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.

50. Chapter 50 25 Nov 3049

Chapter 50

By Cliff

Beta and Clean up: Not done

Reviewed by Hotpoint and Cannonshop

25 Nov 3049

New Circe

In a flash of light and in a blur of movement, that was too fast for the human eye to really understand what was going on. One of the ugliest moving objects ever created by the hand of man, just "popped" into existence at the L1 point near the only life sustaining planet in this system. On that "ship" the crew went to work with a passion. Robert turned and looked at his friend with a smile, they were back home. Two seconds later two more ships arrived at what someone from the inner sphere would had said was impossibly close to another ship. Each of the smaller newly arrived ships looked "normal", and soon they were lost among the giants living in this system. The larger ship was not so easily hidden.

"Jules, would you please let the Station know, that we have arrived with the SLS Mustang and SLS Weasel ll." Now that they were back in the home system, the two carriers would now fall under traffic control and the SLDF Navy on what they were to do next. Robert and Jules just had their own jobs to do with what was attached to the Styx. The two Carriers would take commands from their "normal" command structure from now on.

Jules smiled and did a little chin nod to a station only about 3 meters from where he was currently standing. He still was not 100 percent used to having artificial gravity while he was in space, and he had not yet broken some of the lifetime of experience or habits of "Normal" space travel. That little movement of his head was all he needed to do. Soon messages were flying from the ship to the star system's traffic control center. A message had been sent from the Styx via the HPG she carried, a few hours before they had arrived at this location.

The massive load of metal could "only" jump 17 light years at a charge. And even then, they had to take between three and four hours between each jump. Still sometimes, they had to take longer breaks in their interstellar travels to give the Colonial civilian grade jump engine time to cool down or be inspected for any damage. To make up for the lost time. After the third day on the road from Barbados, Robert had ordered and posted a note to the two liners for the passengers and crew to read. This little convoy would not be stopping for any extended stay after each "normal" traveling day, like they had planned on before leaving New Circe.

As expected, this had not gone over very well with the passengers on those two liners. And after a full 24-hour day of maintaining this new schedule, the sharply pointed messages had started to show up in Jules and Roberts digital mailbox. Thanks to the two warships covering the normal docking collars and forcing the liners to be dock to the wrecked warships. The pair of officers didn't have to worry about passengers physically trying to see them for the rest of the trip back home. Not one of the complainers had brought a "space suit" with them, and the intervening warship hulls were not pressurized much less pressurized with a breathable atmosphere for some strange reason. The last issue had not even been started by the officers in charge of this mission. Someone on the maintenance team had made sure to vent the two warship hulks, before they left Barbados. They even had put the note in the maintenance logs when they had done it.

Within a single duty shift, after the overloaded Tramp class ship had arrived in this system. The two passenger liners were on the ground, and the two damaged warships were free floating in the local space of this arrival point. By now the crew in the local areas of this jump point had gotten used to having to handle, well let's just call them over sized loads. The offloading of the remaining stores from the jump carriers, Styx, and the dropships would be easier without the blocking damaged and recovered warships.

The Station would take care of moving the warships and the wrecked Titan dropship with some tugs. The only main issue was that they had been expecting only one warship to arrive with the Styx. Somehow the news of the second warship and the battle damage dropship had not filtered down to the workers or lower level managers. It would have been a lot larger vessel than the Congress or Whirlwind, but it would have only been one warship that they would have to deal with and not two and a damaged combat dropship. It was early the next duty shift for the City of McEvedy, that Robert took a small craft down to the planet.

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Robert and Jules would have three full days after landing, before they would see each other again. Jules would have two meetings on that first day of their return to the planet's surface. The last one, was with is daughter and son-in-law, that had left Jules very happy about something. The first meeting that both men had sat in together, was in the SLDF Navy Operation building's main meeting room. It was a meeting that both men were not looking forward to. There had been some pointed remarks already, in digital messages, about why they had not brought the Egg Sac back with them. Those were the only warnings about what the meeting was going to be about. This lack of information set both men on edge, when they were able to finally see each other again while using the warehouse mess facilities.

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The meeting was small, and everyone was in full dress uniform. Even the two gatekeepers on the hallway door were in full Clan Wolverine dress uniform complete with weapons. As soon as Jules and Robert walked into the room, they kind of felt like they were in for a grilling of a lifetime. On one side of the table were marked as the seats for Jules and Robert, and on the other side was Admiral Franks, Admiral Whitefield, and Admiral Xi. They also were in full dress uniform, also complete with sidearms. Robert noticed the addition of the weapons and he felt his heart start to race.

Franks looked first down the line on his side of the table, and then he looked across to the two other men. He kept his face as blank as possible. "Well, this almost feels like a tribunal. That was not the intent of this meeting Gentlemen."

He pointed to the two chairs, and the two men took their seats. While the men were still moving to take their high-backed seats, he kept talking. "The first order of business of this meeting. It is to congratulate you all on the conclusion of a successful Pilgrimage. Everyone in this room knows how stressful they can be."

Franks gave the two men a little smile, that went all the way to his eyes. He had wanted to make sure that this pair of officers did not know that they were both being evaluated on this run to Barbados. He didn't know if it worked or not, but Franks did have the results of those "Tests". The other members on his side of the table had been in on the plan almost from the word go. Each of them had their own reasons for playing along with Admiral Frank's little game.

"I have a dozen different official reports filed about the pair of you, and all of them are positive. As you both know dealing with higher ranked people that are not in charge, is a major leadership challenge. You both have passed this leadership test, and it will be put in both of your personnel records. This was not a test that had a score to be achieved. You either can do it? Or you cannot do the job. You both seem to have that skill set. Congratulations."

He was not going to tell them about the negative reports and messages that he had also received about these two men's jobs performance. They had started coming to his staff within an hour of the return of the Styx to New Circe. Even the lowest ranked member of Frank's staff had quickly worked out, that they were coming from people that were just upset that they did not get their way on the trip. And that was even after all of those passengers had been told, what the rules were for this short notice pilgrimage. Even in Clan Wolverine, you had some people who thought that the rules did not fully apply to them.

There were very few "leaderships" schools that the SLiE or even the SLDF Navy could use. It normally was up to your next line commander, to help develop the younger officers above the rank of O3 or enlisted members above the rank of E5. With the coming of the Colonials and the recalling of so many older generation officers, and the increase in the size and number of interstellar capable units? This had caused some issues, which the SLDF Navy was still learning how to deal with. They were trying a few different ideas to see what at least worked somewhat.

The smile on Admiral Franks face fell, like all of the strings on a puppet being cut at once. This group of senior officers had already read and reviewed all of the relevant reports that had come from this mission. With the alert provided by the HPG messages, the key leader's calendars had been cleared to support wrapping up this mission. They had just given the attaboy to the two recalled officers. Now it was time to find out more about one of the key decisions, which had been made on the mission. Franks could feel the others leaned back in their chairs without even needing to look out of the corners of his eyes. The pair of officers were ready for the point to be made. They knew how the game was played, and they were ready for the painful part to start.

"Now. I would like to know, why you deviated from your mission on recovering the primary warship." Franks dropped his chin and he gave each man a strong but level look to match the tone in his voice.

Franks was a bit old school, and he would not refer to the Egg Sac by the name that the warship had been given by her last owners. He had issues with anything related to Clan Widowmaker, in general or in any finer points. Rumor had it. That he, his father, and his great grandfather all had gotten hammered drunk, when they received the report that all of Clan Widowmakers had been absorbed by another clan in 2834. The information had only come, after a contact with a Dark Caste messenger that had passed along this information to the right member of the Jarnfolk. That member of the Jarnfolk had ended up coming closer to Clan Wolverine's space. A lot of times you didn't know what to ask, so you got what you got, when you got it. This time the data that had been collected by the SLIC run ship was not that important to the Star League in Exile, but it had been well received news to some of the key leaders of the SLiE and their close friends.

