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.

48. Chapter 48 1 July 3049

Chapter 48

By Cliff

Beta and Clean up: Not done

Reviewed by Hotpoint and Cannonshop

1 July 3049

Barbados system.

Robert was tired, almost bone tired. This Pilgrimage had pushed him in ways that the other missions had not, and right now he felt every day of his age. He was going to have a hell of a debriefing, when he got back home. He had been running his jump fighters in his fleet ragged after the carriers had not been needed for the ground missions. It had not taken them all that long to know that something was going on. Stuff that was not covered in any briefing reports he had been given when he had left New Circe. There was a lot of traffic, and some of it flowed through areas that were not too far away from them. It was way more traffic than should be in this part of space. Barbados was way off of the normal shipping lanes for the clan and anyone else, for that matter. When the jump fighters had reported the first convoy of a half a dozen jumpships. That had been a concerned, and it was logged into the mission database.

When a second report had come in a few days later, that those six jumpships were all Star Lord class vessels. That had caused a third group of scouts to be sent to that star system. They quickly reported back that not only were they fully loaded Star Lords, but three of them had what looked like full loads of Overlord-Cs strapped onto their hulls.

That was distressing for Robert and Jules, and when an intercepted communication had come back that the jumpships were using Jade Falcons merchant codes. That had almost caused Robert to pull the plug on his other scouting missions while they were in this part of space. It was only after they had mapped out a dozen new sightings, that a pattern of ship's movements was worked out. The groups of maybe clan ships were bending around this one section of interstellar space. It was almost like this system was marked like a shallow water or sandbar and was marked as a navigation hazard or something for interstellar craft to avoid.

While the hidden small jump fighters mapped out the traveling routes. It was obvious that a major part of the clan was on the move. In only a few short weeks they had found units from the Wolves, Jaguars, Bears, and Falcons were all already identified by many different jump fighter scouts moving around. They also had seen a few warships, which were last known to be with the Diamond Sharks and Snow Ravens. None of the ships had shown obvious battle damage that the scouts could detect. It was odd, very odd. One of the good things about the scouting mission, was that in the local area they had found other things of value to the SLiE.

They had found four damaged Corvette class warships. That was not a surprise, if you look back on it. That class of ship had been used for scouting the stars for many centuries. They were small, relatively cheap to make, and they had been made in numbers measured in the many hundreds in that length of time. The locations and other major and minor information and notes were taken down, because after all a warship was a warship. And those types of things did not just grow on trees, not even for the clans. Robert copied almost all of this information for his own files. He had the beginnings of an idea, but it was only the start of one. He was still not sure if it was a good idea or not. Only hindsight would be the judge of that.

That was about the only good news. Well that, and no one was seriously hurt while they were on the Pilgrimage dirtside. The down note had been about the Egg Sac. High command had run some computer models, before the Styx had left New Circe. They had said that the Styx could be attached to the larger ship, and she could bring it back to New Circe decades earlier than had been planned or even hoped for. That had been the major goals for a few decades of these missions. The Egg Sac was a very valuable transportation asset, and that did not count the extra dropships that had been attached to her hull.

When the tug had pushed the smaller Styx into the perfect center between the bow and stern of the Potemkin, everything still looked good. And it all had been going according to plan, right up until they had run up the test equipment with the real-world data. Every test they ran for the next few weeks had shown that no matter what they did, or how they move the Tramp around. The Colonial jump field was going to be short by at least 100 meters from the bow or aft of the larger ship, if they tried to activate it according to the plan that higher command had put together. No one knew why this was different than what the computer models back home had said, compared to what the test equipment was now showing to their operators. Robert thought that it might be the dozen damaged dropships attached to the long hull of the transport warship, but he was not sure.

Robert had to call a major meeting to work out what to do next. It was during that meeting that one of the engineering staff had dropped a bomb shell, which had both shocked the group and made a few people laugh out loud. Robert had not been one of them to laugh at the idea that had just been pitched to the group. The idea had been to leave the old Widowmaker ship behind and take the Smoked Jaguar's Congress class warship Hunter's Pride and the Mustang. The two Congress class warships might be used to keep other ships in the SLDF Navy in operation, or even just using parts from one Congress to get the other one back into operation. If they went that route? The rebuilt Congress class ship would not have a Colonial made jump drive, but at least it could move around New Circe and provide some extra fire support in case of an invasion.

Robert liked the general idea, and after he spent some time thinking about the pros and cons of the base idea. He had decided that it was a good idea, but he was going to make one little change in the offered plan. It would have been better if the Whirlwind class Weasel had survived the battle with the clan invasion force. She already had a few lines in the Remembrance the Wolverines had made and updated as needed. The Pride did not, and there was another Whirlwind class ship out there just sitting in the cache site.

After the meeting Robert ordered the tug to push the Egg Sac to about double the safe distance for a "normal" jump drive. It was very close to the point where the warship had been when they had found it the first time on this run. It had taken longer to get the Congress class Mustang and the other Whirlwind class ship attached to the hull of the Tramp. In the end, where they had to make the attachments had blocked two of the three docking collars.

It had taken about a week to fix the docking collars on the soon to be renamed SLS Weasel II. But soon they were repaired and now the two liners would have a place to attach for the ride home. The Mustang collars were also damaged, but more so than the ones on the Whirlwind class vessel. But as the crews on the Styx had the time, they were going to be working on them also. You never know when a few more drop collars might turn out to be useful.

Robert was worried that they were going to be carrying too much mass to move the required distances. He had known that they would burn threw more fuel carrying the added masses of the "two" warships. How much more? Robert did not know, but he didn't want to run out of fuel on the way home again. He wanted to do a test jump with the two jump carriers added to this odd mass of moving metal, just to make sure it was possible. If they ran out of the special Colonial made jump fuel? That would be the way, that they got word back home for some help to come out to get them. Robert and Jules already had the plans done from when something like that, had happened to them on that one run back from the Inner Sphere. They just needed to dust them off and back brief any new members of the command staff.

The first test Jump for the Styx carrying so much mass would be from the cache site out in deep space to the high orbit point over the planet. The jump alarm did not sound off and even after a close inspection, it did not show any issues after that move. Now they could try for a more complicated test jump. Two days later the empty liners lifted off of the planet and quickly were attached to the mass of life carrying metal. After the skeleton crews for those dropships were sent back down to the planet, the jump test was rerun.

Robert was only mildly surprised that everything looked to be okay, and he now had a good plan B. They did one more short test jump, before coming back to the planet. After no issues were found on these tests. The two liners "were aloud" to return to the planet's surface. Then the two warships were released into orbit around the planet from the hull of the Tramp. Thanks to the Colonial made jump drive they did not need to drift that far for the safe use of that system. This was the time that Robert and most of the other space crews were able to partake in the Pilgrimage. For the next few days, they would all rotate down to the planet.

Jules and Robert were on the bridge of the Styx at the same time, both men had gotten back from spending some time ground side three days ago. They were planning on conducting some training events for the jump ships and jump carriers' crews. The pair of officers had noticed that the crews were starting to get a little lax while on duty. In between words, every eye on the bridge went to one corner of the room at the sound of an alarm.

"Jump coming in! 120 seconds out! It's right on the Nadir point!" It was like a stone had been thrown down a mountain, or someone had just used a hornet's nest as a football. Crap just started happening.

Nadir point

Sun James looked around her own bridge and floated over to one screen, and she looked over the shoulder of the Radar operator. She had no idea why she was here, but that had been the mission she had been given. Her people traveled the stars like their ancestors had once traveled the waters of their long forgotten birth planet. That didn't mean that they did it at a whim. But when your clan leader calls you into a private meeting, and she tells you where you are going. Well you're going where they had pointed on the star map, with a grin on your face. Even if it was going to be about as much fun as pulling all of your nose hair out, one hair at a time.

