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.

56. Chapter 56 4 July 3050 Mission Three

Chapter 56

4 July 3050 Mission Three

The Dunianshire system.

At the Zenith jump point of the Dunianshire system, the modified Tramp Class jumpship arrived with an E-wave that was faked by the small HPG mounted deep in the ship's hull. In no way was this a surprise to anyone in this solar system to see this jumpship arrive. Robert had sent a notice to this system's traffic control letting them know that he would be there, within a few days window while he was still hanging out with Duke Terry.

Now that they didn't have the old jump engine. They spent the "travel" time looking around different stars between the two systems on the sly. Sending the updates back home along the spread-out points thanks to the TacFax was a novel experience. Jess, Robert and Jules were the only ones that knew what the short messages contained, and they didn't receive any updates from home before coming here. Robert was just doing some scouting of the local stellar area while the clock ran down. You never know what you can find in empty or low traveled areas. It was just more data that he could turn over to SLIC.

Three real messages were sent from the Split system along with a lot of junk mail to a huge section of the Inner Sphere. One message was sent to the system's Traffic Control was a first notice of arrival, another message was sent to Lora as their working partner for Copeland Supply, Salvage, and Resale in that system. The last message was the one that Robert did not know how it was going to be received. It was to their point of contact at the main MMM headquarters facility on this planet. He had not been privy to all of the files that were connected with Admiral Xi's missions to this planet and Cate's Hold. But he knew what he had done to MMM or allowed to have had done to them on his last run.

MMM had a lot of pull on this planet and in the MC as a whole in both the political and military arenas. So, if one of their senior Presidents was still mad at Robert and his little convoy? Then they might be in pretty deep trouble. It was just too bad that there was only one way to find out if Mike was carrying a grudge or not. Robert was hoping that he could set up a meeting to find out the damage he, personally, had done to MMM. Then he could try to fix it and find out what the blowback might be at their next few stops that had been planned out. Did he have to do this? No, but he felt like he needed to close the books on what he had done on the last run to MMM. Robert had worked out that he had a few cards to play, if things went as bad as they could. He would prefer to hold some of those cards back for any future need. But sometimes you just have to play one or two high cards to get to the next part of the game.

Robert was very surprised when even before the solar sail had been fully deployed, from the 660m long jumpship. They were being sent messages from the recharge station address to him by name. It was not the type of message he had feared. The message was that the Styx and her dropships were pre-cleared on any needed inspection, and that clearance had been given for up to three dropships to make an approach to high orbit on the habitable planet.

A second notice sent from the Jump point Traffic Control said that they could leave the jump point whenever it was convenient. All they needed to do, was send a message to local Dropship Traffic Control before they started their burn towards the planet, with the number of dropships making the run. The end of the third message was a dinner invitation for Captain Copeland and two other guests of his choosing. A date and time would be confirmed, but only when the dropships were two days from touch down at the planet's main drop port.

Robert, Jules, and Jess were looking at each other and without a word being said between them. They automatically went with Plan D and all three dropships were released from the mothership. It was very unlikely that an ambush was going to be launched against them, if they were going to give up the opportunity to get a look at what Robert might be packing. That didn't mean that the crew on the modified Tramp were not going to be any less vigilant than the escorting Hobgoblin going towards the planet.

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It took them almost a full six days at 1g to make it from the jump point to the planet's first parking orbit of 100,000km above the ground. This was the first time that the Trish was going to be touching an Inner Sphere world, in a few hundred years. In fact, the last time she had been this close to Earth? Her Captain had sent a little gift to the head of the Combine with a nice yellow ribbon around the handmade box made of rose wood. At least that officer had made sure that the wood had come from another planet within the Inner Sphere.

The little toy SLDF soldier was meant as a joke, which after Robinson was just a little push to get under his skin. Very few had found it funny, when it was reported to high command after her return to New Circe. That captain had never been allowed to partake in another supply run to the inner sphere. Still, she had gotten the last laugh on everyone when the story leaked out. High Command might not have liked her leaving that little gift behind. But it had gone over like gang busters with the civilian population, and even better among the ex-slaves and their families. She never had to buy a drink in a bar for the rest of her life.

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A spot had been left open where all three dropships could land or be parked together at the main drop port by the time that Copeland's dropships had arrived in high orbit. All of the fighters on two of the dropships were kept armed and fixed to catapults on the Union and smaller Leopard CV while they were on the ground. They could have been spotted outside of the dropships for launch, but that would have left them open to attack without the armor of the dropships to protect them, any support crews, and equipment from a surprise first strike. Robert had passed along that all of the ships were to remain on alert status for command and weapons crews for the first two days. But all bay, support, and cargo teams could relax as soon as their division leaders released them.

The reasons for this were many, but the visible damage to weapons sites and buildings around the drop port was a good way to punctuate the threats that might be out there. The damage looked to be fresh as the White Rabbit 2 came in and after the landing steam had dissipated. It also was visible that they were still working on repairs to some of that damage seen from the bridge of the Union. Jess went digging as soon as they could access the local information network from the computers fitted on the modified dropship. The first place she went looking was the news sites.

According to the local news. The attackers had been going after one of the many satellite MMM factories, and then they had blasted their way off planet threw the Drop port. MMM had put out a news release, that said that the attackers had not succeeded. But the news reports also said that a lot of people were not so sure about this "official" MMM report. There had been a lot of attacks over the last eight months that seemed to be focused against MMM in one way or the other.

The dropship landing area was still cooling down, when a hover limo pulled up to the Mammoth class M/V Trish Edion. The driver passes along a sealed note that needed to be passed along to Commander Copeland with all due haste. The limo was their transport for the evening meal. Robert, Jess, and one of the infantry troopers were picked up and taken to the best restaurant in the whole town of Londinium.

When the hover Limo pulled up to the restaurant? It had a line outside that was at least 20 people long. And every one of them was wearing a set of clothes, that cost as much as one of the small lasers Copeland had been selling. The group of three SLDF in hiding was not allowed to wait outside with the rest of the people waiting for a table. As soon as they exited the limo, they were greeted by the Host of the establishment decked out in a costume that should have remain in a historic docudrama tri-vid.

They were quickly taken to the back of the restaurant that was a private dinner area, which could hold well over twenty people without crowding and in extreme comfort. When the massive and heavy twin sliding wooden doors were closed again? The three of them saw that the room was not empty. It held two other people, one sitting and one standing near the only other door into this room. The bulge under the left arm of the standing man, was just visible, if you knew what to look for. It told the world what this person was here for, and it was not for the food.

Mike McDonogh rose from his imported hardwood chair and took the few steps to shake the hand of the merchant captain. He did not have a smile on his face, but he also did not have a frown on his face. It was more still, than any one word that would work. Even his tone was neutral when he addressed Robert.

"Good to see you again Commander Copeland. Please, all of you have a seat and have some wine. I went ahead and ordered dinner for us. I hope you don't mind, but I happen to know the chef and he has made dishes just for us to enjoy tonight." Mike was waving his arm around the small table that was set for them. There were five other tables in this room, but only the center one had been set up for use.

Jess, Robert, and the head of MMM made small talk for the ten minutes it took for the food to come out for them. No one wanted to get down to business only to be interrupted in the middle of something important or sensitive. It was very good timing, or someone's planning staff was very, very good. When they were again alone, and the MMM security person had moved outside the door to make sure the hallway was clear of any people that might be wanting to spy on them. Mr. McDonogh was ready to talk some business. He didn't know it, but his face told the other two it was about to be game time.