Robert knew this fact about the Franks family, and it didn't help him one little bit in this given situation. "Sir! We tried half a dozen different locations to attached to the Potemkin. And all of our tests showed that we could not get complete coverage on the larger ship with our jump field. Jules has copies of the engineering teams briefing on the subject. We could have brought her home, but she would have been short on the nose, or tail or just a bit shaved down on both ends. I made the decision, that it was not acceptable to damage the asset. And I approved an alternate course of action as the Mission Commander and senior officer on site."

Admiral Xi had a stone face, which did not give anything away as she spoke for the first time in this meeting. "The engineering department has yours and that teams' original reports, and we are waiting for a more detailed report to come from them. They do not agree, when these new assessments that were brought up to them at my last meeting with them. They did admit that they might not have run the jump space models with the known dropships that were attached to the warship's outer hull or the reported 10,000tons of cargo still left in her bay. My gut tells me that they will come to the same conclusion as your engineering team had, but it might take them a while to do it and publicly admit to making those errors."

Now it was back to the head of the Navy to find out something about the newly returned mission. "Now why did you choose those two particular warships to bring back with you?" Franks let one of his eyebrows raise just about a half inch to show his interest in what the answer might be, and he wanted to know the thought prosses of the other officers.

Jules felt his back go straight in the high back chair, and he was about to fire off something that would at best be called off color to the other officers. Just when he opened his mouth to fire that volley off, Robert used a level tone and addressed the issue. "It was suggested, by the staff, that we could have brought back both of the Congress class warships at the cache. The base idea was that the Station could take what was needed and repair one of the other vessels of that class from a parts donor vessel. I did not think that this was a worthwhile idea. I left the Hunter's Pride and decided that we should take the one ship, that we can reflag as one that had fought under our flag. I picked the Gray Wolf a Whirlwind class warship from Clan Wolf and the Hell's Horse Mustang. The Wolf's ship had some, but light jump engine damage, and I thought that she might make a great replacement for the Weasel. She was of the same class, and it has been a long-time since a vessel of the SLDF Navy had carried that name. Did I make a poor choice? Query affirmative?"

Rear Admiral Xi could not hold it back any longer, and she felt a loud snort leave her mouth. She saw her boss shoot her a look from down the table. She didn't even give him a look before talking. "Even if you had brought both ships of the same class with you? We most likely would not have put even one of them back into service for the SLDF Navy."

Admiral Whitefield kept his face just as still as when the meeting had started, but only for a second after Xi had stopped talking. Then he smiled, a little and his voice had a sarcastic tone that dripped with every word he spoke. "Even If you had gotten one of them back in fighting trim? I would not have the manpower to get it out of this system. I do like it, that we have more of our lost kits back home. If nothing else, after they are checked out and the hulls are declared safe. We might be able to use one or even both of them as schools to speed up the training for new classes of space warriors. They don't have to have working jump engines to teach general system repair, maintenance, or even shooting and crew drills."

Jules smiled a little, and now he had his temper under control. "Well there not all back, but now that we have some updated information on a list of other ships. What can we do about getting more of our "lost kits" back to our system? Query Affirmative."

The leadership sitting on the other side of the table looked at each other, and Admiral Franks decided that it should be him to address this issue. "We are looking into it, but it is something that we will not bring up for public discussion. Now let's talk about the next issues. Did you really order a guard to be put outside the bridge of the Styx, and then outfitted them with stunners? They were to use those devices on the next person, that wanted access to the bridge without being on the duty roster. Query affirmative?"

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Robert was at an afterhours meeting at Admiral Whitefield's home a few weeks after the return of the Styx. It was "just" a family dinner. But on New Circe, that was not a small event to attend or be invited to. It was not long before the two officers retreated to a side room that was an office, library, and man cave retreat for the oldest male in the home. With the door safely locked behind them, and a shared empathetic and knowing smile as the noise noticeably dropped in volume. They sat down to talk a little shop….. off the record, away from any recording devices, and hopefully away from any bribable ears.

David Whitefield looked over at his friend and he waited for Robert to take a sip of a drink slowly warming in his hands. As soon as the glass was at the other man's lips David struck, lightening quick. "So, Robert. When are you going to settle down? Query affirmative. You're still young enough to have a few more kids. We can always use more spacers or aerospace fighter jocks, with some of your genes."

Robert was ready for this opening line, and he finished slowly sipping his drink. It was not the first time, that it had been used against him or something like this attempt at timing. "You know I have four kids, and two of them have had their own kids now. That is unless you are hinting at something else, and you are suddenly getting coy in your advancing years."

David knew this meeting was off the record, and all of the uniforms were safely in the closets. That did not mean, that he could talk about just everything. "Well, there has been talk." David let his voice slowly trail off and he raised his eyebrows.

Robert smiled. "Yes, I had a few messages generated to be sent to a few friends. Some of them were going to our contacts, and a few were timed messages to be sent to another friend. I am sure that has gotten some reviews, and that has gotten some busy bodies talking about Terry and me. I had every message, which was not work related, reviewed. I even sent a copy of all of my personal messages to the Intel section over in SLIC. I also know that you had that grandson of yours watching me. I bet he reported to you, when I sent those messages off to a friend on the Yukon's Intel team." Robert had been on a role that the two glasses of wine had helped fuel.

David didn't try to hide a smile and the twinkle in his eyes. "I know, but some others do not. I will drop it, and I will offer good luck to you with your long-distance relationship. From all of the reports I have read, she seems like a very nice lady. I just hope you do not end up putting a lot of time into a useless endeavor, and you end up getting hurt in more than one way. Query Affirmative."

Robert was now a little defensive with his longtime friend. "It is my time, and it is my risk. Query Negative. And I will have to deal with all of the hoops, that I will have to jump through at any future possible turn of events. Those events, that only one of the Colonial's Oracles might be able to give cryptic hints about."

David held his hand up in a form of surrender to his longtime friend. He could tell that his friend was ready to attack or defend himself as only he saw fit to do. Having seen his friend like this only a time or two before. He knew that his friend would fight to the hilt or even to the pummel, if he thought that he needed to. "I know, I know, Robert. It is just one more of the troubles you seem to have developed a taste for dropping into our laps. Query affirmative." David let a smile and light tone try to defuse the conflict that he could feel brewing between them.

Robert sat deeper into the high back and thickly padded chair, and after he got his breathing under control and worked to get his heartrate back to being close to normal. He started to relook at what had been said to him by his friend. He could tell there was something there, and he could feel that there was a reason. That his friend so willingly walked into, what he had to know was a very sensitive minefield. Out of the blue Robert knew that David wanted to talk to someone, about something, that was deeply bothering him.

"Is there something bothering you David? You know I only go where you or your boss sends me. That last trip was not my idea. I think you know, that I have been pushing for another run to the Inner Sphere. And this time, I want to go as deep as I can into the Inner Sphere on this next run. If nothing else? We should pick up a data dump from the network I have been building."

David gave a slight nod to his friend, and he took another sip of his drink. "That last part is not going to happen, Robert. What do you know about the last part of Xi's missions, and do not start by saying that you know nothing? I know you to well, for you to try to play that kind of game with me. Query Affirmative. Besides even before you said it. You knew that I knew, about your messages being passed to the Yukon's Intel team. You even knew that I looked at them before I talked to you about information that they contained."

Robert sat his drink down on the end table that cost more than he made in a month, even with the combat bonuses he had been collecting lately. He had just been asked a very pointed question by someone that was both his friend and in his chain of command. "I know she went to the Inner Sphere, and she talked to someone in a leadership position at MMM. She took about a third of our remaining late Star League grade ER PPC's on a later transfer. She also traded plans for the King Crab to someone at MMM, for funds to buy other items. End state was that she was able to get another Mammoth class dropship and it was packed with alot of ores, that we could use."