What Sun did not know, was that thanks to her Inner Sphere designed jump engine. A Jump fighter was waiting 7 light seconds deeper in space for her to come into this jump point. It was watching the jumpship and recording it with all of its passive systems. When the jump fighter picked up that the jump ship mounted radar was warming up. It activated Its Colonial made jump drive at its lowest power requirement. There was a very small chance that the interloper would have noticed the 100ton fighter going into faster than light mode.

Robert and Jules were looking at the data dump provided by the returning jump fighter. Robert reached out and hit the pause button on the flow of data. "I have no idea what class of jumpship that is, but the paint scheme is pure James's family."

Jules nodded his head and zoomed into the still image of the front of the vessel, and then he slowly started driving the image down the spine of the long vessel. "That is an old Liberty class ship, and it looks like she has 3 old Manatee's on her collars. But the fourth Collar is plated over, and the docking arms are also missing on that one spot."

Robert put his hands behind his back. "Let dirt side know, that our friends are here." Robert did not know if he was really thrilled about this part of the mission. But it was not his call to make. "Also send a greeting to the James's family ship, when the time is right." The SLDF needed to protect their ability to move small ships faster than light, that let them know things. All before the "only" light speed restricted systems could do their jobs.

Before the first message could reach the planet from the jump point. A small craft was on the way to the Styx from ground side, and it would be carrying the person that had been selected to deal with this. The Styx would take the small craft and jump to the jump point, as per her orders. Robert was going to be mainly only a passenger for this next part of the mission. The modified Tramp class ship jumped to the jump point, when the clock said that the radio greeting should have reached the jump point plus a handful of seconds.

Sun was a little surprised at the radio message being displayed on her screen. Then a warning was displayed, that a jump was inbound overwrote the first message. She was quick on her feet and she realized that she really was going to meet people. "Alert the passenger docking hatch, we will be having a visitor. I just hope they are not jerks, and we still have to make the other meeting."

Robert and Jules were sitting in a small briefing room on the Styx. The meeting between the two groups had been held on the newly arrived foreign jumpship. There was not any way that SLiE was going to let anyone on a ship with Colonial made AG for any extended length of time, if they could help it. There were only three people currently in the room, and one of them was very red faced.

Robert had his work face on, and he was acting in his role as the mission commander. The person on the other side of the table held a rank that was higher than his on any normal operation. But right now, Robert held a higher position, and that was in writing with the Lord Protector's name. If the mission failed? It was Robert, which was on the blame line in more than one way. "So, for some reason the Jarnfolk will not work as the intermediaries? Query Affirmative." Robert's voice was ice cold as he said each word exactly as he wanted them.

The Rear Admiral had not been in combat, but he had served in the SLDF for over 40 years. All of that time had been in support of units at the pointy end of the stick. He had not been in a combat position since he was 23. After that, he had been in support of those other combat positions. His skill in those types of jobs had been the reason, that he had been given the job of working with the Jarnfolk and contacting with the Dark Caste. Now, it looked like that had not worked out as well as planned. It was now up to Robert to find a way to fix whatever was broken, but first he had to find out exactly what had happened in a briefing he had not been involved in.

The Admiral started to bristle, and then he backed down from the very pointed question. He knew that he had failed in his assigned mission, and he just did not understand why. "They are not being reasonable! They are only going to be carrying me and a single dropship a few jumps and back! It's not that big of a deal. Query affirmative."

Jules's head had tilted to one side, and his face was anything but still. He had worked with this man before this mission, and he had talked to people who had worked with him. His opinion of him had not improved on this run. "Just what the Frak did you say to them?"

It only took 30minutes of talking for Robert and Jules to know what had gone wrong. They kept grilling the senior officer for another 2 hours, for more information and finer details of what happened in the meeting that had gone so badly. Only later would the two men, in a private meeting would they work out what each had done. They had a good laugh about how they only were dragging out the meeting, to get back at one of the people that had been a pain in the neck for most of the trip. Sometimes you have to take what the universe gives you for a little joy.

Early the next duty shift.

Robert had taken a long-ranged shuttle the SLDF had made sure that he had brought along, for the short distance run over to the older jumpship design. As soon as the back briefing had been done, he had sent a short message to the Jarnfolk ship asking for another meeting. He made sure that he identified himself by name and mission title with his meeting request. Robert won 10 scrip off Jules when the reply came back to the bridge of the Styx.

Now Robert was sitting in the very small room on the 45-meter spinning deck built into the hull of the Liberty class ship. Across from him was sitting a hard face woman. She had not said a word, as Robert had entered the small room on the spinning deck. As soon as his butt hit the chair, he started with his prepared statement. "Thank you for seeing me, Captain Sun of Clan James." Robert spent the next few minutes talking about anything and everything, but what the meeting was supposed to be about. He had taken the time to read up on other dealings with the Jarnfolk while they had been on the way to this star system.

Sun held up her hand to stop Robert in mid-sentence. "Finally, someone who has proper manners. I will talk with you, like one of my clan Commander Copeland. So as a fellow member of the same family I can tell you. I was surprised when my leader gave me this mission in a very private meeting. I was asked by my Family leader to ask about where have you all been, and what have you been up to?" This was a double question that was common for her people to ask someone. The Jarnfolk were travelers, and a Jarnfolk officer always wanted to go some were that no other of their kind might have gone.

Robert tilted his head to one side, and he let a sly smile cross his face. He made sure that his tone was just the way he wanted it. He knew that he was going to be playing with fire, but he just could not help himself. "Oh, we were only fighting killer robot AI's in the very deep periphery, that is Rimward of Terra. Other than that? Nothing much that I can recall, and what about you? Any jump space monsters, or ships lost in time and space?" It sounded very blasé to his own ears, and he could not help but feel the smile reach his eyes.

Sun James just blinked a few times, and she didn't say anything for a while. Then a sly smile came to her own face. "Look if you don't want to say, that's fine. We understand secrecy. The clans want most of us dead or in one of their fucking castes as well." More than a little venom colored her voice, as she took what Robert had said as a joke.

Robert had his working face back on, and he just let the last statement hang in the air. "I have a present from my people for you." Robert reached down and then passed over a paper wrapped package of a well-known size.

Sun leaned forward a little and took the package. In her culture it was rude not to see what had been given to you as a present. She untied the colored string and the paper fell away. The black and silver over and under pistol was now fully exposed to everyone in the room. The Jarnfolk loved sidearms, it was something that was at almost at the genetic level for them. She found out how to open the breach to the large under bore with very little fumbling of the unfamiliar weapon. She was looking down the second barrel when the two small ammunition boxes were put on the desk. "I have never seen anything like this. Is it any good?"

Robert had a slightly different look on his face. "It's not bad. The ammunition is a little hot for normal shipboard uses, and it will punch threw most body armor. The under-barrel fires something like a mini grenade, that will punch threw battle spacesuits."

Sun put the weapon to one side of her desk. "Thank you. I was told that you might have a gift for my family, if we decide to help you."

Robert let a laugh come out. "You are referring to what was agreed on with our last meeting between our people. The payment for acting as a go between for another meeting. I have six old Star League deep space rated space suits. I also have 4 space suits that are of a new design, that I think you and your people might like also. Our aerospace fighter jocks love them. Those 4 are offered as an apology for the earlier miss understanding between our two space faring people."

Sun now had a beaming smile on her face. "I always like dealing with other professionals. I will pass over our planned course and the location of my next meeting to your staff. What else do you have to trade? And what is it going to cost my family?"