He had just sat his fork down and makes eye contact with Robert. "You know Mr. Copeland, for about a week after your little gift. I was ready to put a bounty on your head that would have made even the Wolf's Dragoons mouth water. That one little attack did tens of millions of C-Bills in damages to my facility. That is not counting the dead, wounded, and lost productivity. It took about that long to find those jackets you gave to my people with the tracking devices. It did not take long for my security people to find out how they worked. It also didn't take them long to come up with a good idea of who made them in the first place. I think that you knew all of that when you set up that attack on my company. Am I right, Mr. Copeland?"

Jess about choked on her mouth full of food and the 7foot 2inch tall escort had his hand on his concealed Colonial made pistol. Robert just finished chewing his food and took a sip of wine. That was not the way you would expect to start a meeting at this level. Most bounties in this day in age, was for when the target was needed more dead than alive to collect the money. It was very hard to keep someone alive when you used a mech to take them in for collection of the money. That didn't even take into account that the other guy might have his own mech or maybe even a few dozen of them.

Robert put the wine glass down. "About that, I'm sorry. I had no idea whoever was trying to track us, as we were moving around selling and buying cargos. I had some idea after they came forward, but it could have been SAFE or LIC for all we knew. When we had turned down their offer to attack you? We had suspected they were still going to, and that we might be targeted as the leak because of that message, I sent you. Or they could have gone after me just to clean up any lose ends. I am a simple trader and not an attack force of mercenaries. I had no idea that we were only a small part of a larger operation." Most of this was a lie, but Robert was a very good salesmen and it was all written out for him to pitch months ago. SLIC had ran half a dozen different cover stories but had ended up taking his idea and just added a little more fluff to it.

Mr. McDonogh gave Robert an evil smile. "Now, now Captain? I think we both know that it was ComStar that made those trackers. You turned them down, and you worked out that they were following you. When your people found the trackers? You dumped them on me. They had planned on going after you, in one of our hangars. When they had landed? They just went in full press, right into the trap that you let us set up for them. Don't try to cover for them, both you and I know who attacked us." Mike put a little more focus on US to mean the both of them.

Robert was fighting back a smile. This was what he wanted the MMM man to think, and that it was about 80 percent true? That was all the better as far as Robert was concerned. It also helped that ComStar had used a warship to stop MMM from paying and or picking up that load of H class PPCs. "Well, I'm sorry that they went after you so hard. I hope we can work together again. I know that we have done some great work in the past, but I want to make sure you and I can work together on a more personal level without any issues." It was open knowledge that MMM had worked with "his company" when they took over control of that space port on Cate's Hold. It was totally different if Mike was going to be able to work with Robert directly again.

Mr. McDonogh smiles again, and he had a slight twinkle in his eyes. "Oh! I was mad at you. But with all the high-tech weapons, that we were able to recover when they made a run for it? I was okay with the results you got us after a few days. After a few weeks? It became very apparent that the research department, that I had set up and had been working on one of the KWI's knock offs and those ER PPCs. They were going to be very helpful in a more expanded role for the future of MMM. After I paid for the repairs and what Margret sold my company. I had them start to expand as fast as I dared, and they started working on how to make everything from Freezers class heat sinks, and extra light engines, to higher tech weapons of all kinds. With so many different recovered tech examples that we were able to capture. We were even able to put some of the extras in our local defense units. Now I can even have a few different teams working on the same project coming at it from different points of view. We have not needed to count on imported Freezers from the FWL for the last year or so. We have full lines for production of late Star League weapons working and more of them coming online every few months." He was not going to bring up the Bear Slayers in a public setting like this. As far as the public knew, MMM had come up with them all on their own.

Mike was very pleased with what his people had been able to do even without support from Xi or Robert. He had turned down three attempts to be moved to the main office, because of what he had been able to do here. "We were even able to get the MC to pay for most of the repairs to the dropship repair areas or give us loans at a zero-interest rate for the life of the loans we needed to pay for the work. They even picked up the tab to expand the second drop pit into a rebuilding facility for most sizes of combat spheroid ships. They just want to have one of the MC's military ships worked on a year for the next decade, and they would call that part of the deal as square."

McDonogh took a long sip of chilled white wine. "With a year head start in checking out Star League tech weapons, it gave us a leg up on some things. Now with the influx of funds from selling updated mechs and other high-end weapons. We should be able to pay off all of those loans for that facility your people found and sold to us earlier than planned. We are planning to put more of our new manufacturing capabilities on Cate's Hold. I am looking forward in taking over the Aero space aspects of MMM and having Royal style units in production from here."

Jess could see now that things were better between the two men than she had first thought. You never could tell how things would go when it came to phallic measuring. Her SLIC training kicked in and she went data diving. "So, you will be able to duplicate all of the old SLDF weapons and units? That is incredible! You could supply the whole Inner Sphere!" She was trying hard to sound like she was not talking down to Mike. She also had to walk the line of not leaving an opening that he might exploit to try to dig information from her or Robert.

The MMM man shook his head left and right, but his smile didn't move an inch. "No, not all of it. Or even most of it, well not yet. Most of the stuff we are more or less hand making for sale or our internal use. Besides mass marketing of the Freezer? I can say that we are making what we are calling the Armstrong Spitfire JU22. It is a knock off, of the knock off Ultra type cannon we bought from you. As of this month we are putting out 2 per day or 60 per month. The same numbers are true for our PPCs but we have two lines working and over double the output. We have been putting out Freezer style high efficiency heatsinks out at the rate of between four and six every day. It will take years, maybe decades, before we can come up to the output of what the old SLDF could do on a production line. My company only has three major factory sites, currently. We are trying to grow, but it takes money, time, and products to do something like that. There is also a fine line that you have to walk when you are doing something like that. the last thing I want is to overextend ourselves, and then get taken over by the government or another outside company."

Jess was doing the head bobbing thing, so Robert had time to say something. "That is impressive, the double rate of fire is a game changer. But a heat sink that dumps twice the heat for the same mass? That is the kind of thing that can win wars."

Now McDonogh had a cat like smile on his face. He was not going to bring up about the improved ER PPC that was coming off of the lines at ever increasing rates. "With things going on in the other house's areas. It is like we have money flooding in as long as we don't over stress the machines to make the core weapons. We are turning out what we are calling a Shadow Hawk 2MC and Phoenix Hawk PHX 1MC. Both MC models are fitted with the updated JU22's and or Freezers as fast as we can. The MC2 models have ERPPCs in place of the ballistic cannon. We are making King Crab MC2s to go along with our Marauder and lighter mech lines. We cannot make machines fast enough, and we are now making more machines a month than at any other time since the fall of the Star League. By the end of the year? We will be breaking those numbers we sold a few months before."

Mike took a second sip of wine, it looked like he took a long sip, but this time he really only took in enough to taste it. "Hell! Both the FedCom and Combine official procurement divisions are picking up mechs chassis without engines or weapons at a heck of a markup. They are even paying for express shipping to their realms. We are selling four different levels of each of our core combat machines, and the same for our refit kits that are selling like hot cakes to anyone who can come out this way. The old tech one, that we have been selling forever, new tech with the ultra-cannons or Freezers, bare chassis fitted with engine and Freezers class heat sinks, and just the new production chassis that is just a skeleton and an armor skin. We are selling them almost before they come off the lines and for cash at the factory door. It this war last six more months to a year? We will be able to fund a second production line for every main line tank, Mech and aerospace fighter that we have in operation today! We are selling dropships as fast as we can and our waiting list for repairs of Dropships and Jumpships is longer than my arm. It is just too bad that we have so much debt right now."