Robert was watching David as closely as David was watching him. "The Mammoth was attached to The Station like the Behemoth class vessel I brought back. The other part of her mission had been to exploit what Jess had found on Cate's Hold. I also know that a second run was planned with the last of those old H class weapons to be turned over to MMM. Well the last ones, that we are not going to keep for museums or for testing purposes of some kind. That is about all I know about that subject. I have been catching up on a few other projects, and I have not really had a chance to do a lot of digging around in my remaining off time."

Every word Robert had said was true. But he had put some brain power into this subject, and he had been getting some pretty good guesses on some other parts of those missions. And he truly had been very busy on his off time. Dealing with Callahan Munitions CEO/COO had been harder than he had believed possible, when he had started out in his plan for that company. If he had ever met anyone more stuck to the Battlemech mafia in his whole life, he had not noticed.

Robert was now betting that he was going to have to pull a few heavy cards out, to call a full board of directors meeting of that company. He was trying to get the company to open a pair of "small" production facilities in the Colonial or Victorian City State. They were to make Colonial military grade weapons and ammunition. He also wanted them to buy the second set of Blazer manufacturing equipment out of the storage warehouses. Robert thought that besides the outer rim areas of the Inner Sphere and markets a little deeper in the Inner Sphere. Those types of weapons could be made to support what was being called resistance groups, going on back in old Colonials space.

Robert had seen firsthand what those weapons would do to the current generation of combat infantry body armor. And if they had the right ammunition to fire out of them, they would be very deadly. Besides Admiral Adama and crew only had a few examples or in some cases only plans for crew served weapons that the Colonial military had in use in the first Cylon war. Robert thought that Callahan Munitions could corner the market and the contracts to supply the weapons being sent to those groups, at the least.

David knew that Robert had been spending most of his off time checking into businesses that he was partnered up with over the last few years. He also knew that rumors had been running around, that he was not happy when he was "bumped" from supporting a mission to the Inner Sphere. Oh, and that someone else was using "his" information, to do the job that should have been his in the first place. Besides he had been the one to call it Jess's toy box after all. All of those reasons had added fuel to his fire of being not happy having "his" next mission postponed.

David knew that Robert would not let this "feelings" get in the way of him, or anyone else for that matter, from doing their jobs as given to them by higher command. He knew that Robert had been in those other shoes before. But he would like to know how "his" information, had been able to help his people.

"Yes, that about covers the outline of her mission, but I can fill in some of the blanks that I bet have been driving you nuts. Query affirmative. With all of your reports, that you generated or were generated by your crews. It was decided that MMM might be worthwhile to test the waters for having them….more directly support our people, and the war effort going into fighting the Cylons. Margret Xi and her team traded those weapons and the plans for that mech, to include the TT&S and communication equipment it would need. If we had the complete plans for the Atlas 7D? We could have used them, instead of the King Crab. She is a little older of a design, compared to one of the Atlases. It all started with the information about the increased in Vlar production and finding out that ComStar was supporting the Combine. That last part turned out was the key in planning on our part. Now MMM has been making them as fast as they can. The MC military had been buying them almost up as fast as they are made, and even the spare parts for the King Crabs have been selling very well. Besides our payment for kickstarting them on that path. They have been pumping the excess funds right back into their company at an impressive rate." David was watching his friend very closely, and he thought that he saw the left corner of Robert's mouth turn just a little upwards. David felt this mouth drop open, when he saw the smile suddenly come to his friend's face.

Robert was nodding his head as he saw the shocked look on his friend's face. That was what he expected them to do, but it was nice to have his base ideas confirmed. He did a hand wave motion for more information, and he let the smile go to his eyes. If the head of naval personnel was in the giving mood? Robert was going to see how deep the well might be, before he hit the bottom.

David smiled in return and kept talking. "MMM is also working on updating their dropship support on two of the planets they have facilities on. The last reports we got, said that they are now looking at providing Unions, Lions, and Fortress class repairs and full spare parts production for those new designs. We might have given them a little push on that one, instead of them trying for Overlord support and production. The second run was to give them a major push into being better able to support us. We pitched the idea to them, that we could supply them these weapons. All so that they could focus on getting a larger end item production lines going, instead of hand building the assault mech and other major products. Somehow our friends of Blake found out about the second run that was the rest of the old Star League grade H Class weapons, and they ambushed us. It turned out they were not ready to play in the same league as the SLDF Navy." More than a little pride slipped into Admiral Whitefield's voice, as he mentally reviewed those reports from the battle between those 5 warships.

Robert had to snort at what his friend had said. A Yukon class warship in this day in age of the Inner Sphere, must have been a fraking big party crasher even if she was not packing her fighters or carrier dropships. It was not like they could plan on something like that, just showing up to do battle as an opponent or escort. Much less a warship/light carrier that happened to be fully trained, experienced in combat, and repaired.

"So, the second run made it. Now I will not have those items for sale on my next run." Robert just gave a shoulder shrug to say, "well that's life". "What happened to the run to Jess's Toy box? Was Jess and I able to keep the two tunnels hidden from the locals, and anyone else who might be looking into anyone connected with us?" Robert was not only talking just about ComStar. He was betting that a lot of groups from around the Inner Sphere would be looking at them, and any other newcomers a lot more closely.

David now had on a half-smile. "By the way? That little ambush on Rear Admiral Xi's mission and your own issues, has caused some re-planning of any mission that might be heading that way. Higher Command is not going to just let something like that slide or leave any of our people on the short end of the stick, at least not when it comes to weapons tech level. But you asked about Jess's toy box? No, the tunnels were protected and well-hidden when Xi's team got there, and they were protected and hidden as best that we can do when they pulled out. Before they pulled out, they were able to find the rest of the SAS base. But it was a lot shorter than we could have hoped for in our planning meetings. They pulled out some nice Mechs, tanks, and some other nice things, and the SAS's mech bay was amazing. Only it turned out to be a bit more hair raising, than most would have liked towards the end of the recovery operations of those tunnels."

Robert had not heard about that part of the mission. Well, that was not totally true. He had heard they had pulled out some nice things out of the tunnels, after the diggers had to deal with some active old defensive systems. The news about an attack on the diggers caught him almost flat footed. "So, is that where those LAMs, I saw at the landing field the other day have come from? Query Affirmative."

"Yes, and some fully loaded scout mechs, that the ground forces commander would have given up his grandson for. We have used some of the ADA tanks and heavy tanks to round out a mix unit we stood up with the Colonials, Victorians, and some of our people. The LAMs have caused a few more issues, then they have helped with, but now they have been identified among our military. Right now, they are just being tested, and kept on the planet out of anyone else's hands. That alone has made a lot of people happy. The icing on the cake was about the first tunnel that Jess found."

"So, the first one and bigger tunnel was for a larger facility?"

David could not help but snort. "Oh, you can say that. They worked it out, but it was only when they got back that it was proven. The main facility was a port castle, but not a totally standard Star League port castle. It was added and modified around a preexisting MC navy support and repair depot. We already knew that it was a castle, and that it held a royal infantry division. One that was made up of two Mechanized Infantry brigades, a ground attack wing, and a Battlemech brigade. They had not found the port facility they were guarding, yet. What they have found, were the leave behinds for that unit before it caught up with General K." David saw the look on Roberts face, and he almost blew alcohol out his nose. David wanted to make sure to stop the dreams of avarice he could see coming to Roberts face.

"Now, Now Robert. You know from the past reports on found depots. A unit only has so much lift, and they would leave items behind. Even if those items are not fully combat ready when we found them, sometimes we can get them back into working order with enough time, effort, and the right parts. The Vectors and Cobras were great, but the Colonials are going nuts over the Chevaliers, Korvins, Bulldogs, Royal Von Luckners and Pollux ADA heavy tanks. I think the Lord Protector is going to give them one of the Pollux ADA tanks for a Christmas gift. They found two full battalions of equipment in that side of the base, and that is not counting the spare parts and supplies. The Colonials have a contract that will give them 10 percent of anything found in Jess's Toy box, on this run."