They spent the next few hours on the business of the day. One of the key reasons that the first meetings had failed, it was that the prime representative for Clan Wolverine had been cheap. He had not thought to bring the specially made pistol, and he had not wanted to "give" them the space suits. All of this had been in his briefing package when they left New Circe. He had thought that he knew the best way for him to get what was needed for the SLDF, as the officer on the spot. He almost flushed over a hundred years of cooperation right out of the airlock.

The only break had been when Sun wanted to see these new space suits that Robert had told her about. She had spent almost all of her life in space, and her people spent more time in space than most others as a general rule. She could evaluate a space suit faster than most people could figure out that something was a space suit and not some kind of swimming suit. She was impressed with the suits, after only a few minutes of looking at them. They were not combat suits, but for any other type of space-based work these would be extremely useful. She paused long enough, that Robert could see that she had connected the dots about the usefulness of these suits.

They floated and pulled their way back to the hamster wheel deck, and the pair went back to work. When this part of the meeting was over. Robert would be sending over another half dozen of the Colonial made suits, along with all the data he might have that would help the Jarnfolk make more of them. For this information and extra suits? They would turn over to Robert, the entire navigation and "story" files that this ship carried. This ship had been outfitted with an almost complete James's clan archive, to help them make the long trip somewhat safely.

In the original plan. Only the Jarnfolk and one member of the SLiE would have gone any further from this system with the trade items. But due to the issues that had strained this part of the mission already, a few changes were made. Robert and Jules decided that they would be accompanying the Jarnfolk, and not riding with them. They would be taking the Styx, Hard Hat, and the Titan class "dropship". Captain Sun James knew that some of the "maybe clan Wolverine" were staying behind. Her crew had "seen" two warships in orbit over the only habitable rock, trying to hide under tight ECCM. There also was that large dropship moving around deep in system. Thor's systems had only gotten a slight whiff of it a time or three, but nothing solid.

The now expanded group were only going to make 3 double jumps, so the Tramp was not going to be gone for that long. At least with the second jumpship now going with them. The Jarnfolk ship was not going to have to leave one of the now almost empty Manatee class cargo ships free floating in this system for later return and pick up, just so that it could carry the tug to its new owners.

2 double jumps and 12 days later

F3 star system.

Captain Sun floated over her command chair, like she was some god or angel from one of the old books. She had been mildly surprised that the Tramp class ship had been able to keep up with her Thor. She gave herself a mental head shake as she thought about the last few jumps. No, it had not only been keeping up. It had been ready for each jump, before her extremely highly trained crew could do the same job. It was almost like her vessel was slowing the Tramp down, as they moved through interstellar space. She was about to order the sail deployed, so that her ship could recharge the jump drive and L-F battery banks. Her mind was more or less jumping to different topics when she had to suddenly focus on protecting her ship.

"Captain! The Styx is launching her Titan!"

Before Sun could do anything. The Radar operator sounded off from her seat on the other side of the bridge. "We have two dropships, under power, and an Invader class ship sitting 224 up 76! We have company! And they don't look friendly!"

Sun's eyes shot up first, before pushing herself to float over to the Radar screen. She only had 4 modified workmechs on one of the Manatees and exactly zero fighters under her command. She was about to order all of her people to weapons. Then her jaw dropped so hard, that she started rotating in zero g. "Good gods! Look at the g's they're pulling!

King Cobra was sitting in the command chair of his Lion. He was very proud of this ship as he looked around. It was only a few dozen years old and it was updated to the clan standard model. The only thing was, that he was board out of his skull. He had teamed up with another commander of what the Clans called the Bandit Caste. That one commander had a modified old Star League era Titan assault and fighter carrier under his command, and he also had a very close friend who ran an Invader class jumpship.

They were sitting and waiting for a clan cargo jumpship or small group of them to stop by this system. The information that they had "bought" from Clan Burrock, had said that this single star system was an identified system, for any of the jumpships that might have mechanical or other issues that might affect their transit. At least every few months a "repair" or recovery ship would stop by to help any ships in distress.

The commander with the Titan would force any jumpship to remain, and he would handle any fighters or combat dropship that the clan jumpships might be carrying. King Cobra's Lion would attach and take over the jumpship and attached supply dropships. His armed personnel living in the infantry bays would be the ones to board and handle any issues on the cargo dropships and civilian designed jumpship. He was hoping they would get an Odyssey or a Star Lord, but he was equally worried that they might catch a Comitatus. The Comitatus and her 20 fighters would make his life very hard. It was the whole, what does a dog do after it catches the car it was chasing.

He had been surprised when two jumpships arrived, but also thankful that the waiting was finally over. He might have failed out as being a mechwarrior, but by now. He had proven his command ability half a hundred times against almost every clan touman. As the two jumpships appeared, he gave orders for his crew to get to work. Out of the corner of his eye he could see that the other bandit commander had reacted just as quickly as he had. For some reason this surprised KC, but he didn't give an outward sign of this.

All KC would need to do for now, is make sure that he was in a blocking position between the two new jumpships and their ride home. If things went too far wrong collecting these jumpships. He and the jumpship would leave. They might or might not come back and check on the Titan. Those were the breaks for those who called the Bandit Caste home. KC already had plans to take care of any issues the jumpship's crew might have about leaving the other dropship behind. He was pretty sure they were the same plans that the other dropship commander had for him.

As King Cobra watched, he saw 2 Rogues, 3 Issus, and 2 Gothas as they were leaving the carrier. They were quickly followed by the Ahab and Tyre class aerospace fighters. The Tyre was the senior pilot over on the old Titan. To see her out in space, was a sign that they were serious about taking these prizes. As his mind worked on that, his heart stopped as the situation changed right before his eyes. Someone on one of those two jumpships was on the ball. Then his blood froze as the computer told him what was coming out to defend the two jumpships.

KC eyes went large as 4 Avar and 6 Visigoth class fighters were noted as coming off an oddly modified Titan class ship. Those were 10 Clan grade Omni fighters. That was not good, and KC was glad that he had been told to stay back and cover the Invader class ship. The old Star league Titan he was working with should have been able to pack 18 fighters. But she was only carrying 10, and one of them was down with a bad life-support system. The space that had once held those other 8 fighters, had been converted into cargo space and other items to better support those 10 attack craft on the types of missions that the Dark Caste needed doing. Maybe this new craft had similar modifications done to it. He knew that half a dozen dropships like that had been "sold" by the Burrocks to "different groups" around clan space.

Clan Burrock didn't know it, but they were the largest supplier of space-based assets to the whole Dark Caste. It was a fine line that they were walking. The core groups of the Dark Caste had to keep it looking like the Burrock's were controlling the Caste, when in fact it was the Caste that was using and sucking the Burrocks dry.

Fred Hakansson felt the kick of his massive engines as it pushed him out the bay door. Almost between eye blinks his Visigoth was now in open space. They were ordered to launch and stay at maximum speed, and to have the battle as far away from the jumpships as possible. That was okay with Hakansson, he loved the kick in the base of his spine as his engine went into over thrust. He was both looking forward and not, about getting Colonial artificial gravity plates fitted onto his craft. He was told that they would get the same "feel" of acceleration, but they would only get it at the highest thrust levels and even then not as strongly.

They had pulled his jump engine pod, and the support crews had replaced it with more weapons not long after leaving the Barbados system. The mission commander was not wanting to risk that technology being leaked to the Clan or other groups. That just freed up mass for more weapons as far as Fred was concerned. It didn't take long for his fighter's targeting systems to give him a run down on what was threatening his people.

The 6 Kirghiz jump fighter still did not have their jump engine pods pulled from their hulls. They were the emergency reaction team for this mission. If they were needed, they would punch out and cover the jump ships or go get help from the other jump carrier. All Fred knew, was that it was not his problem to worry about. This was going to be his first test against human pilots and not Cylons, and he was very excited at the opportunities this gave him.