Jess shot Robert a look that he saw out of the corner of his eye. They were getting some great Intel on the major weapons manufactory in this part of space and an idea on what some of the main houses were dealing with. Then again, finding out about this war and "aliens" that was more important than weapon transfers to the houses that were fighting off the attackers.

"Yes, the war. We have been out of touch with what has been going on in the rest of the Inner Sphere, until a few weeks ago. We heard that they are aliens or something taking over worlds all over the place seemingly at will." Robert was a good actor and he let the right tone slip into is voice, just a little bit of humor. He wanted the other man to know that he was not buying this Alien thing everyone was talking about.

The head of the local MMM office let one eye narrow a bit, and he did not say anything for all most a full minute. "Commander you have been out somewhere, way off of the grid. The betting pool has you at between 500 and 800 light years from Duke Terry's controlled Ltzehoe system. Some have you only out about 200ly away but closer to the FWL border. I might have a better idea because of my second deal with Xi. Then again, that location could have been picked just to keep any unwanted eyes looking in the wrong direction."

Mike gave Robert a sly smile. "If you can let me record your answer? I can make a killing on the office betting pool. Now back on topic that you will actually talk about. And it is something that you are dying to find out about. Yes, someone has invaded the FedCom, Combine space and the Free Rasalhague Republic. And they have been cleaning their clocks on every planet they want to take from those mighty house lords. They also took out all of the pirate and minor powers that were out behind those powerful leader's areas. I'm about to tell you things that are a high-level company secret, at least they are for my company."

Mike gave Robert, Jess, and there escort a level look. "So, I hope you will keep it close hold and maybe work with my company a little longer because of my show of good faith."

He waited for Robert to give a slight nod of agreement. He nodded back and Mike pulled out a noteputor that had been out of sight. The MMM man turned it on with a loud beep, and while it booted up. Mike started talking again, while the biometrics warmed up and said it was okay to come alive.

"We have no idea of who they are. But each time they come into a system? They ask who is defending it and they will say what forces they will be attacking with and where they want to battle. We also know they have very high-tech weapons, better than even what the old Star League could make in their hay day. The range and hitting power of their weapons is just short of fiction or a nightmare. If I had not seen the government's internal intel reports? I would think that someone was playing games with the data or they had another game that they were playing."

Mike let his voice drop lower and he locked eyes with Robert. When Robert pulled out a device that made the air hmm, he could not help but smile. Copeland had no idea that there were four such devices already in action within this room alone. With the new device on the table and blinking with warning ready lights.

Mike started talking again. "We also have been getting very little information coming out of that area, and even ComStar is reporting that they are having problems getting any information." Mike made a sour face, like he was not buying the ComStar line. "My company had to pay through the nose, but we were able to get some hard data on them. That data is on the company computer systems only and no one is allowed to copy it without the big man knowing about it. I do have some images, which I was looking at while waiting for you to come see me. Only a handful of people know that I have them on my own devices."

He stopped talking and passed over the images, which were on a time slide show computer setting. Each image only lasted five to ten seconds before it would change to a new image, and there seemed to be about twenty different images. The first image had a code name of Toad in bold red letters below the combat image, but both Robert and Jess knew it by another name. That name was Elemental. The next image that Robert recognized was a 75ton Timber Wolf, but it had been codenamed Mad Cat on the image. Then there were a few images of machines that he did not know of by name. All before he saw another machine he knew. It was a massive 100ton Dire Wolf, the king of the military forces of the Clan. That one mech alone could put out more damage than some combat dropships that the Inner Sphere had been using for the last few hundred years.

Robert was so stunned, that he did not notice the code names as the images floated across the screen for a second time. The last image before it started over again, was of a dropship. It was the only dropship in the set of images that he was viewing. It was another design he knew about from his studies of the Clans. It was a large Union C class dropship. It looked a lot like an old Star League Union, just bigger and meaner than that mech company carrier. Jess was not as good about hiding her expressions on her face at this level. Her face was moving all over the place, as her body reacted to the stress it had just been placed under. It would take her almost a minute to get her body back under control. It was not unlike what would happen if you saw an image of a giant spider that had just shown up on your cell phone when you went to send a text message.

Mr. McDonogh took the look crossing her face, as shock and fear. And he was right, but he missed the look of recognition at what she was seeing on his device. He took another long sip of expensive New Dawn wine while they looked at the images of death. He was the type of person who liked to know things that others did not. He also was the type of person who did not rub it in, when he did know those things.

"Commander Copeland, you have done my company a great service many times over the last few years. I'm not talking about the jumpship or our "smaller" transactions, that we were able to pick up from you. But as you already know from what I said earlier, is that you were helpful in getting us ready for what came later. When you had showed up with those cannons out of the blue? You single handedly jumped started my whole company into the production of new Star League weapons. If you had not come around and sold us those weapons? Well let's just say that my company's Outlook and Outside Acquisition department had said. That we would not be able to get our hands on one, until late this year or as late as early as 3052. It would have also cost a lot more money before we could get them into our first units."

He took a sip of water this time and not the white wine. He was waiting for Robert to say something after his little monolog, but Robert and Jess were not going to open their mouths. He waited a little longer, then made a mental bet with himself. He had not been able to get that much information from Miss Xi or Mrs. Mann in those meetings and from the other parts of his company's information gatherers. He had started reviewing all of the data on the man and is company every few months. It was not much data, and on many levels that was disturbing.

Mike wanted to find out some information more or less for his own edification. "You have been selling a lot of high-tech weapons around a good bit of the local space. My company's highly paid spying department, says. That you have been bringing in these KWI knock offs in lots of between 50 and 75 of those cannons on each trip. I think you have been bringing in an even 100. And that does not count those long range PPC's you had on the last trip. Who's right?"

Robert didn't need to look at Jess, to know that she was concerned with the sudden turn of events and questions. "I will tell you, if you give me a copy of those images and all the intelligence you have on these invaders. I will even tell you what I have with me on this trip that I have not shown to anyone else."

Mike gave a deep laugh. "I will give you the images, but if you want our Intel. You're going to have to make it worth at least close to what we had to pay to get it in the first place." One part of Mike's mind wonders what new traps he and his company were about to be exposed to in the next few hours.

Robert gave a smile that didn't make it to his eyes. He knew that he had been asking for too much, but sometimes you had to see what was on the table. "Okay your right. We have been bringing in a hundred of those cannons on each lift, to include this one. Now I think you see why we have been packing so heavy, and why we have been keeping some items close to the chest when we have been dealing with your people. I think that someone like the Cappies would pay for a major unit to come take them at the point of a large gun or three. We planned these missions, on the assumptions that everyone we were going to meet along the way. That they were going to think about the same thing. We have done what we had to do to keep the scale of our supply quiet."

Mr. McDonogh sat quietly with his eye blinking rapidly. He had just been told. That somewhere out there, in the deep of space. There was a planet that thought that all of those hundreds of bleeding edge cannons were excesses and could be traded off, and that did not count all of the ER PPC's and the Bear Slayers they had come up with. What else might they have, and how had they been able to keep it? He was thinking about how he could get more or take more away from them.