Robert was blinking both of his eyes like he was about to cry or that he had been in a major dust storm. That was an impressive list of and amounts of recovered combat equipment. "And they still have areas to look through? I hope Jess gets the credit for her find. Query affirmative. I also would bet they have not found the division's main supply bunkers, yet."

David gave a knowing nod and smile back to his friend. "That would be one of the reasons why they are sending a second mission back to Jess's Toybox. That and those two other surprises you dropped on command's lap on your other runs."

David stopped talking, but all he got was a stone face look coming from Robert. They were just looking at each other long enough, that each man was lost in his own thoughts. It was David that broke the silence first. "Robert it was the bomb shell about the clan moving around Barbados, that has everyone on the senior staff jumping at shadows. We had been expecting to get a lot more tech data from out of our contacts with our "Friends", before the Clans showed up again. Between that and some detailed reports on what has been going on in the Clan systems. We do not know when we will get that needed information from our contacts. We will have to try to find one of the Jarnfolk clans and see if we can find our other "friends". We need to find out if the clans are starting to come after us, or are they going after Terra and the House Lords. I do not think I have to tell you, that both of those scenarios are bad news for us. Query Affirmative.

Robert was nodding his head in understanding. He had thought the same thing, and he had lost more than a few nights sleep over some of what his mind was dredging up. "Well, I'm glad I brought those two warships back."

Before he could say more his longtime friend whose face was now speaking volumes about how tired he was. "Robert, we needed that Potemkin. They have one of the Colonial's jump drive set aside just for her, if the new drives do not work out. The lift of so many dropships by one of those classes of ships, would give us a leg up in any situation that might have us fighting a two-front war. The good thing was that you have updated all of those other targets along the routes you were given. Then you found more targets, so I will call that a push. I think they are going with the idea of the Colonials leading a mission centered around the Kaga, to go collect as many jumpships and warships as they can physically handle. That is outside of my wheelhouse, but I have been known to read the tea leaves correctly a time or three."

Robert felt his eyebrows climb into his hair line. "That much Colonial tech, and that close to the Clan!" Robert felt like someone had just kicked him very low in the guts.

Robert had to shake his head to clear his thoughts. So many things were going on inside of his brain at one time, that it was like standing under a powerful waterfall. Knowing that his people were willing to risk that much Colonial tech that close to Clan space, was all the proof he needed. The Leadership of his people were scared that they were going to lose this war or the one that might be coming after dealing with the Cylons. "What about the two light fighter designs and the Broadsword class mech carrier design I was able to bring back."

David gave his friend a level look, and he didn't say anything for some time. "That is well outside my wheelhouse, but I have heard some talk. Right now, it is just data. We just don't have the production capacity to put any of those fighter designs into mass production. They are looking at the Broadswords, but carrying 5 mechs is not our thing. I heard that they might just convert the nose mech bay for more cargo space. But doing something like this is going to take time, and people to make the changes. Then they are going to need more people and other resources to do the required testing of a whole new dropship design. If they need to replace any of the Leopards or Confederates, then they might make a few Broadswords in the future. But I would not bet even then, that they will start up a whole line to do a mass replacement of our lance carriers. Maybe it will help in any updating being done to the Leopards we already have in operation."

The meeting went on for another hour, as David and Robert talked about all of the ins and outs of the different plans each man had been making. Then they started talking about the other things happening around the planet, and how the war was going against the Cylons. They also talked about how the Colonials and Victorians were settling in with the rest of the planet's population. Robert was surprised that the first group of recovered Cylons were about to be assigned to units. They had to pull the first group of human form Cylons that had rebelled against the Number Ones off the POW Island. Soon 500 human form Cylons would be entering the military, and those who were not cleared for military service would be going into the workforce. It was a mix bag of information that the two men compared notes on. It didn't take Robert long to realize that the news of the clan on the move had shaken the general and leadership population of the planet to its very core. The concern for most of the planet's population was focused in the Colonial and Clan area, with the Victorians being more worried about the Cylons.

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Francis Callahan looked around the well-appointed but emptying board room. He watched backs as some of the last expensively clothed persons left the room. Francis had his hands tightly gripped below the lip of the hard wood desktop that dominated the room. He was furious and it was taking every bit of his remaining self-control not to yell, scream, and throw things. For the first time he was glad that this room had avoided the trend of having glass walls on the corridor side of the room. Then again, not having the glass wall had caused him to be trapped in the first place. He had been lured to this meeting, by a message that said the legal department had next year's labor contracts ready for him to review.

When the CEO/COO had entered the room, he had found it filled with the full board of directors for his company. Over half of them had been his own family, and that had added to the power of the ambush and treason he felt. The only person that was not in the meeting was who Francis knew, was the architect of this surprise assault on him. Francis was thinking about that jumpship captain so hard, that he was surprised when a younger man took a seat across from him.

When he looked over the desktop, it was like looking into a mirror back in time. The person was his son, who was looking levelly at his old man. The Father didn't say a word as he looked at this son across the table. The son that should be in the middle of a month-long training exercise on the other side of the planet not sitting in this room. Francis had no idea how the board of directors had been able to get him here and do it in such a way that he would not find out about it.

Harry could tell by the tightness around this father's eyes, that he was not going to be the one to speak first. That is unless he wanted to just have a yelling match with the older Callahan. "So, what do you think?"

Francis knew himself well enough and his son well enough, to know that his son was trying to defuse things before the board came back from lunch. "I think that it is a bad Fraking idea, but you do not. Query affirmative."

Harry noticed the use of the Colonial word, and he also noticed that his father didn't notice that he had used a word from a group he did not like. "This Captain Copeland has been right before. Rumor has it, that he was the one to point out to the Colonials about those man portable SRM launchers to kill Praetorians. And it was him, which sent a note to our R&D department about the Torpedoes the recon unit and the Colonials are looking at needing a steady supply of."

The elder Callahan waved his hand in the air dismissively at what his son had just said, and his nose rose in the air like he smelled a fart. "All that is chump change at best. The real money is in making real weapons. We have to build battlemechs!"

Harry had about enough of this line of thinking coming from his father. He had been harping on building mechs as far back as he could remember. One of the things he shared with his father was the temper and he let some of it out. "That is a dropship load of crap and you know it! The military is buying up any mech that they can get, but they are not investing in a new design or are willing to put out a mass order or long-term contract. They want fighters and cheap machines that can fight mass wave attacks that the Cylons like to use. You also know as well as I do. That they have more than enough stocks of our second-generation head cappers in storage, to last for ten months of the current combat conditions. The budget department thinks the SLDF will not put out a contract for more of those Gauss rifles for at least 6 more months. We have a whole line just making spare parts, to pay for your Headhunter disaster. That and the sales of the armored 4x4 have been the only things helping us keep up with the loan payments. The only hard cash coming into the company? It is coming from those manpads SRMs, and the low rate torpedoes manufactory going to the Colonial city state. That is a very thin income line. Query affirmative."

Francis was about to wave off his sons' opinions with the contempt he felt. But deep down, he knew that his son was right. But his company made weapons! And the only real weapons were battlemechs! Then his son started talking again, and the boom was lowered on him.

"Do you know why I am on leave right now, instead of training with my unit? Query Affirmative? The Commander of all the Ground Forces in the SLDF knows how much of a razor's edge this company is riding on. I was put on leave, "to help get the legs back under my family's company". I was told this point blank from General Dobrev's own lips. That is why I am in this office, instead of in my mech's cockpit. People high up within the SLDF think that this is more important than a mech pilot's training in time of war. Maybe you need to learn, that it is what the customer feels is important and not what you think that is important that matters. Query Affirmative."