Fred could not help but smile as he studied the data coming into his craft. He could tell that these pilots were failed out Clan Aero pilots just by seeing what they were doing. They had broken into a cloud of 9 individual craft and they were not working together. They were not even working as small teams. They were trying for individual glory, and not war. With a simple command the Wolverine fighters went into a looser formation, but not as willy-nilly as the caste fighters were.

Minuet smiled as the "flight" CAG handed off targets. Lt Hakansson and his wingman were going to be getting the 90ton Royal Ahab. She was getting to go after one of the smaller Royal class 40-ton Rogues. That was going to be a good fight for her 35ton fighter. She was just glad that the quad pack of Colonial made KEW cannons had been removed from her nose. While they were great at fighting skeet and making ground attacks against Centurions and human form Cylons. They were not that effective against "hard" targets. An LR PPC and two ER Medium lasers, now those were very good weapons at taking on "harder" targets.

Minuet had to throw her craft into a combination slide slip and barrel roll at very high g's. She fired at the same time as she did the maneuver. Both of her ER mediums missed the Rogue, badly. They were "technically" within range, but they had only run up her heat levels. The heavier weapon did smack the Royal tech fighter hard on the nose. As she brought her light fighter around to line up on the other craft, she looked at her displays projected on her visor. The targeted pilot had fired both of his Artemis helped LRM 15s at her. Her last second maneuver had caused all of the 30 long ranged missiles to miss her. Her updated PPC had blasted a lot of the first-generation Ferro armor off the nose of the enemy craft in her return fire.

With one last look at her heat gauge, she did some fine adjustment to her targeting of the wildly flying enemy craft. Suddenly the enemy craft snapped hard over, and Minuet got a good look at the belly of the other craft at very close range. Without thinking she pulled her main trigger, and just like that the 3 light speed weapons reached out from her craft. For a brief second, the light energy connected both craft. It was very brief for the older design, which had not been designed to handle damage at this scale. About the only thing that Minuet could identify, was one wing with the Box LRM launcher still attached and the odd little aft mounted turret. The rest of the craft was just a fireball rapidly expanding and cooling in this local area of space.

Without saying a word, she dropped her madly over heated craft back in formation. Now she let her wingman take the point position in their combat flight. While she was cooling down, she would make sure no one tried to get behind her wingman. She only absently mindedly noted that he was working to line up on the one remaining royal Rogue class fighter. It would not take long for the heavy energy weapons on his craft to take out this slightly heavier fighter. That is, if he could ever score a hit on the fraking thing. No one ever said that the Dark Caste had bad pilots. They might have bad gunners, but their pilots were not bad at all.

Just as Minuet's fighter made it to a heat neutral state. Her wingman had gotten target focused on the Rogue, and he almost lost his life. That was when a 40ton full on Clan fighter called an Issus tried to jump him from behind. The little 40ton clan second line fighter was known to have some issues. Like packing a pair of very high heat generating clan tech ER large lasers, but not having the needed double heatsinks to use them effectively. If Minuet did not protect her wingman? Then those large bore lasers would be backed up with a pair of ER mediums and a streak 6 launcher. The Avar was a good craft, but that amount of firepower was going to gut her partner's craft like fresh caught fish at a family reunion's fish fry.

All of those thoughts went through her head at the speed of her finger pulling the trigger, and a single bolt of purple energy left the nose of her craft. It tracked all the way to impact dead onto the thrust bell of the second line clan fighter. The two red blast that had come from her weapons mounted on the overly long wings shot by over the cockpit of the enemy craft. The Issus pilot didn't notice the energy bolts going over her cockpit. She was too busy trying to kill the fighter currently off her nose. And then she was focused on trying to punch out of a craft that had a fusion engine and a full tank of fuel trying to kill her. She failed at both counts, but only after getting two strikes from her large lasers on her target off her nose. It was just too bad that before she could punch out, her fuel tank and fusion engine went out to lunch at the same time. There was only enough left of her body to read as "some" organic molecules in the general area.

Fred Hakansson was having to work hard to take out the assault mass fighter. His system said this was not a clan tech updated craft, but an older craft that had survived all of the wars and battles of clan space. Fred had gotten a little to close and had come within a hair's breadth of being NARCed for his troubles. That would have made the twin 20 pack and 6 pack missile launchers a lot more effective. Lt Hakansson did not have that much of a range advantage over the long shooting 443b. He had taken hits from just about 100 LRM hits all over his airframe. His wing man had taken about half that number of missiles hits. But the hits from three first generation extended range gamma lasers had almost made him lose control of his craft.

Fred pushed those thoughts out of his mind and lined up for another shot on the heavier fighter. He knows that there could not be that much armor left on the other fighter, not after what the pair of SLiE pilots had already done to it. He pushes his clan tech 300xl class engine, and he works on getting in closer into the dog fight with the heavier Ahab. His wing mounted heavy weapons indicated that they were within range, and he pulled the trigger to the first detent on his stick. The waste heat washed over him like a hair dryer on a summer's day in Phoenix.

The heavy g loading kept him from doing anything but put a thin smile on his face. Two more of his heavy weapons had hit this target. One had hit on the thick part of the craft were the left wing met the main body of the fighter and it protected some of the craft's missile launchers. The wing lost its structural support and snapped off at the point of his weapons impact. If they had been fighting in an atmosphere? That would have been a kill. In space the loss of a wing was not that much of an issue for the pilot to have to deal with. The loss of the weapons mounted on that wing would have been more of an impact on the battle.

What had drawn the smile under over 4 g's of thrust? It was the heavy weapon hitting dead center on the hump not far from the wing he had just clipped off the enemy craft. Fred knew that this was where the engine and fuel tank were situated on this class of airframe. He just cut back on the engine thrust on his craft, when his HUD showed that the target craft had suddenly had a huge heat bloom. The IR glow was not that far from where his second Clan grade extended range gamma laser had hit. A second bloom was picked up that followed the first one in quick succession. This one came from the front of the craft, and that would be the pilot punching out of his battle-damaged fighter. The enemy pilot suddenly thinking that dealing with the cold and unforgiving environment of deep space was a lot safer idea, than sticking around inside what was left of his craft.

Fred Hakansson now takes the time to see what was going on around him. He was not that surprise to see that "his" carrier was charging into the battle. His looking around had been in time to see the sixth and last of the 100ton fighters come out of the bottom of the three launching bays of his ride. There were 5 of the heavy fighters already in a line behind the jump carrier. That would be the next to last line of defense of the small convoy of jumpships. He was okay with that. After dealing with the Ahab, he was not looking forward to tangling with the other Titan without some heavy support of his own.

Fred looked a little harder at his screens mounted just below chin level in his cockpit. He was working out what had happened while he was taking the Ahab to school. 2 of the Avars were out of the battle, one was snapped in half behind the cockpit. That was bad, and then he noticed that the number of red icons were lower. Both of the Rogues and two of the Issus were gone, and the third Issus had the last pair of fast Avars on its tail. One of the 500b's just winked out on the screen, when the CAG sitting on the Titan sent a signal for him and his wingman. It was a message of what their next target was going to be. Fred was not surprised that his next target was the clan tech 55ton Tyre. It was packing a double fire rate class 10 autocannon, which would be very dangerous to even a dropship. While he forwards his intentions to his wingman, he was putting the spurs to his craft again. The huge 300 rated engine red lines and off he went to tangle with another Bandit Caste fighter.