Mike had to stop thinking that way. He was thinking about the old tail of the goose and the golden egg. If he killed the goose or scared it off? The golden eggs would stop, but even just slowing the laying down by any margin would badly hurt his company. The MC was already putting out more Star League era tech weapons than the Cappies and FWL, one of the larger Houses, and it most likely would pass the DC sometime soon. That is if they kept losing planets to those strange invaders. Besides, his gut told him that they had at least a few warships.

Now that was a thought. If they did have extra warships? What would it take to get a look at one? Or maybe acquire one of them for his company or the local military? They were already expanding their dropship lines by leaps and bounds, and the data from Athena Corps had already proven to be very helpful with jumpship production. What if they could improve that naval base on Cate's Hold back to where it could be again be able to support major black ocean warships? Now all he had to do was work out a way for him to get his hands on a real-life warship. His mind stopped working at what he had just thought. Until these invaders had shown up, no one had even thought about warships. Well besides the few that knew about that one run, where 3 of them had party crashed his deal.

McDonogh cleared his throat and fought to get his mind back into the right mode. As he fought that battle, he realized that he was breathing very hard and his heart was beating hard enough that he might need to up his medication. "Well looks like I was right again. I know that my company would be interested in picking up some more of them. I also would not mind getting a look at what else you might have in those cargo holds."

He gave Robert a sly smile. "Besides every one of them that we buy off of you? That is one that you will not be selling to someone else, and its one that we will not have to make. What else is your company selling while on this planet to the general public?"

Robert picked something up in the tone of voice the local power player was using. He was about to back down, and then he decided to stick to his original idea. "We have a list of older tech weapons, Blazer type rifles, and ballistic weapons like you have seen before. I also have a few antimissile systems, which you might be interested in."

Robert took another breath before he dropped his own little bomb shell on the President of this chapter of MMM. "We have two jumpships at/or will soon be sitting over Canopus. We are hoping to find some new homes for them. Do you know of anyone who might be looking for a fully functional Merchant and Surveyor class jumpship? I think you can guess at how well those two ships were maintained and the quality of the craft."

McDonogh smiled and it even reached his eyes this time. He so loved working with professionals. "Well Commander Copeland. You as usual, are full of surprises. I don't know about the Merchant, but an armed single collar jumpship could be very useful to the right people. I will send word to our people on the capital. I would like them to come here, to Dunianshire. Is that possible?"

Robert knew a starting point when he heard one, and this was one. "I think we can work things out. There will be a little use of a technology called an HPG, as long as ComStar is not still mad at you or me. You can have your people check them out there, and report back to you on the HPG. Then we can work out a price, and I can tell my people to turn over the keys to your people. I'm sure you have people, on the capital system, which you trust. Or do you want it to come here before we start all of the paperwork?"

McDonogh gave a sly smile, and a soft chuckle. "Your right Commander, I just jumped the gun a little. We will use the Company team there for all of the inspections and paperwork. Now I know you only have just landed. But do you have any idea of what you're looking at to fill that new dropship you have brought with you on this trip? I might be able to get back some of the money your about to extort from my company over the purchase of that jumpship."

This was Mikes' way of trying to find out two things. He wanted to see if he could find out more about the Mammoth. They were not that common this far out from the center of "normal" human occupied space. He also wanted to get a better idea of just how widespread this man and his strange company that came out of nowhere were planning to travel.

Robert did a chin point to Jess. Jess took the point and passed over a thin computer pad that she had in her shoulder carry bag. Robert was going to let the slight power play that Mike was trying to pull slide, and he let the change of subject happen. "It's about the same that we have been looking for the last few trips. But this time we are also looking for a pair of those Neptune submarines, or something like them that can fill the same mission sets as the Neptune. The big thing that we need on this trip is transportation. Our clients had a cascade of issues with theirs, that was just short of being on a Biblical level. Now they are looking at replacing a very large percentage of what they had on hand before the latest set of issues."

McDonogh was looking through the shopping list on the digital device, and then his head snapped up. He bit his mustache lined lip, then he puts his hands flat on the dining tabletop. He was thinking about the best way to use the information he was about to exchange. "I happen to know that a company on this planet, took delivery of an excess shipment of Pitbull and Bulldog 3ton class trucks. It was due to a clerical error on their part. I think they might be willing to get rid of them, just to get some red ink off of their books at this point."

He stopped talking and looked up to the expensively paneled ceiling. After a few seconds he looked back down at the pair of off worlders. "I will have my people get with your Factor tonight or early tomorrow, to work on the small things. I would like to work with you personally on the big-ticket items that you are looking for."

Mike gave a soft chuckle again. "It is the perfect reason to get out of the office, and one that my boss cannot get bent out of shape about when she or her boss finds out." He had been caught on the carpet spending too much time out of the office over the last 6 months, and he had not like the corrective action they had taken.

Robert reached over the table and around some of the awfully expensive serving dishes, and the two men shook hands to more or less closed the deal. That was the limit of the work that was done during the rest of the dinner. The MMM man talked about the latest raid on their outlying production plants. It was the one that was working on extra light shielding for the fusion engines, that powered large tanks and a new generation of battlemechs that were just now starting to come off the lines in any real numbers. It was a very important facility for MMM and the MC government.

Mike didn't say if the attackers had succeeded in doing or taking anything from that objective raid. It was a big deal, that this facility was raided in the first place, and they knew what to go after in that attack. Mike was kind of hinting that he might have a security leak because that was the only way that an outsider would have known to attack this location.

Robert told Mike about the attacks they had heard about from Duke Terry, and the ones that his crew had picked up from others around the drop port. McDonogh had known about the attacks, but he had no idea at the total numbers of the different attacks that they had endured to date. When Robert dropped the hint about why MMM was buying so much ammunition from Terry. Mike told Robert that MMM had shut down their own ammunition plant on this planet. He had moved the highly trained people and the expensive equipment in that facility to other more profitable tasks than making age of war tech ammunition. The MC government had even given MMM a nice tax break to help spread out military factories to other planets. Buying cannon and missile ammunition from Terry had fit that criteria very nicely.

MMM had been buying lots of different types of ammunition from Duke Terry for their own use and training over the last year. They also were using it as sweeteners, it was for people who had just spent a few tens of millions of C-bills buying equipment from them. Robert told him that they had also picked up some ammunition as well as a load of fresh consumables from her. Mike stopped talking and pulled out a second electronic pad. And Robert kept quiet while Mike worked.

With his computer pad out, Mike made some notes on the little device with a special no spy cover. Robert and Jess had no idea what was being noted, but both in their own minds worked on ideas. They hoped that somehow it would help Terry and the mounting number of issues she was having with external sources. The meeting was all over, two hours after it started with the MMM picking up the dinner bill.

##########

On the trip back to the drop port, the three people didn't say a word while they sat in the back of the Limo. They just road and watched the city lights and people as they passed by at almost 100kph. They passed a set of heavy weapons turrets, which no one had seen before, as they entered the main drop port. Jess was able to turn around in her overstuff seat, just in time to see the blasted open back sides of the weapons emplacements in the powerful area lights.

The massive auto cannon and crew must have died, if that turret had been manned when something had taken a big snaggletooth bite out of it. After exiting the hover limo, they still did not talk until they were in the briefing room on the dropship. They were taking the hint that there were a lot of spies on this planet, from the hints over dinner by Mike. Then again, they had planned on there being a lot of spies on every star system that they visited for the first day of the first resupply mission to the Inner Sphere a few hundred years ago.