The elder Callahan visibly deflated as what his son had said sunk below the top layer of his old brain. "So, you want me to listen to this navy arse. Query Affirmative."

Harry knew that he had an opening, and he had to strike and strike hard while the opening was there. If he waited too long it would evaporate like snowballs in hell. "This Mr. Copeland has some good ideas, and they are not just good idea ferries being kicked around by some business news talk show trying to stir up ratings. Buying the Blazer manufacturing machines is going to be pretty cheap, but moving it to the Victorian city state is going to be almost cost free for us. They will take some time to get the people over there trained up to take over the building that the Victorians are willing to build. If we get it set up and just add one percent of locals to the employment rolls every month, after we go into full rate production. It could start noticeably cutting our overhead cost for the whole company."

The CEO of Callahan Munitions made a sour face, as he realized that he did not know the details of this deal. "And the down sides for this little project? Let's put all of the cards on the table, shale we. Query Affirmative."

Harry was on the subject like a Sea Fox on a good deal. Unlike his father, he had been reading up on the details even while on deployment. "The Victorians will take 2% of the monthly production in lieu of taxes or repaying the cost of the facility's building and support areas. That will drop to 1%, when half of the sites total payroll is made up of Victorian citizens. Now who is going to be buying the ones that are not being traded to pay our taxes? I am sure that the Victorians will be picking up some, for their own local defense force. They are heavy, but I know that those farm kids are used to throwing hay bales all day long and seven days a week.

When Harry saw his father get a little glint in his eye with the image he had just pitched. Harry went on talking. "The Colonials cannot make enough of them for their own forces and send some back to the Inner Sphere for items, that they can trade to the SLDF for things they cannot make to fight the Cylons. I bet that our military is going to be snapping them up for front line infantry, and with the growing number of light power battle armor suits that are being made. Well, Blazers are easy for them to carry even with an additional power pack. The newer Centurions are getting harder and harder to kill with the Mausers we currently field. I would also think that the Lord Protector's people would pick up more to use as "safe" trade goods going to the Inner Sphere. I do think that we will be able to sell every one of them, without marking them down or needing to give a bulk buy discount. At least for the near future, and maybe not even in my lifetime. And oh, by the way father. It was Mr. Copeland who did all of the leg work and gave us this information. It was reviewed by our people, and they whole heartily agree with his assessments. That was why the rest of the family mobilized against you."

The CEO knew when he had lost a fight. "Okay, I will support that one. But what about the rest of his ideas? He wants us just to be a parts supplier. Query Affirmative."

His son tilted his head to one side, and he didn't say anything for a few long seconds. "And what is wrong with that, if that is where the money and growth is at? Query Affirmative. What is wrong with diversifying? And if we can do it in a low risk high return way, which seems like a smart long term move. Mr. Copeland is not only still buying up our stock. He has been trying to help not just us, but our planet. I thought that was one of our founding principles put down by great granddad. Query Affirmative. His idea on making replacement armor covers for the new Weasel battle armor, that look more like the original ComStar suits has merit. My sources say that he is taking some of those suits back on his next supply run. What if they send more and more of those suits back? I think that is going to be a huge expense for very little output, but he has the idea of using it as a trade school for making and supporting those systems to defer overall cost of that project. What will be at even a lower cost is also using the Victorians and Colonial funds to put up small production areas, to make Colonial grade medium and heavy weapons as well as a full range of ammunition. We can charge what we want for them! We will be the only ones making weapons, which are cleared to be lost to the Cylons and avoid the trading protocols. We will keep it small and get away with it, because everyone knows that it is a niche and short-term market. I do not know what this Copeland was smoking when he came up with that idea, but I want to get some, and force feed it to our Bids and Proposals Department!"

The father and son talked all the way through lunch. One of the low-level assistance brought them open faced sandwiches, and the pair were still eating when the rest of the board of directors returned to this private meeting room. When they started to trickle back in for an afternoon of frustration? More than a few would have to re exit the room, to make sure they had returned to the right meeting. Both of the Callahan's were smiling, and the CFO made sure to mark this day down on her calendar due to its rarity. With very little prodding from the rest of the leadership of this company, the senior Callahan signed off on the idea of buying and setting up a factory to make Blazer rifles, and Colonial design weapons that ranged from pistols to light crew served machine guns, as well as anti Cylon grade ammunition for them. A new division, but short-term departments within that division were set up to manage these projects. Francis even Okayed the idea of looking into setting up a boutique armor fabricator to make ComStar looking covers for the Weasel PA (L).

After some pushing from his son, Francis even approved for research to be done into what their company could make for export off planet. Without Robert even being in the room, the company was moved along the path that he had envisioned. They were even starting to move production into the other city-states outside of Clan oversight, and they were starting to seek out ways to diversify what they could produce. The only deviation was that Francis asked that the market research department would see what mechs would better fit the SLDF current sets of missions. He was not going to give up on his dream of being in what he thought was the top of the league of companies. He wanted Made by Callahan Munitions on the data plate of a Battlemech.

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A few days later Harry Callahan was adjusting his power tie. Having to wear a tie was one of the reasons, that he like being a mech jock. As he worked the tie to help with the blood flow to his brain, he thought back to why he needed to wear one in the first place. He was trying to keep the word, which he had given his father. He would be looking to see different ways to help keep the core of the family company active. He had sent out contact messages to a long list of groups around the planet asking what they could do to better support the war effort. Callahan Munitions was open to working more closely with any of them. Most of the normal players had either not replied or messaged back, that they were reviewing their needs. Harry was expected this and was not disappointed by his lack of a major response.

The person that Harry was meeting in the next few minutes, was someone that had been the first to reply to his mass correspondence. Harry was not surprised that this group was the first ones to jump on his mass request. His father was not going to like it, because these people were not interested in buying or wanting to build a massive number of battlemechs. What they were looking for? He had no idea, and he had no idea why they wanted to use a holographic display for this first meeting. From what he understood, the Colonials were not that comfortable with technology they had not developed themselves.

Harry was back to the world when the meeting room glass door opens, and a dark-haired man in a Colonial cut suit entered the room. At that instant, Harry knew that the projector or its technology was not going to be an issue. He stood and extended his hand to the other man without needing to cross the far end of the desk. "Mr. Tyrol, thank you for accepting my invitation to work together on fixing problems for the better defense of our planet." Harry made sure to use the phrase he had titled his communique with.

The human form Cylon called Galen Tyrol took the offered hand, with a harried look on his face. "The message made mention of working to fix problems. And your company has been able to help the Colonial city state with shoulder launch missiles, and torpedoes we are using for the scouting mission of our old home worlds. Besides word has already leaked, about your company buying the other set of Blazer tooling with the idea of setting up another production site."

While Tyrol was talking. He released the hand and then pulled out and put into the projectors data port a disk in one smooth and flowing motion of his left hand and arm. While the projector worked on retrieving the data from the portable device, Galen kept talking. "We have been having some issues with one of our key Colonial weapons systems."

Harry turned and looked at the center of the table. In a flash an image showed in the center of the room, which started to rotate and spin in space. The larger main display image soon had 6 smaller images displayed on one side of the main image. Harry knew that the main image, was of what was called the Slick version of the Colonial Raptor. The other images were of different armed versions of that same craft.

When Harry made eye contact with one of the final five Cylons. "Mr. Tyrol, we do not build Raptors or any of the support systems that they use. So, what can we do for your people? Query affirmative."

Tyrol gave a lopsided smile and reach to touch the bottom of the smaller images, and the projector took this to mean that it was to be the new main image. "Yes, Mr. Callahan. We over in Colonial Research and Sustainment know that. You see when we first came to your planet, some things were done without the right amount of testing before they were rolled out to fight the Imperial Cylon's forces. This version of the Raptor is one that had caused us the most issues, which we have not been able to find an adequate fix."