Per Askim was captain of this Titan under the SLDF flag. She ordered the last of the fighters to launch, and she fired up her main engines. Her modified Titan was not going to be as fast as the other craft of like parentage. That is unless the older Star League craft had some unrepaired engine damage the sensors were not picking up. To add the Colonial made jump engine to her Titan, it had added a lot of mass and the engines had not been changed that much during that refit. She was betting on that her girl having better armor and weapons than the other Titan class warship. She would have sent all of her fighters to counter the 2 stars of clan craft. The mission commander had vetoed that plan, before she could even send it forward. She would only be allowed to advance into battle, if she left someone behind to keep any leakers from getting her craft and getting to close to the two almost undefended jumpships. With a satisfied smile on her face, the assault carrier was about to earn the assault part of her classes name.

Raptor kept his face still, so that his crew could not tell what was going on in his head. He had been a great dropship commander, in his eyes. He had only held that job for a few years, before he started his downward slide. It didn't take long for the Jade Falcons to judge him wanting in every way that they measured such things. He had fallen all the way down the clan ladder, until he had been issued a Mauser and room in a Soma barracks at the edge of a space port. He had not stayed in that unit for long. He had come up with a plan and found a few other likeminded people living in the same barracks or close to it. He smiled as he remembered the radio calls, as he had blasted out of the space station in "his" Titan.

This enemy ship was going to find out that his ship was fully ready for combat. He had even been able to update some of the weapons over the last few years. He had focused on his long reach weapons that were his fighters. He had plans to use what was recovered from this mission to replace all the older Royal designs for newer "real" clan fighters like the Scytha. Still two of his ship's Pontiac 20 autocannons had been replaced with longer shooting and cooler firing second generation Gauss rifles. Both were in his nose, and they had been credited with a pair of fighter kills already. The only thing that was bothering him, was that the enemy assault ship was not pulling the power she should. It was like she was not getting the right power to mass ratio out of the standard rated engines. After a few heartbeats he just smiled and orders his ship to increase speed. If a damaged assault ship wanted to come out and cross swords with his magnificent maintain ship. He was okay with that, and you never know. He might be able to add a new ship to his fleet. He knew a shipyard that would do the work for him, for a very good price.

That smile did not last long. It took him about 3 minutes for him to understand that he had miss calculated the odds for the battle very badly. The other Titan might have bad engine damage or engines that needed a lot of work, but there was nothing wrong with its weapons and fire control systems she was packing. He had just about made it to the edge of effective range of his old generation gamma large lasers. That was when the other ship had opened fire like a star exploding, and it almost blasted his ship apart under his deck shoes. He had sailed his great craft right into the heavier guns of a "wounded" enemy, and he had paid the price.

Raptor had commanded his 12,000ton dropship like it was just an oversized fighter, but that was only out of desperation. He knew it was more by luck than skill, that his first two gauss rifle shots had hit the brow like bridge that was so well known of this class of vessel. Those pair of hits had seemed to stun his opponent for a few vital seconds. Those few seconds had been enough for him to use his ships better acceleration to try to open the distance from this horse with teeth. He had thought that he was safe, and then the enemy had proved that they were packing a ship load of fully updated clan grade weapons. He had thought it was a lamb to be taken, but it had proven to be a wolf in sheep's clothing. That was his last thought, as a mix six pack of LR PPCs and Gauss Rifles found their mark and the engine and bridge were hit at the same time.

Per Askim smiled as the last round cracks the engines on the old Star League age dropship. She had seen the air, water, and other stuff start to vent out of the bow of the Bandit caste ship as it started to flip out of control. As she watched the out of control dropship, escape pods started to separate from the wreck. She almost opened fire again as two small craft came out of the side of the craft that should not have mounted small craft bays. She had no idea what they were, but they were broadcasting a surrender notice on the radio waves at a fairly high volume as soon as they hit open space. She knew that this broadcast would not have stopped a clan unit from burning them down. She had to remind herself, that she was not clan. She was SLDF, and they would take surrenders from anyone who they had fought with honor. Even if they were pirates and war criminals, the SLDF would take their surrender. They might shoot or toss a few of them out of an airlock afterwards, but they would take their surrender.

Robert folded his arms and just shrugged his shoulders to give a nonverbal response to the look he was being given from Jules. Finally, he gave a reply, which was more for the benefit of the bridge crew than for his friend. "If they want to deal with them? That is their call. It's not like we are sharing a common ship, so the security risk is minimal. At least it is a minimal risk for us. Query Affirmative." And with that one statement any questions of POW's was handled.

The jumpships were getting ready to leave this system for the last set of double jumps. After the first day. The rest of the stay in this system had been without issue. 4 of the light Avars aero fighters had made only one pass on the Lion class dropship. They had not destroyed it, but they had done some damage, and the Lion had scored its own hits on the attacking fighters. Robert ordered Captain Askim to let the retreating dropship go. As long as they left this system, that was good enough for Robert and Sun. It was noted that the Invader class ship had to have been in this system for some time. In less than ten minutes after docking, both ships were gone from this local area. So, it must have had a full charge on its jump drive.

Robert had been invited over to the Thor for a meal, drinks, and update. Robert was just glad that they had the meal in the gravity deck. He had reverted to turning off the Colonial deck plating in all areas of the ship for at least 8 hours a day. That was just so that they would keep their zero g skill sharp, and this was coming into play every time they had a run in with non-Colonial or non-Wolverine forces on this trip. That command decision had not help with morale of the jumpship and dropships, but very few actively complained.

He had been first shown the "survivors" of the attack. Sun had written a detailed report and passed it along to Robert. Robert was understanding that this type of report was a requirement, which had been put out by her Family leadership before she had left for this mission. The report had not covered all of the questions that he had wanted to ask. But most of those other questions, he could not have asked even if he had unfettered access to the survivors.

Sun James had contacted the small craft and escape pods. They had not needed to launch any of the dropships to collect the POWs. Sun ordered the 2 small craft and the pods to dock with one of the Manatee dropships, the one that was almost empty of cargo. The Jarnfolk crew was plused up, as the survivors were pulled out of the life pods and the few that had made it to the only small craft the Titan had carried. Only about half of the dropship's crew and only 3 of the 10 fighter pilots lived to be recovered, and not one of them held the rank of officer.

Sun was holding on to a metal bar on one side of the cargo bay, as Robert looked over the small craft. "So, what is it?" Robert called over his shoulder as he floated around one of the two craft tied down at the bottom of the cargo bay. It also held some of the recovered enemy fighter hulks, from this battle. Still his voice echoed like he was in a massive canyon.

Sun at first was going to just give a short reply to the question, and then changed her mind. "I think it's a Lupus class boarding craft, but it had a lot of SAR modifications done to it. All we really know, is that it's based on one of the NL designs the old Star League used. We did find old and very faded Clan Wolf markings inside one of them. That is what made me, and a few others think that they are a Clan Wolf design, or they were used by them some time in the past. The one they used the most was called the Lupus."

Robert did a little head nod. "I can see were these might be useful for your family. But what about the pirates you recovered?"

Sun had a beaming smile that had help get her, her given name not long after she had reached puberty. "Oh, we have done this kind of thing before. You know Hofn is a planet that is notorious for its bad weather. We will leave them on the surface for a few weeks, but with enough food and other supplies so that they don't die. After that, they are normally very happy to be allowed back into dealing with people on a regular basis."

Robert didn't know what to say, so he kept his mouth shut and waited. He did wonder if something like that would help get more of the human form Cylons to shift over to the SLDF's point of view. The hard part would be to make sure that they were sincere about their change of heart. He spent more time looking at the two odd little small craft, than he did anywhere else on the Jarnfolk ship. They would be leaving this system early the next shift, so Robert spent his time wisely.