Robert called an emergency meeting for all of the ground side staff and command crews, which were on each of the three dropships. It took almost half an hour to get everyone over to the one briefing room on the White Rabbit. The Mammoth class ship also had a briefing room, but it was currently being used for storage. Some had asked to have a radio or video meeting instead of doing something like this face to face, after all it was mid-way through the 31st century. Robert had vetoed that idea with a simple "no". That he did not even need to say why he had said no, that was enough to light a fire under everyone. That one hint was enough to let them know that something was up, and it was important.

When Robert and Jess were joined by the first person coming into this important meeting. They had stopped talking and they did not let anything slip to the early arrivals. After a single look from the convoy commander? It stopped anyone from trying to push, for any hints about what tonight's meeting was going to be about.

This un-scheduled meeting was starting to get the "oh frak" kind of feeling by the officers that were sitting in the room. The mood was picked up by the others as they entered the room as the assigned time drew closer. The voices were kept low and looks would occasionally be sent towards the Mission Commander or the head of the intelligence section and third officer. It did not matter at the number of looks. Those two were not saying a word.

When the last person had entered the room with still wet hair from a shower, Robert stood center stage at the head of the meeting table as the hatch closed behind them. "I have called this meeting of the available command staff, to bring everyone up to date. This is going to be about some information, which is very important to us all. You all know about the attacks on Duke Terry's world, and about the rumor about the invasion happening on the other side of the Inner Sphere. They were calling them Aliens on that world, and we were thinking that it might be the Cylons."

He stopped talking and cleared his throat, and then nodded to Jess to start the slide show of images that MMM had given to them before the dinner was over. Everyone in the room saw the move and made the slight effort to turn back towards the screen that was mounted on the far wall of this modified crew cabin.

"I don't know if any of you are as well versed in mechs as Jess and I are." As he looked around the room and got some lost looks. "I can tell you that we have identified a few of these machines, which these invaders are using on the other side of the Inner Sphere." He pointed to the slowly changing images on the large screen. "These are images of Clan made battle armor, battlemechs or Omni mechs, and one of the dropships we know that they use. I think that the Clans of Kerensky have returned to take over the Inner Sphere."

The room was quiet as everyone took in the news, which had just been dropped into their laps. They looked just like Robert and Jess had thought they had, when they had talked about these invaders. The rest of the group had been so focused on the Cylon threat, that they had forgotten all about the Clans. About a half a minute later, the whole room exploded into sound and the faces were wide eyed as the volume went out of control. That was the only sign that their brains had caught up to the facts that had just been rubbed in their noses. Robert let the display go for a little bit of time, but both he and Jess had covered about what was being said by the rest of the room. When it seemed like the meeting was just about to get out of control, Robert stepped in.

Robert had to use both his Captain's command voice and smashing a book onto the tabletop, to take control of the meeting again. He had expected this, and he had planned a few different ways to keep it from getting out of control. He just happened to like this approach the best. The book was a copy of short stories he liked to read before he went to bed. The book also just happened to be a gift from Duke Terry.

"No! We will not be pulling out, to run for home like a dog with its tail between its legs. The Clans are all of the way, on the other side of the Inner Sphere. That means that it is going to be months in travel time for their type of jump engines to reach this point, and that is as a best-case travel time scenario. We have a mission to do, and it is to support our people fighting the Cylons. You know…. the AIs that want to wipe out the entire human race, like it was a fire ant hill.

Robert's command voice and the slammed book had gotten the room to quiet down, and in a more normal voice he continued. "I am the Convoy Commander, and it is my call to make. I called this meeting to let you know the facts, as we know them at this time. This is my way of being able to help you control the stress and stop any wild rumors that might get going. Now I want this next part kept close hold. And I want everything to play out, just like we have done on the other trips. The idea is that we, the command staff and senior officers, are to be as normal as possible."

Robert was on a roll and all of the eyes in the room were on him. "You will go back to your ships tonight. And if asked? You will tell them, that I had a big meeting with the MMM President and his staff. This was a meeting, to get everyone on the same page after so long of a break between the runs we made. I want everyone in this room to think about what happened, and how will we best support our people. You know the ones we left back home that are counting on us. When we dock back on the Styx? We will have another meeting to bring Captain Vaun and the rest of the staff in on the facts. I do not want to risk this type of information leaking to unwanted ears. Until then? My orders stand, and now if you will take your seats again. I will give you all a rundown of my current short and medium ranged plans." Robert spent the next half hour going over the rough outline of a few of the plans that he and Jess had worked out.

##########

Early the next day, Lora was escorted to the freshly emptied meeting room on the massive Mammoth class dropship. She was early, but when she entered the briefing room Robert and Jess were already in the room talking about different issues. A huge pot of local grown or sold coffee was on the table, and it was already half emptied of its dark oily remains. The bags under Lora's eyes matched the ones forming under the eyes of Jess and Robert's eyes.

Lora smelled the coffee and made a bee line for the devise. After pouring a healthy amount of it into a ship's cup. She was letting it work on her senses, and after a long sip she was ready to start. "So, looks like I was not the only one who had a long night last night. Thanks again for the heads up, a few weeks before you jumped here this time. It gave my newly expanded tech team time for the resweeps of my offices, home, equipment and anywhere else they could think to look. Before you ask. I have been doing it monthly, and I have been finding devices every time they go looking for them."

Lora gave a sad smile and reached into a pants pocket. She pulled out a few slips of paper and spread them out in front of her on the table. She took a second to arrange them one on top of the other. "Mom was always thinking and talking about something like this that might happen. She came up with and taught me a short and simple little code system that is very effective. I added in the idea of using three thin sheets of paper to make it harder for anyone looking for information. If you line them up and know what to look for, you can only see her coding system. She also made sure to not put much in a computer, which someone could get into on certain subjects. I always thought she was being a bit crazy for how obsessive she was about it. Just goes to show you, parents were not always wrong when you find out they have some odd ways of doing things."

Jess had to take some water, to make sure her stomach did not rebel against more coffee that would be soon on its way to join what was already down there. She was not going to remark on parents or anything on the subject of counter spying. She had no idea how the people of the Families did what they did. It would have driven her batty in months much less a few dozen years. "So? Was it work or fun, which kept you up late last night?" Jess used a very light tone that only another woman could have gotten away with using asking what she had just asked.

Lora shakes her head to the sides. "I have not had a fun night, that was not connected to work since even before you came into my life on your first run. Not that I mind. I have made a huge amount of money, and it feels great to be doing something useful on this scale. The reason for my lack of sleep last night, was that I was working with MMM on a contract. The reason for the other nights of little sleep, is that the family network has been going crazy about this invasion the Fedcom and Combine are dealing with. When you let me pass the word that you were going to make regular supply runs. They have been sending everything from short notes to letters in code every so often. Now with this invasion, even some of the lost one's have been trying to come back into the fold."

Robert did not even look at Jess. "Lora what do you and the other families know about this invasion." He was very careful not to use the two key words that could get them in a lot of trouble, if they slip passed his lips.

Lora took another long slug of the hot drink in her hands. She was at first surprised at the high quality of the drink, now she was just thankful for the energy kick. Then again, they did have a lot of money in the bank to buy the best of whatever they wanted. "They don't know anything. It's mostly crazy talk about aliens, and other even wilder rumors that they have also passed along. I never knew how many people were in our network, until this invasion started. Now it seems like I get a new person every other week, which is sending me a copy of some local Analyses. Most of the time it is nothing more than a political op-ed masquerading as news. I'm trying to keep them focused on getting real stuff and not news talk junk."