Harry looked again at the image. It still looked like it was a "slick" load out of the Colonial Raptor, but for a block attached to the bottom of the slab sided craft. The bottom block was rounded on the back and had 4 barrels coming out of the bow or under the nose of the slab-sided craft. "Are those the quad pack of Ultra LBX's? Query affirmative."

Tyrol smiled a full-on smile that he used when one of his old knuckle draggers worked out a problem on their own. "Yes, they are. The idea was that these new weapons would be able to sweep the skies of Cylon Raider and Heavy Raiders. It was hoped that they would help even the odds in our counter fighter engagements as the SLDF like to call it. The Hose of Death is an amazing weapon. But it is not without some issues that now are making it harder to justify the use of them on Raptors."

Harry was more than a little surprised because this was the first time, which he was hearing about something like this. "Really? That is news to me. What are some of the problems, which you are having? Query Affirmative."

Now Galen took a seat and so did the younger man. Soon the image on display adjusted, so that it was still at eye level to the two men in the room. "I'm not surprised. The HOD is an ammunition hog, and it generates a lot of heat that is hard for the Raptors to dump. We could not cut a hole in the bottom of the Raptors, and ruin its pressure hull. The ammunition and weapons are attached to the bottom of the craft in one large cassette like concoctions of pain for the support crews. That also has caused some issues with the landing gear, and heat dumping from weapons fire. The overheating of the cannons…..is a known problem. The HOD is great. That is until you run out of ammo, or it tries to kill you by blowing up under your….feet."

Since Harry was a mech jock, he knew all about how heat generating weapons can kill the person pulling the triggers. His first training mech not only had first generation heatsinks, it did not have enough of them to alpha strike without shutting down. He lets a soft snort leave his lips. "I can see were that might be an issue."

Galen felt a smile come to his face, which was not forced or measured. "Yea, and those are not the only issues. When a Raptor fires this quad pack off, the recoil is something that you should never have to experience outside of an amusement park. After a while we noticed that after every mission, which a Raptor was packing one of these. The ground crew would spend the next few days tightening down any and all the nuts and bolts on the airframe. We think that we have lost at least 4 Raptors just to them being shaken apart because of them using the HOD weapons pack. The Admiral had to put out a directive, that none of the Raptors are to carry the pack. Unless it is one frakked up mission, and it is the only way to save it."

Harry was lost in thought as he looked at the spinning and twisting image displaying the modified Colonial small craft. "Okay let's look at the key issues. One heat, two recoil, third is ammunition load, four is ground clearance, and fifth is landing gear clearance. Is that all? Query Affirmative."

When the younger man stopped talking for long seconds, Galen told him that he had missed one issue. "Power is another concern; we have to deal with or come up with a way to manage. Raptors are power hogs, so even fixing them up like what we did with those stripped-down medium lasers on the Vipers. They still would have a problem getting more than a single blast out of them off every 90 seconds. That is too long of a recharge time in a Raider battle."

The two men talked for the next hour about what the Raptor can and cannot do. Harry supplied the information about what Age of War threw clan tech weapons could do and any limitations that were known to be issues. Both men were surprised at the amount of information the other man possessed without needing to use any data retrieval device.

Harry was taking a sip of a cold drink and he had a flash back of his father. He almost choked on the drink, as those images flashed threw his mind. He almost runs over to the table and stopped the image of the gun Raptor from moving. "I think I might have an idea. Our HeadCapper 2 Bravo is loaded by a quick release cassette of ready to fire rounds. That design feature would also help with speeding up the reloading between missions. You would not have to drop the whole weapon's pod and replace it with one holding a fresh load of rounds. If the Raptor cannot power the coils for the Gauss Rifle? Maybe one of those Omni 10s could do the job. That might cost you a ton of mass for engine, control runs, heat management and fuel to fit them on the Raptors. Just run the power cable next to the information relay cable already being run through hatch 44K, to the quad pack or heavy missile launcher."

Galen and Harry worked for another hour and this caused Harry to miss his next meeting, but it was worth it. The pair did not work out all of the issues, but they worked out enough for a joint team to be able to get a prototype of the weapons set up in record time. In less than a month they were making test flights and test weapons fire in different atmospheric environments. It was overkill to use against any known Raider and Heavy Raiders. It also was not that great in a ground support role, unless they were going after Rhinos or Tinmen. They could even damage a Basestar, but they could not kill one. That last item would have removed this weapons options from the Raptors options list from the start. But after the battle on Nike's World? The Colonial Navy now knew that the Cylons Fleet had smaller ships, like the Combat landing ships that they had used on that world. For them a pair of high-speed slugs that the Gauss Rifles fired, would be very good about taking them out. The new weapons did produce a recoil. But a pair of these weapons firing at the same time was still a lot less recoil, than a pack of 4 of the high rate of fire mech scale shotguns going to town.

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Harry had a slight smile, as he read this latest report on his PADD. It was an order from the Colonials city state. It was an order for a lot of second-generation Gauss rifles to be delivered. He knew that it was not going to be enough to please his father, but Harry knew that it would keep that production line open for a while longer. The Colonials were even open to paying for the development of a new type of cassette that would hold two tons of ammunition, instead of the original single ton per cassette. That all was good news for his family's company.

Harry puts the message pad down and turns to the desktop keyboard. He knows that Callahan Munitions could have turned out this whole order in just a few months. But that would leave the line dormant, and those workers would be without the jobs they were trained to do. Besides the Colonials were short on cash, so a slow but steady production of the weapons would best suit both parties of this contract. It also would help his family's company get a little more funds out of the SLDF, and maybe a little more out of the Colonials for the development of the prototype Hyper assault Gauss rifle. It was not much of a chance, but it was one that was worth the younger Callahan's time to write up a few pages of a report to send to the right department within the SLDF.

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On the edge of the old border of Colonial and Cylon space.

The Number 5 looked at the screen that displayed "his" Fleet, and a huge smile crossed his face that was the epitome of a bureaucrat. The Ones had not been that happy with the steady draw of resources needed to be used in patrolling old Colonial space. Ever since the Galactica had made her fast return to this part of space. The losses the Cylons had been dealing with had been steadily going up. It had not taken long for that loss rate to exceed those in the months following the renewed war with the humans. Over the last months even that number had shot up like a viper going out its launch tube. The plan had been for whole squadrons of Raiders and Heavy Raiders to be out looking for the remaining humans. The plan had called for dozens of those squadrons to be spread out and constantly looking for the remaining humans. Then they had to increase the numbers to cope with the rising threat. It had not taken long for the number of Small Craft squadrons to reach over 90, just to patrol old Colonial space. That had all changed with the current Tylium shortage, caused by attacks launched by Adama and his new friends. 90 squadrons of small craft jumping around every few hours was very draining on the fuel reserves.

That was the reason that this 5 was here and commanding a new type of fleet for the Cylon Empire. This fleet was not made up of Basestars or the new generation of heavy combat Basestars. This fleet was designed for a whole new mission. Before the Cylons were patrolling this area of space, but all that did was spread out the Cylon fleet assets thinly over a huge expanse of space. This fleet was going to go fishing and lure the humans to their deaths. It was thought that this was going to be the best use of the limited supply of fuel, by using this stealth attack.

His flagship was an old Colonial warship left over from the first war with the humans. She had needed a lot of work done to get her ready for combat against her former owners. The Loki class heavy cruiser still had two landing bays, but this time she carried 20 Raiders and 4 Heavy Raiders. The last 4 small craft were to board any human ship and fill its corridors with Centurions. If things got close in? The Loki still had her teeth. She was not packing the old heavy cannons, which she had been built with. Each of those old weapons turrets mounted on her alligator head now held a single capital missile launcher.