58 Light years later.

2 days later

Zog stood with her arms behind her back and looked out the window into the great abyss. She had been waiting in this system for a month. She or one of her fellow group members, had been stopping here for over the past year. She had read the orders that had her always stopping here for many weeks at a time, with mild annoyance. It was not a bad system, but with only a marginally habitable planet to call this star home. It was not prime real estate, even for the clans to claim. Even with 6 gas giants and 4 super gas giants, it was not that great of a star system for resources. Every one of the gas planets had between an average set of rings, to a few that had truly impressive sets of rings. Some that could be seen at the jump point without needing that large of a telescope. That was not what had Zog's attention. As the 110 meter in diameter deck came around again, she saw what was causing her so much mental distress.

She was a 6th generation member of the Dark Caste. Her group had set up on a planet, that had been found by chance not long after Operation Klondike had been wrapped up. It had been her group, that had been the first bandit caste to infiltrate the rest of the clans. And now they had started to get a steady if thin amount of supplies on a steady basis from those same clans. Her many great grandparents had made sure. That when they left the Clans that they were going somewhere, that the clans would have a very hard time finding them again. So far, they had been successful in hiding their major support base and centers of population. Now she was wondering if maybe they should cut contacts with this group on any future runs. The glass in front of her lit up as a door to this office opened behind her and the corridor lights filled the dark room.

Zog turned to face the man. "Mr. Copeland, please have a seat."

Robert knew that something was up. They had arrived in this system right on time, and Sun had worked her magic. Only a half dozen hours after they had arrived, a small craft had left one of the dropships that a huge Star Lord had been carrying. They had inspected the Hard Hat and just before they left, Robert noticed that one of the inspectors was acting funny. It was nothing he could put his finger on, but something had changed. He had been called down not long after the inspection team had first arrived, and he made sure that he was seen. It was sometime after his arrival that he noticed a subtle shift.

Robert took his seat and he put his working face on. "Thank you Captain Zog. I take it that the tug and her cargos were as agreed on."

Zog took her seat and watched the other man. "Yes, it was, but before we get down to that part of the business between our people. I have a few questions. I was one of the people that went over to inspect her."

Robert kept his face with the working smile on. "I thought so. Were you in the suit with the faded Burrock shoulder flash and the Rank of Star Captain on the helmet, which was only there if you looked at it under the right types of lights?"

Zog felt her jaw drop, and then she saw the glint in the eyes of the other officer. Now it was clear that she had been spotted, and that was why she had seen him on the Tug in the first place. He had wanted her to see him. That was very smooth. "I guess I need to work out a way to do that kind of thing, a different way next time. But yes, that was me, and after checking out the tug. I spent a lot of time looking at your Tramp.

She was watching Robert, and she could tell that this man was not going to give anything away if she kept just trying to drop hints. "I have a little hobby. And we know that some of the members of a certain, call it a tribe, were not wiped out when some think that the deed was done. I have studied all of the ships that were in the first Exodus fleet, from the Inner Sphere. I know that this is not an uncommon past time for people. I have talked to a lot of others with the same type of hobby, but they were always focused on tracking down the warships. When I was younger, I did the same thing. But after my teen years I started looking at the support fleet."

She was trying to pick up anything from the other man, but he was a white wall. He was not giving any clues that she might be getting close to the truth. "To get to the point. Do you know how many Tramp class ships left with General K, when he left the house lords behind?"

Robert could not hide his surprise, but he played it off very well. "I have no idea. I would have to assume that it was a lot. If I remember my history classes correctly? They were pretty common design, and often seen with the independent units in the SLDF."

Zog saw the first crack on the man sitting across from her. She had to fight to keep her face from giving anything away. "You would think so, but those types of ships took a lot of enemy weapons fire because of the types of ground units they were known to carry. Again, to the point. Not that many, compared to the rest of the fleet. Do you know what fleet, after the Sea Foxes held the most of the remaining Tramp class ships?"

She waited until she just could not hold it back. "Clan Wolverine! And they had one called the Styx. The same Styx, that is listed as missing after the No Name war!"

Robert felt ice flow into his veins, and it leached into his voice. "Captain Zog, I think that this meeting is over. I do not have time for people who waste my time."

Zog held her hand up. "Please have a seat Captain. I will drop it, and let's get back to what others above our paygrades have worked out before."

Robert had been already rising from his chair. He was hoping that he would not have to call in an extraction team or have to shoot his way out of the office. He looked over one shoulder and try to work out what his next moved should be. At seeing the sweat on the brow and the distress looked on her face. Robert retook his seat, but he kept his hand near his holdout pistol and his emergency radio, that were hidden about his person. Robert tried to put his workface back on, but he had no idea if it was up to the task or not. He would have been surprised to find out that to Zog. His face had not changed at all during the whole event.

Zog was very worried that she had just blown one of the most important missions for her group in the last decade. "I am sorry, I should not have brought that up in this meeting." She shifted gears with the skill expected of someone selected for this important of a mission. Any race car driver in the world would have loved to have those skills in shifting physical as well as mental gears. "When it was agreed to years ago. We were to provide information on the Sassanid class of Battle armor carrier. We were not able to do that, but we were able to get the plans for the Confederate and Leopard class dropship replacement for all clan ground forces. They are calling it the Broadsword, and it went into full production in 2979.

Robert was fighting to keep his breathing under control, he knew about the Sassanid. SLIC had been tracking it for some time. One of the things in the reports on that 3,000ton dropship had said that it went into production before 2884. Still this lance carrier could be a nice addition to his peoples landing forces. They did not have the need for something that could carry 75 battle armored troops and supporting cargo. Robert hoped that this would change in the near future, but he was not betting on it. Robert was almost distracted enough to not hear what Zog was saying next.

"I was told by my leadership, that if you did not want to cover that part of the trade. That they would understand. We do have the manufacturing plans for the two clan light fighters that had been discussed before." She looked down at her PADD for a quick second before looking back up. "They are what the Clanners have been calling the Batu and Sulla. As a salve to not having the agreed upon dropship. We will give you all the data we have found on a new assault dropship that the Steal Vipers are working on."

She passes over a different PADD to Robert, and Robert gingerly picks up the device. It held two main data files, each with the name she had just used. Robert knew that the SLDF already had the 35ton Avar, so another light fighter design was not that great in his book. He first reads the bluff on the Steel Viper designed 40ton Batu. He finds that it went into production in 2985, and it was tailored made for interception. It had a secondary mission of ground attack with 18tons of pod space, which was better than the 14tons that the base Avar had available. Robert then flipped to the data file on the 45ton Sulla. He was surprised that it had been made by the Star Adder starting in 2998. Robert quickly noted that even though it was 10 tons heavier than the Avar, but it only held a half ton more pod space on the base design. It held more fuel and it was a lot better protected, than the base Avar. He had no idea if his people would put either design into production or not. That was something that was well outside of his understanding.

Robert looked up from the digital pad. "I think that between the designs of these three craft and the data you have described. I think that we can agree that your people have met their end of the bargain. Are you prepared to work out what might be done for the next meeting? What can we bring to do a high value trade?"

Now Zog rose from her chair and walked back to the window, to look out into the deep of space. She always found that looking into the abyss was both relaxing and allowed her to think more clearly. "I was given a few ideas, but also a warning to pass along to your people. The clans are on the move, between their space and the Inner Sphere. I am not talking about just a few ships. It is a major muscle movement of many different clans, and its being supported by most of the other clans. We have not seen anything like this in our recorded history. I know your people and mine have been working together for a long time."

