did not want to leave the livestock behind, because it would have been a waste. Besides these people would need to have jobs, and New Circe could always use more farmers, and ranchers. The finishing work on the Bovine was rushed to completion to fill this immediate need.
Robert now could start to help with the planning. He could do other jobs that this staff was not used to doing. His first task was helping with the recalling the needed crewmembers for the Jumpship and any special skills needed for the three dropships. He could help to explain the issues, when the message came back in complaining that they were still on leave. The Staff had already come up with a list of complaints and counter messaging for the recalling staff to use.
After Robert left the meeting to start on his work. It was not over; this meeting would go for another hour before it was closed. That also was not the last meeting of the day to be held in the special meeting rooms of the building. The staff from a very high-powered meeting had left their room and split up to filter around the rest of the massive building, which made up the headquarters of the SLiE military arm. This was the only way to get rid of some of the dead wood for the next meeting, and it would allow some of them to collect any updated data. That meeting held way less than half of the people, which had been there for Copeland's debriefing.
The group entered the smaller briefing room from two different doors that supported two different corridors. This was going to be a meeting to get the base plan worked out, for a future mission being planned out among the higher-level members of the Military and Key political members. There were two political leaders, and everyone else had a ranked that held the word of Admiral or General somewhere in the title.
Admiral Franks looked over to the Colonial Admiral. He greeted the other man with a warm smile. Franks' trained eye could tell that the Colonial was more visibly relaxed at the smaller venue. "Thank you for coming, Bill. I am glad we were able to get rid of some of the dead weight. Now, I know that I was vague about what this meeting is about when I sent that note to you."
Bill Adama met the greeting with his hand outstretched, and after a few shakes joined his wife on the other side of the small wooden topped table. "I am just glad to get all of these meetings done, so that we can have some downtime before we have to head back. So why did you want this to be so secret?"
The Lord Protector stepped into the conversation, just as the other man had taken his seat. "We want to send a ship to the Inner Sphere, for a special mission. It is not going to be a supply run. Well it might end up that way, but that is not the idea we are working on for their mission statements."
Laura Roslin was wondering why they were being brought in on this. "So why did you want us here." She could feel a hook in the meal being offered to them.
Admiral Franks smiled an evil smile. "First off, we want to rent a ship. We can split the crews of the main ship, but all of the contact will be handled by people who have passed the Protocol test. The ship will also be carrying a few dropships. The second item we need to know about is reference to your strategic monetary status. We know that you raided a few of the banks back in Colonial space, and you pulled out gold and other trade metals."
Bill made his face go still. He had an image of his Great Lady or the Pegasus, being used as overpriced Colonial movers. "So, what is the mission, and what is in it for us?" If they were taking a degrading mission? There better be something for the Colonials at the end of it.
Franks still had that smile on his face. "Bill, we are sending that "rented" ship to Cate's Hold and to have a meeting with a large manufactory. It is the one that Copeland has had some good dealings with on his runs. The ship will be taking Admiral Xi and three others to deal with that meeting. What will your people get out of the deal? You will get 10 percent of the value from anything that comes from Cate's Hold, and we will be paying for the ship and her crew. Whatever deal we get out of MMM, we will split whatever is the percentage that your people contribute."
Now Laura had a smile on her face. Before she could say anything, Bill asked a very pointed question. "When are you wanting the ship to leave?" He was a more of a nuts and bolts kind of person, and he liked dealing with the real world. If they could not support this mission, why get excited over what could never happen.
Admiral Xi had a very still face, and she fired one right back into the Colonial Admiral's teeth. "A week, but no more than ten days."
The opening shots had been fired. Now it was time for the hammer and tongs to be pulled out, and the hard work to start in earnest. It took two hours for the base plan to be worked out in this small group. It was not pretty, and it was not easy, but they did the job. A ship and mission commander were picked. They even set up a sort of an escort for the mission.
This mission was kept very classified, from the rest of the population of the planet. The ground worked had been done some time ago, and the base idea was not that difficult. It was how all of the little parts that were going to fit together, that was a pain to work out. The funny part was that most of the ideas and goals had come from one "Commander" Copeland. He just did not have the clearance to work at this level, to be brought in and help.
While Robert was getting ready for his next mission, the planet of New Circe moved along around him. There had been political and bureaucratic push back on the lowering of the funding levels for the HAG systems on both sides of the planet. It even took some time for the ground force commanders to come around to the idea. That having battle armor for hundreds of there troopers in a year was a lot better than a maybe weapon, that would not be ready for even prototyping in that same time frame. The kicker to getting the military and press aligned with the idea, was when it was decided to call the "new" PA(L) the Weasel. That name reached all of the way back to the time of the Annihilation and the warship named Weasel.
Something like that was worth a delay of between ten to fifteen months, before the first prototype HAG might come off the line for testing. The kicker, to the deal was the idea that one of the side effects of putting the Tornado/Weasels suits into production. It was that they might be able to make a stealth type of armor, for the first time on New Circe. It would not be as good as the incredible Null Signature System, or the Chameleon Light Polarization Shield, that was built into the Exterminators and Spector mechs. But they could not make any more of those two systems anyway.
Now it looked like it was a step in the right direction, to be able to reproduce those systems at least in a limited amount. It would take years to work out all the issues and possibilities, but it was a new idea that had come to this planet. The increase in resources that the Colonials, and then what Copeland had brought back were fueling a flood of new ideas. They also now had a slowly growing population to support those ideas or materials that could support some of those new ideas to develop. Most of it was still at the hand building phase. But it was building up, if just very slowly.
Notes:
Tornado suits. Even if something the size of Krupp can only make 1 suit a week. That would let them field almost 1500 of them by this time. Well minus any combat losses, which they might have over the production life.
Rear Admiral Xi: Yes, she got a promotion also. And they needed Copeland out of the way for a while.
Hyper Assault Gauss Cannon: You have got to love the HAG 20, this is a prototype that starts as a HAG 15. The HAG had to start somewhere before they got it to work, and then they came up with the rest of the line of weapons.
Other new weapons for MMM and New Circe. Just bumping them up the tech tree a little, for both of them. This Clan has a small population, so they need examples to really make any new things quickly, and the same is true of MMM compared to what the Great Houses can do. Knowing it can be done, with an example in your hands is more than half the battle.
Using a Battlestar to move other ships: Nike kind of poisoned that well, when she called out the Pegasus when it was sent out to help get her back to New Circe. Sometimes connecting all the dots or letting someone in on an inside joke, is not a good thing. Nike is anything but subtle, when it comes to dealing with humans.