She had to stop talking as a huge yawn took over her face. "I have no idea why they think that I know how to help them, or in most cases helping some if not all of their families?"

Jess looked down her nose a little, at the other woman. It seemed very obvious why the others were looking toward her for guidance. "It's because you have spent more time with us, then anyone else that they know about. What have you had them focus on?" Jess knew that good data mining was more of an art form than a science, no matter how many would try to pass it off as just looking around and it should be easy for a talking monkey to do that kind of work attitude.

Lora unfolded the papers with lines and a few letters printed on the top sheet in neat handwriting one more time. She had to review it and matched it with the code only in her head. "Commander Copeland asked about Wolf's Dragoons machines, and he had a standing list of equipment to keep an eye out for, or other stuff that I think might be useful items. One of those families has been in close contact with the Dragoons for some time, and they say that they are under good terms with them. Sometime in late 3049. The Dragoon's started pulling back certain types of units and shifting some equipment to only a backup role on the planet of Outreach."

Robert and Jess didn't say a word and were taking in every word Lora was saying. Lora kept talking at her normal measured pace and didn't notice the blank looks and still faces. "They even started to allow their exclusive selling rights to be relaxed on some of the unique equipment, but only if you were on an approved list. They are not advertising it to the outside world, but they are doing it. And those people were not telling many others about the ability to purchase that equipment directly from the Dragoons. I think that most just think that it was battlefield salvage or something. We were able to get our hands on four of the Badger light tanks and four of the Bandit class hover tanks. They are packed down and listed as farming equipment at a warehouse not far from here. I depleted the company accounts that I had access to. So, I shifted some of my own funds to reimburse that family and covered the cost to have that load shipped out here."

She looked up from her hot mug with a girlish grin. "This was so much fun! I felt like I was in one of those spy tri-vids. I still do not know if it was worthwhile to have to deal with those new spying devices." She was thinking that some of this was sooo not like all of those spy tri-vids she had seen over the years. Where were the great dinner parties, and the hot leading men?

Robert and Jess sat back and grinned back at their Factor with the cross between joy and sour look on her face. Robert was not going to make a comment about spies, jest yet. He was just going to address the fact that she had found and been able to retrieve those targeted items. "That is good! We will have room for that cargo, and I bet the big brains back home would so dearly love to get their hands on them. I sent and received a message via the ComStar run HPG, that our two small jumpships have reached the Canopus system. I sent a message to the head of MMM as soon as I was told. He should be here around noon, to work out a price. When the funds are transferred? We will get "the Company" accounts worked out. Have you seen the items we're moving?"

He slides a thin computer across the table to the younger woman. He had not had time to check the accounts that Lora did not have access to before this meeting. Those accounts were only known to a limited group this close to Earth, and Robert was thinking that this number was going to have to climb if he was going to do his job effectively.

Lora took the device and started going down the list of items that they had in the cargo bays and the ones Robert was willing to move, on this planet. The list had marked items that were not for sale, or only for sale under orders from the Mission Commander. It also listed items that Robert wanted to pick up. Lora went to the bottom of all of the lists, before she looked up.

"You don't want to move the six heavy fighters? I would think that MMM might be looking for something along those lines. After this last set of attacks? They have been taking a beating in the press, about not being as prepared as most people thought they should have been." She had a questioning look, but these were things that she needed to know if she was to do her job to the level that was expected of her.

Robert was shaking his head and Jess was looking confused, this was the first that she had noticed that Robert had the six fighters on hold for being sold. "No, I have an idea on who will pay a lot more than cash for them, a few jumps away. I also would like to pick up at least three sets of Leopard class Star League V84 power plants. One does not have to be new, but I want the other two to be ready for long term storage. Has anything else come up or is on the local market that we might be interested in while we were gone?"

Lora smiled and nodded. "I did find and currently have on a "No Cost Hold", a Star League V250 power plant for a Union class dropship. How did those high-end cars do on your last run?"

Robert gave a knowing smile. "That V250 is going to be a big hit, as soon as we have enough capital in your bank accounts to get it. And yes. The high-end passenger transports did very well. I take it that you have been able to line some more up for us?" He did not have to warn her that those things might be a very limited market, and it could be easily flooded with too many items. He had not told her that the total population of her home people's world was less than a million souls.

Lora smiled a sly little smile. "Yes, about 30 of them as rotating stock. They are sitting in a warehouse not too far from here. And I was even able to get some large flatbed trucks, that are the same make and model that you picked up before. I know that some of the local salespeople will be over to see us, starting sometime after the noon meal. I put out the word that anyone that contacts you or us to early would be blacklisted for the rest of your stay."

Jess's eyes went up to her hair line, and she looked over at her boss. No one had said to get more engines for the small Leopard class dropships in any, of the many of the meetings about this run that she had set in. As far as she remembered, there were still engines of that type sitting in storage at a SLDF Navy supply yard. She had no idea why a Union engine would be useful. The SLDF Navy did not build the Union class dropships. But the SLiE had enough of them in service, that a steady supply of parts was always in production. Then again? The idea of high-end personal vehicles made no sense to her, but Robert had been doing this a long time, so she kept her mouth shut.

Robert was running numbers in his head, and they were coming up short. "I had better sell some cargo or, we will not be able to cover the bills." He made a note that he needed to go check those other accounts. He could have done so on the planet base information network. It just was that he did not want to let too many people know about those accounts. Stopping by a bank was going to be bad enough, but if someone hacked into the data flow? They would see the number of accounts besides the access points.

Lora gave first Robert and then Jess a strange look. "Did you read my message? MMM has given you a million C-bills line of credit, if we need it. It was posted to our account not long after you started burning in from the jump point. I don't think we will need the credit, but it's a good back up plan if we need it. If for anything else, it has some political value."

Robert didn't let his eyes move a millimeter, at being told this information. It did show him that MMM was happy with him, even before they had that little dinner meeting. Not that he was going to use a line of credit if he did not have to. There were some lines that he was not going to cross, not unless he had a gun to his head.

"Okay, that is good news. I would like to have our crews out looking for cargos, after the morning meeting tomorrow. I would also like the three of us to plan on going to "The Showroom" sometime tomorrow, if we can." Robert was going down the mental check list he had worked out before they had even come to this system.

The meeting between the three ended not long after, when word came that the first group of buyers were on the way to them. Jess and the cargo master of the Trish met them at the access way, and the small group worked at adding to the modernization effort of the local military. Robert and Lora waited in the briefing room until word reached them that Mike McDonogh was on his way to the White Rabbit 2, but that destination was changed to the Trish Edion not even three minutes later. Robert and Lora would spend the next few hours talking with the head of MMM while the rest of their teams worked. Most of it was even about business, but that was in the near future.

##############

At 0910 in the morning, a massive hover armored limousine covered by a pair of Shadow Hawks and a pair of Wasps came to the main landing area of the drop port. That was some heavy firepower, but they would have been wiped out in under a minute under the guns of the upgraded Union. McDonogh was not alone, but with a person that Lora knew was seen exiting the limo. They shared greetings and went to the largest briefing room Robert had access to on this planet.