She stopped talking for a few long seconds and worked to get her thoughts in order. "We can get most large aerospace combat support from the Burrocks. They have been deluding themselves for years, about us. They think they have been using us, but it has always been the reverse. What we have a problem with, is getting support craft. I was told that we can get another dropship design, one more fighter and maybe the plans for one of the main ground based Omnimechs. We need another tug, and some parts that would draw to much attention to our future plans to get them from Clan space. If you look at the file that is behind the Batu? You will see what we need."

Robert went to the document and looked at the list. It was more or less the same as the list that his people had been given for this run. Robert made a show of slowly "studying" the list. When he felt that the time was right, he played a card. "This will be hard, but I think we can do that. I was told to ask about any updated or improved weapons the clans might be deploying."

Zog returned back to her chair and gave a snort, when she was about to put her butt back into the chair. "The Clanners are working on a lot of different weapons, all of the time. Our contacts in parts of the Burrocks keep us informed about many different ideas, but the warriors are blocking any new weapons deployments. They like the rules the way they are."

Robert and Zog did a snort at the same time. She gave Robert a sly smile at hearing the snort come from the man. "I take it you agree with me, that this makes no sense. I always want the best weapons to kill those that are trying to kill me and mine."

Robert let a real smile come to his face for the first time in his dealings with the Dark Caste. "That is something that you can rest assured, that I believe in also. We have our own issues where we live, so we can shoot for another meeting in 7 years from today or according to our back up schedule. You can always use the Jarnfolk to send us messages. You know we will make it worthwhile for your people to keep an ear out for us." In all of the years of meetings between the Wolverines and Bandit caste only two meetings had been missed. That was an amazing record, but with the distance involved between these two groups. It was to be expected that sometimes they would miss meeting up at the edge of nowhere and the back end of beyond.

This meeting went on for another hour. It was not the last meeting between these three groups. While the Jarnfolk ship recharged her jump drive, the three groups would talk and trade data about the different areas of space they had traveled. But soon it was time to go, now that the engines had been recharged. Zog and her jumpship had another mission that they had to complete, before they were heading away from Clan space again.

Zog was using some Burrock contacts to funnel and support groups, which did not fit in with the rest of the clan established society. Her ship would pick up some of those people and some needed supplies over the next many months, before heading back to her own hidden home. She would have added at least two more combat dropships to go with the two mules, Elephant, and Union C she now carried on her ship's long spine when she was done.

Sun James was going to leave this system in her modified Liberty class jumpship Thor. Not even she knew where they were going to go from this system. She only knew that she was going to leave on a given date. This was her first time in this part of space, and she was not going to let this opportunity slip threw her fingers so easily. When the two "normal" jumpships left this system, it had left only the jumpship Styx at the jump point. She would be leaving as soon as they repaired her jump sail.

That was not really what was going on. Jules had a team working on some of the jump sail, so it was not all a deception to be put on for the other ship's benefit. It also gave the Styx time to check out the system to make sure that no one had been watching them from the shadows. When she did leave, she did a maximum distance jump of her Colonial made jump drive. She ended up in deep space, and they would do the required scans, to make sure that any trackers were taken care of. None were found, and when the Colonial made jump engine was brought back up. They jumped into the system that they had been attacked in along with the Thor.

The Jarnfolk had picked up most of the wreckage and fighter hulks before they had left to make it to the meeting with the Bandit caste. They had been flying towards the Jarnfolk craft, so it was a simple matter to pick most of them up. Robert and Jules were not that interested in wrecked third rate aerospace fighters. Now that the Hard Hat was gone, the Styx had an open spot on her hull. The Star League in Exile could always use another Titan class hull. It would take some time to repair all of the damage, but it still would be quicker than building a new hull from scratch.

It was only twelve hours from the time that the Styx jumped out of the one system that they had the meeting in with the Dark Caste, until they were again back in the Barbados system. They all were only over the planet for a few hours after reporting the planned meeting between the Jarnfolk, SLiE and Dark Caste had been completed successfully. It was only long enough for them to check into with the ground teams. Jules was going to take the jump Titan on a mission, which only he and his daughter knew about. They would only be gone a day or two, and that was all he would tell his long-time friend about the mission.

In a little over 27 hours later the jump carrier was back over Barbados. All Robert knew was that all of the jump locations were not logged into any of the databases on the two ships. Robert tried one time to corner his friend to find out what he had done and where they had gone. Jules had replied that it was something that had to be kept secret. Robert accepted this reply, and he did not push anymore. Now that all of the meetings outside of the system were done. They were on a tight timeline, for the rest of the Pilgrimage.

Without the tug to help move the two hulked warships. It was up to the skill of the crew of the Styx to get the two damaged warships reattached to the core of the modified Tramp. It took a lot of time, fuel, and most of all pre-planning on the command staff's part. But for once, it was fuel that could be found in this system so that was not a real issue. They only had two days after all the work was done, for the crew to get dirtside for some last-minute fresh air.

When the liners lifted off of the planet, for the short burn to the nearby L1 point. The target for them was at the far end of that L1 point, but it was really only technically still in orbit over the planet. The Dark Caste and Jarnfolk had not shown for a surprise second meeting. Robert was not surprised, not with all of the moving around of clan warships and jumpships that was going on in this whole area of space. The members of the Dark Caste or other boarder line groups did not live long, if they ran into any members of the warrior caste. Still it would have been nice to see if they knew, why the clan was expanding into this area. Robert did not participate in the final Pilgrimage meeting on one of the two liners. He and Jules were too busy making sure that the last jump, from the last sun, which they would see for weeks, was going to be a safe one.

When it was time to go. The two jump carriers moved out and the jump fighters were not that far behind them. The last man-made object to leave this system was the Tramp and her large attached cargos. People on the liners settled into having a massive celebration dinner and a round of parties. It was something that was always done, and the finale for a Pilgrimage.

8 August 3049

Canopus IV ComStar Compound

This meeting was very important. It was happening in over a dozen different star systems at the same time, spread out over half of the Inner Sphere. One of the attendants was from the First Circuit sitting in her office on old Terra. ROM was pulling out all of the stops for this one meeting, and the man sitting on Canopus thought he knew why. Things had been happening all along the outer edge of human occupied space. Now it had gotten the attention of all of the key players within the company, that was more powerful than most of the house lords. The only thing was that both ROM and the First Circuit did not like change. The only change they wanted, was what was foretold by the Book of Blake. Or at least as they had interpreted what he wanted those changes to be.

Everyone was waiting, as one by one images appeared on everyone else's screens across over half of human controlled space. When the last screen went from mostly static, to just a very static filled image it still was a quiet meeting. In more than a few of those rooms, the anxiety level started to rise as each title was displayed for everyone to see.

You could not see the faces under the hoods of the white robes displayed on those lines of expensive screens. The lighting had been set in such a way, so that the speakers would intimidate the lower level functionaries on meetings like this. The voice that came through all of the speakers on the different worlds left no doubt who was speaking. "So, what have you found out?"

The head of ROM on this edge of space spoke from under his own hood and equally dark back drop. He knew that this question was going to come up, but not that it was going to come up first and from whom. He had sent dozens of reports, that were covering what he was about to say to a list of the most powerful people within ComStar.

"Majesty Metals and Manufacturing has been increasing the sale of high-tech weapons to anyone with the cash in the bank or in their pockets to buy them. It started with one company spreading out a few items, here and there in the Magistacy of Canopus and border regions of other realms. Somehow this dribble of sanctioned items has increased to a flood. When we tried to stop one of the key outside sources of those high-tech weapons, the mission failed. It was tried, twice to stop this one small group from spreading these sanctioned items around this general area of space. The second time we tried to interdict them. We landed a full ground combat unit, and it was attacked or more to the point. They were ambushed by MMM security and mercenary forces that had been waiting for them."