His ship was the heavy hammer of the little fleet, if his other combat ships ran into something they could not handle. The "attack force was made up of 4 recovered Janser Kerr MAC ships. That class of MAC ship had started life out as a modified Astral Queen class ship. These 840foot long ships held a crew of 73 Centurions with 2 human forms commanding the ship. They also had 150 Centurions packed within the hull for using the mix of 8 Raptors or Heavy Raiders. The teeth for those craft, were the 32 missile tubes evenly spread out around the ships covering every direction of need, but aft. They even had a dozen ex Colonial made light KEWs for close in work and counter missiles.

All of this firepower was supported by the 80 cargo holds on the Loki and a Colonial movers Tanker Variant. With all of the fuel going to Basestars, that was all of the fuel that his mission would be "allowed" access to. If he proved effective against the Colonials, then maybe the Ones would give him more resources like fuel. After all the Cyrannus system had been scoured by the Cylon fleet a few times already. The Ones thought that it was only a few very small human groups working the area. The main question that the Ones wanted to be found out, is how they were able to now launch those attacks against the mighty Cylon Empire.

The Number 5 could only frown as he gave the orders for the rest of his fleet to break up. As he watched the modified Colonials ships wink out of space, he let a little smile come back to his face. Every human form in this fleet was of the same line as him. This was their chance to prove, that they could lead a fleet as well as the Ones or Twos. Without needing to do anything, the Loki and the fuel tanker left this part of space for the area that he would be looking to catch a few humans.

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HH was reviewing some of the scattered reporting they were getting. Very little of the Colonial fleet had survived the Cylons surprise attack. So, most of the reports were coming in from Civilian survivors turned Cylon hunters. Oh, and the odd pirate band, that also had decided that they should be killing Cylons and not working against their fellow Colonials. He and Ragnar's hidden support had helped many of those groups. It had not taken long for the effect to stop the downward slides of most of the groups to being wiped-out, without the Cylons needing to find them.

The Sands had started making her way to a certain gas giant. Captain Mike Kay had not been told why it might be safer that way, but her master was not a fool. The Sands was also acting as a halfway house for an impressive number of new populations. Most of the time the transient population was picked up by the Ogygia or Raptors to be taken to a "new" home after a few weeks to a month of living on that collection of Colonial ships. It was still going to take the slow ship a year to make it, but it was getting closer every day.

Morton Deyo walked over to his captain and passed over a new PADD. HH looked up and saw the concerned look on his XO's face. "What's up Morton?" HH was hoping that a few direct questions, would get a better result than reading who knows how many digital pages on the device.

"The Raptor we sent looking for that missing converted Sewer scow, is late." His voice was flat and low so that it would not carry to far around the warship's CIC.

Boss Frazer had put HH's crew on the sent with the last messages traded between them. One part of space had gotten suddenly more dangerous than other places. A recently modified old sewer scow had been sent out looking for anything useful in that dangerous area, and it had gone missing. The head of that little ex pirate band had asked HH to check it out. Near as he could tell, it was that this scow was the third Colonial ship to go missing in that area, since they started tracking those kinds of things.

HH now took up the data PADD and reads the finer details. It didn't take him that long, there just was not much more than what his XO had just old him. They just used a lot more words to cover the same information. "I think we need to check it out. Do we have the planned route the Raptor was planning to use?"

Morton gave his captain a sly grin, with a slight chin up head nod towards the PADD. "It's on the last page."

HH went to the last page of the report. "Okay, we follow the same route, but we offset our jumps a little. I don't want to fall into any of the traps that might be set for anyone looking for our lost bird." With a reply of a head nod from his XO. His orders were taken, and the old warship would start snooping around.

The XO walked over to stand by one of the dozen station set up around the CIC of the old warship. "Hellen, what do we have up for IFF?" Unlike most ships in Colonials space. The Ogygia could and did modify her IFF, with ease. Every so often they would switch from a list of civilian ships, which were near the same size as the old Orion.

Hellen looked down at her screen, and then she moved to open a special file on one side of her screen. She takes a few seconds to review the data. "Sir, we have not used the merchant ship names of Arion, Hippocampuse, or Argus in a while. We have not used Arion for 18 months. What fits?"

Morton looked over her shoulder and scanned the list on the screen. "Okay let's go with the Arion, I always liked horses."

His hand remained on Hellen's shoulder for just a little longer than was proper for a crewmember. That is if that crewmember was not all but the XO's wife. By the time Morton moved away from that station. The IFF on his ship was now saying that she was the merchant ship Arion, but only when power was going to be applied. A few minutes later the pocket Battlestar jumped away to start looking for her lost lamb.

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Helios Beta

Near Planet Hera's North Pole.

The Number 5 smiled and took a sip of his drink. While he sat the cup into its holder, he reflected on why he was in such a good mood. He had been just sitting in space with his IFF and distress beacon screaming at full power. They had been collecting a few Colonials that started not long after arriving in this part of space. They had first collected an Intersun Colonial Heavy, then a pair of old grain ships, and after another week they had picked up a small compost ship. No sooner had that ship's expanding dust cloud had dissipated, from the three missiles it had taken the MACs tubes to dispatch the Colonials ship. And a Raptor had come along into the trap. The 5 was thinking that this might turn out to be a very nice place to "fish" for Colonials.

The Janser Kerr class MAC ship carried a mix of 8 Heavy Raiders and Colonial made Raptors. Those would not have been as effective in taking or making sure the Colonial Raptor could not escape. Also heavy capital missiles were not that good at swatting a smaller craft, at least not without risking it getting away or using a lot of magazine space to ensure the kill. So, the ship's commander had come up with a different idea.

The Number 5 had let the Colonial small craft attached to his "dead" ship. The look on those two pilots' faces had been priceless, when the Centurions had boarded the craft and pulled them out. He had only asked a few questions to the crew, which they had not even replied to. And seeing that they were not going to talk. The Number 5 had the Centurions use their blades on the two humans. He was looking forward to seeing what else would fall into his lap, before he would have to leave for the next spot he was to "fish" in.

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The Ogygia was in full stealth mode after the first jump looking for her lost Raptor. She was moving along a zig zag path parallel to the Raptor's planned route. She was a shark on a blood trail as she moved through the darkness of space. On the third jump the small warship picked up the first hint that something was off. They were picking up a Colonial IFF from a ship right along the planned route the Raptor and the scow had taken. That alone would have sent the mostly CI crew on edge. The additional information of having an active distress beacon, was not needed.

HH and Morton walked around the command table. The Captain spoke first. "Okay what do we know, and what do we think?"

Morton had a deep frown on his face as he looked down at the table. It was displaying all the data they had about the local area. "The IFF and distress beacon says that she is an Intersun Heavy Transport, but the mass, IR, and Passive scans are all wrong for that class of ship. She looks a lot like an Astral Queen type vessel to me."

HH had heard every word his XO had said. HH was working on trying to understand what he was seeing. "She's cold and rotating along her longitudinal axis. But she is not moving that fast in any direction. We are getting some light gravity wave energy coming off of her." HH bites his lower lip and his eyes go a little hooded. "Okay let's come in slow, and start powering up the IFF, but only to the first setting. We will just be a merchant ship looking at a fellow civvy that might be in trouble."

The pocket Battlestar could have jumped closer to the oddly acting ship, but HH was a spy at heart. He was more than willing to take things as slowly as they needed to be, as long as he protected his ship, her crew, and the mission. The one item not in short supply for a mission like this, was time. Who knows how time passes if you are dead?

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The Number 5 was looking at the screen, as a slight cloud of mist exited his mouth and floated off his nose. The temperature in the command center had been slowly dropping. He had ordered the power cut to all systems, but weapons, passive sensors, and the gravity deck plating. All as soon as the modified Cylon systems had picked up a faint jump at the very edge of what those Basestars grade systems could handle. The human form Cylons could handle a temperature range that would quickly kill a Colonial.