It was still before noon, so local bought coffee was supplied for the small group. New Circe could grow coffee, but at its best it was only just okay. Cloud 9 grew what the Colonials used for coffee, and even Victorians would not drink it on a bet. What one of the crew had found while out shopping, was an importer for high end local restaurants on the last trip. It was not cheap, but it was very good coffee. Robert was planning on buying an entire shipping container of it if he could before they lifted off again. It would be using the money the weapon sells had generated for him. Coffee was listed as both a military item and a civilian item, which also just happened to be on his little shopping list supplied to him by Admiral Xi's office.

It was during the opening moves over coffee, that the MMM team dropped its bomb on Robert and Lora. They were not looking at buying the smaller jumpship, but the larger Merchant class ship. Robert had preordered the crews on both of the jumpships to get an inspection. It should be getting done and both should be filed, and a copy sent to him via HPG in the next few hours. Robert and McDonogh knew that the jumpships would pass with flying colors any inspection that they were put under. Just like all of the other manned ships that Copeland Supply, Salvage and Resale had sold to anyone on this side of space. There would be contingency rules, just in case.

What Robert did not know, was that this company alone had been able to replace all of the "lost" jumpships the MC government had under their flag over the last decade. The increasing number of jump ships coming off of the production lines were going straight into improving the transportation network, for the first time in two centuries. It was just another sign that the long slide into the darkness had stopped.

It took some doing, but Jess was able to find out why there had been a change of plans for MMM. The Capellan Confederation had recently placed a larger than normal order for updated mechs, mech chassis, and repair parts of both older and recovered technology types. The Cappies had a reputation of taking and not paying for supplies that were shipped to them, for the last few generations. All of the other right sized ships that MMM had used before were busy, or they were not willing to take the risk on this run for MMM.

To take care of this issue, under the timeline they were working under? They needed to buy another jumpship of the right size. To act as a good enough escort for their new jumpship and the expensive cargo. MMM was updating the company's 4,500ton Achilles class assault dropship for this mission. Between her and the updated and upgraded Fortress carrying the cargo? The Cappies were going to be buying, and not taking or impounding this particular cargo. That those ships were now almost fully upgraded with cutting edge weapons and a heat management system to handle the workload, would come as a nasty surprise to any attackers.

That was why they wanted the Merchant class, instead of the single carrier. McDonogh still only wanted the single dropship carrier because she had teeth, but the main headquarters of the company had overruled him. This put him in a type of mood that Robert was able to exploit to the SLiE's advantage. By the time the local sun was directly overhead? The deal was done. All that remained was to have the paperwork done, money moved, and the crew of the jumpship sent a message by HPG to tell them who the new owners were. Robert was just thankful that he did not have to deal with selling or trading any dropships they might have been carrying.

Robert and Jess were able to get 300 million in C-Bills put into the general company accounts, 84 million worth of C-bills were earmarked to be used to by MMM supplied materials in a separate company account. This was more than okay with Robert and he had let the other side know. McDonogh and his people had not been able to get a peek at Roberts full shopping and cargo list, but they did see a lot of it.

By the time the sun set on the drop port. The Nago's of Kowloon would be getting 100 million C-bills, plus the required interest payment moved into their accounts. Copeland even sent the 90 million that would not be due until late 3053 after the first transfer was listed as being complete. That would close the open account with that world that might be connected to SLiE. He had not been told that he could do this full pay off. It was that it just made sense to do so, if he had the money on hand and he did.

They had the money and paying it off early would help when/if they launched their next mission to that world. Robert didn't know if high command was going to do so, but it made sense that they would, and it at least left them options if they went down that route. With the bank account balances, he had seen in those other accounts? He didn't think that they would have to worry about buying anything on credit.

In three days or less that far planet's leaders would be getting the notice from their bank's manager. The first payment was only about eight months earlier than some had thought, and that it had come in at all was a shock to most of the rest of the people that knew about the deal. What the SLDF did not know was that even before this double payment. The Nago's had already turned a profit on the little side deal.

It was a very small profit, but it was better than braking even or even losing money on a deal. Having just over 200 million C-bills hit your company's balance sheet was going to make a lot of people very happy. By the end of 3051, all of those funds would be spent. A star systems GDP is massive, but only a .1 percent increase had the ability to spread its effect over a lot of different areas. A short but important thank you note was sent back towards Dunianshire addressed to Commander Copeland, that would never reach him.

#########

It was a busy time for the next few days. Almost the entire stock of Colonial supplied ballistic weapons and ammunition was sold. Word had gotten around about how effective they were in an infantry versus infantry battle. Robert was happy to note that a few bidding wars had started on the last few cases of those weapons.

The Blazer rifles were also flying off the shelves by the gross, and again. Robert was wishing that this resupply run might have been delayed a few more weeks or a month. The Colonials were turning out a huge number of high-quality Blazer rifles every month. Even selling as many as they had, on these supply missions. The Blazer was going to be the second most numerous rifle like weapon in the SLDF military by the end of the year. As more and more PA(L)s were coming online, they were going to be able to put more of them into battle. The fact that they came with a larger battery power pack only helped to make them more wanted than the cut down Mausers.

Those were not the only weapons flowing out of the two dropships, like a lethal flood of death giving potential. It had not been easy with some of the locals or mercenaries getting upset at the cost or that there was so limited supply of the high-end weapons. Robert had to deploy both of his mechs on the drop port to keep the peace. He also had to use the weapons on the Union to handle a snatch and grab mission launched against them one night. That had happened on the third day they were planet side, and it had surprised no one.

After the attack on his dropships, a heavy lance of battlemechs stood guard around Copeland's dropships. It had only cost Robert one Star League tech weapon to have this firepower on hand as security. If there was any damage done to that guard lance? Robert and his company would have to cover those costs in equipment or cash. Robert was more willing to pay cash, but the mercenaries did not know that little fact when they made the deal.

##################

Cylon Occupied Moon - Star Cluster 1108

By hotpoint

Captain Geoffrey Cale rolled his eyes behind the visor of his neurohelmet as one of the other Mercury III battlemechs in his lance ran towards his own, with the mechwarrior pilot screaming "Get it off! Get it off!" into their microphone headset.

"Stop panicking and turn around Hanson," Cale responded calmly. He was reaching out with his battlemech's right arm, grabbing hold of the legs of the Cylon Centurion that was clawing at the armour panels on the back of the less experienced officer's mech and yanking it off in one fluid motion.

"I told you these things like to jump on you." He noted from experience, getting hold of the Centurion's head and torso with his mech's other hand and then snapping it in half like a fortune cookie. "Keep your eyes on a swivel lieutenant and keep checking your sensors" he advised, dropping the two pieces of the Centurion to the ground and then stomping down on the still moving top half.

"Sorry Sir" Hanson replied sheepishly.

"Just be grateful it wasn't carrying a satchel charge" Cale told him. 'Dumbed-down' Centurions fitted with a Telencephalic Inhibitor would quite happily suicide-bomb you. "Second wave inbound. Light them up" he ordered. He turned his mech and raised both arms towards another fifty or so Centurions charging in their direction across the cratered rocky terrain. The Cylon mining colony lay just over the horizon, and several outnumbered but hardly outgunned squadrons of SLDF aerospace fighters could be seen duelling Cylon Raiders above.

Much to the chagrin of the SLDF Navy, who had assigned a battleship to the Task Force dispatched to take control of the system. The two Basestars in orbit had taken one look at Bismark, promptly launched half their raiders and then ran away as fast as their FTL drives would carry them. Presumably, the intelligence analysis that the so-called "Cylon Civil War" had cost the Cylons so many capital ships. That even the larger more successful "Imperial Faction", led by the Model Number One's that controlled the moon, couldn't afford to lose any more until their shipyards could replace some of their losses was true.