The new head of ROM in this area, now was wishing that he had not gotten this latest promotion. But when your boss is recalled back to the main office for "consultation"? Someone had to do the work, which was quickly stacking up while he was "being interviewed". He was just glad all of the fingerprints connected to this issue were not his. Still he was only going to cover what had been in those reports. Some of it he knew was not wholly true. ROM used the term of "cooking the books" to describe how you adjusted reports like this going to your bosses.

"I received a report that said, more late Star League era technology was recovered from that last an major attempt than has been released to the press. Now we think that they were able to recover a lot more than just a few samples of late Star League vintage weapons. At first, we thought that they had just used this or samples from the one source of updated equipment to repair some of their damaged units. Now we think that they used some of the "new" items as templates to make more of the higher tech devices, as well as putting recovered items on existing combat units."

The head of ROM in the FWL interrupted the lower ranked and much younger counterpart on the rim of his own powerful fiefdom. "MMM has been supplying the FWL, Capellans and the Mercenary Market with more than just a small trickle of updated machines spread out over a year. They have been supplying a variety of weapons and finished machines that is well over the normal amount. That they are known to have been able to manufacture, all in a very short amount of time. How were they able to put them all into production in that rat hole?"

ROM of MC waited and took a deep and quiet breath before he finished his "brief" to this group of powerful people. "I don't think that they are manufacturing all of them. There PPC production plant on Canopus has only put out a tenth of their normal output over the last few months. We think this is due to some equipment issues, that they are keeping very quiet. It was what I had found out in early June, and that I passed along to Terra that I started connecting the dots."

"I have found out, that there is a new and larger supplier of newer weapons helping MMM flood the market. One of my people found out that they have received maybe as many as 100 ER PPCs. Each one of those weapons is as good as the H-class weapon that is made on holy Terra. And we found out that MMM will be getting another shipment. This one is going to be at least double the size of that last shipment that MMM has received. Besides that, vague hint. We do not know what else the next shipment might bring to MMM. I need to reiterate, that this is a totally new supplier, and not the salvage company that started this ball rolling."

The head of ROM in the MC let his shoulders go back a little more than they should have. "Part of this higher output of weapons and mechs coming from MMM, is our fault. MMM used the ComStar supplied parts and people, to increase basic chassis production and key spare parts for many of their product lines a few years ago. Then we helped them set up the whole new Clint battlemech production line, as part of a deal, that I was not brought into. I assess that when key members of MMM saw how something like that was done. Then they took that sacred knowledge, and they used it in other areas of the company."

A deep voice came from a screen that only held a vague outline of a hood, but maybe a slightly glowing red eye was coming from under the cover. It was very hard to tell, as the hood shifted to one side and the screen got just a little fuzzier. The young member of ROM could not help but feel his heart rate jump at the voice coming out of the speaker. He had no idea who that person was or were Jardine was, but the voice alone was making his blood run cold.

"And what of word, which has reached my ears, of new King Crabs that are starting to come off of the lines of MMM? How was that possible?" The voice didn't just hold a veiled hint of violence. It seemed to drip as the words came through the speakers.

The young man had to lick his lips, so that the sudden dryness would not affect his voice. "That is one of the issues my teams have been working on. We first thought that maybe someone had come out from Cosara Weaponries on Northwind. But there has not been anyone that has set foot on Northwind and come out this far in the last 50 years. If the information did not come from them, or anyone on Terra? Then it had to come from someone outside of the usual suspects. We did find out that the new electronics company making the TT&S for the King Crab, was "loaned" money for the startup of that company. I was able to pick up and send a communication package and TT&S out to a Com Guard unit I know. They got back to me a few weeks ago. They said that it is as good as what comes from the storehouses or from the production lines on Mars. The same is true of the dropship's engines, that we have seen. I expect that soon new Unions, Lions, and Fortress class dropships will be launching, and all of them wholly made by MMM. I would expect that after they get their legs under them, then even these dropships might end up with updated weapons." He knew that he had just walked out on a very thin limb.

That was like throwing a kid onto the train rails, right in front of the oncoming train. Even people who play the game at this level. They can lose control, if they are pushed too hard and too fast. The top member of the First Circuit of ComStar finally held out a long-fingered hand, and the voices stopped like they had been cut by a guillotine.

The voice was hard edged, as it addressed the whole meeting. "The ROM of Magistracy of Canopus would not have brought this up, without having a plan that he would like to advocate for that might mitigate the problems he had pointed out."

"Yes, Primus Waterly. I have an idea that I would need to get high level approval for. I have the location and some other data for the next transfer of high-tech weapons to MMM. I think we need a repeat of the Vandenberg White Wings. I understand that MMM has been heavily invested into this pick up of weapons. If they lose the cargo, and the payment for that shipment? That will clip their wings quite nicely. And with our past connections to them? They will have to come to us for help, with their hat in hand. I think we will be able to take over half the company, if not more. If we can take over this company, on the quiet side? It would give us the keys and a heavy lever to use on the whole Magistracy of Canopus all in one shot. When we add that, to what we have developed in the FWL under our guidance. This would put us in control of a third of explored space, and even maybe a small toehold in the Capellan Confederation as well."

The Primus gave an evil laugh that carried to all of the listeners connected to this meeting via faster than light transmissions. "When Precentor Martial gets back from his little trip. We can start working that ax. It will be like what we have been doing in the Combine just before 3039. This will make the Kapteyn idea work like we had planned in the first place. Blakes Will be done!"

The HPG live meeting went on for half an hour longer, and it was incredibly expensive for every second it was active. They were using a lot of dedicated HPGs support, and that amount of usage could not be hidden for long. Not even ComStar could do something like this, for long or that often and keep it hidden at the same time from all of the intel agencies around the inner sphere. With the approval of the highest-ranking members in all of ComStar. The plan was green lighted, and it was even given three times the resources than the whole Tirpitz Affair had been given all of those years before. Within hours of the meeting ending, huge balls were starting to roll around a goodly sized part of the Inner Sphere. ComStar started to flex some long hidden muscles.

Notes:

Egg Sac: I have to say that it is one of the worst named ships, ever. Whoever named it should have had their hair removed from their nose, one hair at a time.

Designs that were picked up. The Design for the Broadsword class dropship, Batu, and Sulla omnifighters are all older designs. But they are newer than any of the other SLDF fighters in production on New Circe.

Meeting with the JarnFolk. Sun James is a rising star member of the James Family, and she reports only to Alice James. She has a unique paint job on part of her Liberty class jumpship the Thor. For this mission it was carrying 3 Manatees (1 mech and 2 cargo), and no 4th collar. They came straight from the water world of storm-tossed Hofn.

Bandit Caste attack. Lion (Clan) Captain King Cobra MechWarrior dropout affiliation unknown, Titan (Star League) Captain Raptor (6 x ac20s, 2x GR in nose, 22xLL, 10xML) with 2x Rogues 133Eb (40tons XL, IS FF, 2xLRM15 artemis IV FCS, 2 MPL), 3 Issus (40tons Clan tech (no DHS) 1x streak SRM6, 1x erSL, 2x erML, 2x erLL), 1 Ahab 443b (90 tons FF, DHS, 1x erLL 2x lrm20, NARC, 2x srm6 2x ML), 1 Tyre (55tons Clan tech 16DHS 1 ulac10, 7MPL, 1erSL), 2 Gotha 500b (60tons 12DHS, LPL, 4xML, 2xLRM15 Artemis fcs), and 2 Lupus small craft. They are a copy of an old Star League NL-series assault transports. These had been taken from clan wolf a decade ago.

SLDF Titan class jump carrier. 6 Kirghiz, 6 Visigoths, 4 Avars, 2 Vipers. The Vipers are not allowed to be used except under a strict set of rules.

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