The cool down had started three days ago. It was only just now that the "normal" systems the 5's ship had been built with had picked up the new ship. The Cylons had already picked up on the low powered IFF on the other ship. The Cylons knew that the only way to "turn off" a Civilian IFF, was to cut the physical power lines. Even when it was "turned off" by an order from the ship's bridge, it still had a low power signature. Soon he was going to have the super transport Arion under his weapons. He still was deciding if he wanted to use his heavy missiles or send over his now 9 Raptors and Heavy Raiders to lift over all of his Centurions and take over the other ship. The Cylon fleet didn't need another freighter, but maybe he could find out if this ship knew anything about any other hiding Colonials. A ship that large should have been found by the ships of the Cylon Empire by now.

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HH was looking at the data coming in, and he looked over to his XO. "It's a MAC ship, and I bet you she is why we lost the Raptor."

Morton looked around and lowered his voice to match his captains. "What do we do about it?" That was the million cubit question.

HH had a wild-eyed look, and a dangerous tone colored his voice. "We kill it! We keep coming in, like we are just a dumb merchantman. And when we think they might get a return that will spook them? We will blow them out of space."

Morton nodded his head at his commander and friends cold fire laced words. They had already popped half a dozen Cylon Transports, and over a hundred and fifty Cylon Raiders and Heavy Raiders. That didn't count the Cylons that had been taken down by the groups, that she had been helping supply for the last few months. But taking out this Cylon ship might have different issues then they had been used to having to deal with, so far.

"What if they have humans on that ship?" Morton was doing his job as the warship's XO to play devil's advocate.

HH made a sour flat lipped look and he looked over at an image of the slowly rotating enemy ship. "If we had to face a court of inquiry? Then yes, I would risk taking her. But any Cylon we kill, will come back. We need to hit them before they find out too much about us. I think that they will try to capture us. If they killed Raptor 3, then I will bet that they have Raiders and Heavy Raiders as well as some capital weapons. Have our birds ready for a counter Raider strike and prep the reloads of Ajax missiles. I don't think we will need the big boys but have the two nuclear weapons ready to go in the reload magazine."

HH looked up and around the command center. "Drop speed by a third! We have the time, and the longer we drag this out. The more likely someone over there is going to make a mistake we can take advantage of." HH was counting on his crew's combat experience and training, that they had endured to not be the ones to make the mistakes first.

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The Number 5 was freezing even under the extra clothes layers he had added over the last few hours. He knew his body well enough, to know he was slowly dying. He was not worrying about the dying part. There was a resurrection tank within range to give him a new body. But that would leave his ship without a commander, until it reached the flagship, or he could catch a Raptor to come back out this way. All of that time away would impact the mission he was on, and also affect the overall missions the Number 5 line was trying to accomplish.

The 5 felt his hand start to shake and a white cloud left his nose, as his nose hair felt like they were breaking off when he took in another breath. He had enough as he noticed that the target was slowing down for the third time. "Launch the boarding party. They are close enough, and I want that ship!" It only took 90 seconds for his order to be acted on, and all of the small craft on the MAC ship were leaving. They were filled with most of the 150 of what the One's called second line Centurions and even older Model 0005s Centurions. They might be older model Cylons, but they were still very effective in boarding operations of Colonial ships.

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All HH could do was smile, as a small group of small craft came from out of the launch bay on the Q ship. Even as he noticed them, the power levels were shooting up on the enemy combat ship. It was still not slowing its rotation, as the Colonial warship picked up Cylon grade weapons and support systems coming fully online. HH didn't need to give any orders for this situation. As soon as the Cylon unveiled itself, his already given orders were acted on. That was one way to cut down on the lag between orders and action.

A full squadron of 20 Vipers, a mix of older V's and new VIIs went down the launch tubes. While they were leaving the still hidden warship? A dozen anti-ship heavy guns that were a mirror copy of what the Battlestar Galactica packed, open fire with HE rounds on the Cylon crewed almost warship. By the time the last Viper had left the tubes, four Nike-Ajax missiles were flying out of the armored box launcher.

The Cylon Q ship was not just waiting around, after it had picked up the launch of so many Colonial attack craft. On the command section of the Colonial warship, they watched and counted the Cylons reaction to them. "Missile launch from target! We have 8 inbound capital missiles. Target is still rotating 16 weapons now in bound, wait make that 24. That thing is packing 8 tubes preside. They are stacking their broadsides with that rotation thing they are doing!"

The battle was out of HH's hands, and he just listen to the information coming from his crew of the CIC. But one trick was still up his sleeve, was that the reason they called this class a ship a pocket Battlestar. It was due to the number of close in weapons she was packing. The extended wave of Cylon missiles crossed the distance between the two ships like pencils of death. The only difference was that the Cylons were not expecting to have to defend against Vipers, much less attacking Colonial missiles. Also, the Colonials had time to plan for this attack in extreme detail.

Unlike the Cylons, the Colonials at least had a base idea about what the other ship might be. So, the cannons shells being fired by her huge Capital grade cannons were all high explosive. Normally they would have fired a mix of HE and AP with the odd Flak round ready to go if they were needed. The AP shells would have over penetrated this civilian grade hull and done little damage besides punching holes all the way through her. Having Flak rounds ready to go would have slowed down her rate a fire slightly, but measurably. All of that was not needed for this mission.

The 5 had been looking forward for the heat to kick back on, but now he was wishing it was a lot cooler on the bridge of his ship. Only about 8 of the first 10 shells, which would have made a Basestar hurt, had hit his Q ship. But they were followed up with a steady stream of impacts of those heavy high explosive rounds. His own close in weapons had been slow to intercept the few Colonial missiles, and the round forward part of his ship was hit with two of the missiles. That had started a fire burning inside that part of his ship. He lived long enough to see the last of this craft carrying the boarding team be blown out of space, by more Vipers than a cargo ship should have been able to pack. At least have them and be packing that many Battlestar scale cannons.

HH and Morton smiled as the last Cylon piloted craft had the cockpit blown open by one of his Vipers. He looked over and saw more heavy rounds hit the now out of control enemy ship. As they were watching, more HE shells hit the ship in the dead center of the converted transport. The rounds quickly went from striking the center of the ship and going all the way back to the main engine block. Even before the last rounds had hit the MAC ship. It had started to split in half going down it's long axis starting from the round forward part of the ship and going through the engine block.

HH looked over to his XO. "Morton have some recovery teams go over and see what they can find on her. Make sure they are armed and let them know, that we will be leaving here in one hour." He looked over to a wall mounted clock. "From the top of this hour. We have a window, but it is going to be closing quickly." HH lowered his voice. "I want to know if this was a lone wolf or only part of a larger plan by some overly smart Cylon."

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Notes:

Colonial ships: I used the Colonial warbook IIe 2010 by Kendal "limerickcot" Leask for the idea and info on some of the ships used by the Colonials.

Helios Beta Planet Hera: She is a gas giant with 29 moons. Iris and Eubora are the largest moons for the gas giant.

Cylon Q-ships fleet: The 4 Cylon Q ships are the center of the mission. The flagship is a Loki class heavy cruiser captured during the 1st CW. She has 2 landing bays (20 Raiders, 4 heavy raiders that are for landing centurions on human ships. She has a Tri-hull design and massive dome on the dorsal side, with a Alligator Head that holds the 35 missile tubes. She has 9 sublight engines and two modified Colonial jump drive generators. It has 81 cargo holds to support operations of the other Q ships along with a Colonial Movers Tanker Variant. 4 Janser Kerr (MAC Ship) modified Astral Queen (840x321x200feet) crew 75, passengers 150, and 8 Raptors/Heavy Raiders. 12 light KEWs (colonial) 8 capital missile tubes on all sides but aft. 8 Port, Starboard, ventral, dorsal, and nose.

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