The moon itself only had a thin atmosphere, mostly carbon dioxide. But that was enough to make the Medium Pulse Laser mounted to the battlemech's right arm and the pair of Colonial designed 30mm KEW's on the left look pretty spectacular en-route, as he played them over the charging robotic Cylon Infantry. A round from the 30mm was particularly effective at shattering a Toaster. The machines were built tough enough to resist light infantry weapons or shrapnel, but not a direct hit from autocannon fire on this scale.

Hanson got his act together and opened up as well, plus the other two nearby mechs in the lance who soon added in the weight of their own fire to utterly mangle the suicidal attack. Cale idly wondered if Centurions that didn't have their higher brain functions suppressed would be anywhere near this tactically inept. Presumably the first group that had attempted an ambush on the advancing SLDF unit had been under the command of a biocylon model, because at least that indicated a certain level of intelligence. This particular bunch of Toasters weren't even trying to use terrain features as cover to get close.

"They're retreating. After them!" Hanson exclaimed excitedly as the remaining Centurions stopped their attack and began to retreat.

The hairs on the back of Cale's neck were standing up. "Stay where you are" he ordered. "Bet you a crate of Ambrosia that they're bait trying to lure us in" he continued confidently. "Let's lure them out for the big boys instead." He added thinking that it couldn't be long before the other mechs that the Fortress had landed would arrive to support the scout lance.

After a few minutes Cale was proven right about the retreating Centurions being bait. Because the now familiar form of a Cylon Praetorian mini-mech appeared to their front, followed by an increasing number of its friends.

As the Praetorian's opened up with a barrage of missiles from their shoulder racks, the Laser Anti-Missile-System mounted on each of the Mercury III's were engaging them automatically to knock down as many as they could. Cale was only too glad that the fight began at long range because it gave the AMS more time to do its work.

"Thank God they don't have lasers or PPC's!" Cale could only mutter to himself as his battlemech shuddered with the impact of missiles that got through, and then the world became as tracer fire as Cylon autocannon rounds going one way criss-crossed lasers and autocannon going the other.

The distinctive sight of an LRPPC firing from behind him that neatly speared a Praetorian, dropping it in a single hit, immediately caught Cale's attention despite all the other firing. IFF reported an SLDF hovertank had just arrived to assist, one of the new fifty-ton Proioxis models that the 331st Royals had been receiving (to somewhat placate an annoyed Army HQ for Pulverizer II Assault Mech production still being shelved in favour of more aerospace fighter production). The Proioxis, named for the Greek war-goddess of onrush and pursuit, was not only part-based on Colonial technology making it fast for its size. The basic alloy frame was actually made of recycled metal from Raiders and Centurions. If the Praetorians had been smarter, that might have freaked them out even more than the LRPPC it carried as its main armament did.

About the same time that a Confederate dropship landed Cale's scout lance, a full company of hovertanks had been landed by a pair of Triumph dropships further to the North. Intended both to quickly flank the enemy base, and act as a rapid mobile reserve if needed. The tankers had apparently been paying enough attention to the situation South of them to detach a single tank platoon to go help the scout mechs, with three more hovertanks soon arriving to join the first in pouring LRPPC bolts into the Cylon mechs.

The army's Top Brass had been waiting years for the opportunity to be much more than a bit player in the war against the Cylons, which was why they had invested so much in the way of men and materiel to this operation. The overwhelming majority of the fighting in the war thus far had involved navy warships and their attached aerospace fighter squadrons, going up against Basestars and Raiders. This left the army with only a handful of minor ground battles and the occasional boarding action when the Marines borrowed a detachment of Nighthawk PA(L) Infantry from the Army.

When the Cylons developed and then started to deploy their small Praetorian battlemechs to help defend their automated factories and mining installations from ground attack. It had looked for a while that the Army might get their chance to shine, but since there rarely seemed to be more than ten Praetorians at any one facility even a couple of lances of light SLDF battlemechs was more than enough to hammer them into the ground.

This time it was different. Reconnaissance had indicated there were upwards of forty Praetorians guarding the massive installation the Toasters had constructed on this moon, plus hundreds, possibly as many as a thousand Centurions.

The Navy had wanted to blow the entire place to hell with orbital nuclear strikes after driving off the Cylon Fleet, but the Army insisted they could take the place conventionally. They argued it was worth the risk of a full-scale ground assault for exactly the same reason that the Cylons were there in the first place, Tyllium. While searching for the Colonials and their allies, the Cylon's had apparently stumbled across a frakking mountain of Tyllium. And they had quickly invested whatever military and industrial capacity they could spare to defend it and then dig it up.

Without Tyllium neither Colonial or Cylon FTL drives would work, and for the Cylons it was the fuel for sublight propulsion as well. It was therefore a vital strategic resource for one side, and a critical one for the other. This was representing the logistical bottleneck which had prevented the Cylons from ever being able to fully bring their overwhelming advantage in capital ships and aerospace fighters to bear against their human foes.

The Tyllium shortage effected Cylon ground forces too. In order to preserve stocks, and due to the Cylons lacking the fusion powerplants of the Star League. The Praetorian was powered by a compact lead-cooled fast-fission reactor, the molten lead surrounding the reactor acting as both coolant and radiation shielding. It worked well enough for their purposes. The Cylons didn't need all the extra wattage required by directed-energy-weapons after all, but woe betide you if you stumbled across the wreck of one of the things with a reactor breached by heavy-weapons fire.

Knocked-out Praetorians were buried where they fell, they were not salvaged. That had been a hard-won learning point for the SLiE.

Inconveniently, Tyllium ore was only to be found in a small minority of star-systems. And only an even smaller proportion of systems where it was present, possessed deposits in economically useful concentrations. Prior to centuries of mining, and in particular the fuel expenditure from two major wars and the nuclear destruction of many of the mines. The Cyrannus system had once been extremely rich in Tyllium, but even Cyrannus never boasted a deposit as rich as the one located in the region of space designated Star Cluster 1108.

Neither side wanted the other to have it, but neither side wanted to destroy it either. Because regardless of any setbacks that might occur. They were both certain that they would win the war in the end, and that they couldn't be sure they would ever find this treasure trove of strategic wealth again.

So, they were going to fight for it, conventionally, without an exchange of WMD. If they lost today, then they would just come back later and take it back from the other team.

While the platoon of Proioxis hovertanks danced around at the rear, sniping at beyond the effective ranges of the Praetorians autocannons against a quick moving target. The four light mechs of Cale's lance were taking an increasingly heavy pounding. Carrying four Cylon autocannon originally designed for Heavy Raiders, a paired 30mm and 50mm weapon on each arm. The Praetorians could flay the armour right off a mech given enough time even if none of their missiles got through, and at least some of their missiles always got through.

"All mechs concentrate your fire on the targets I call out" Cale ordered. If all four battlemechs in the lance picked on one target at a time? They could knock it out as fast as possible and reduce the number of enemies shooting back in the most efficient manner. For their part the Cylon machines were not being as methodical, not only spraying fire at every target. They were shooting a disproportionate amount at the hovertanks, which might be packing the most punch making them seem like the bigger threat but were also the hardest to hit.

Clan Wolverine production of Ferro-Fibrous armour was greatly superior to that of Cylon alloy plate, but it wasn't remotely invulnerable. In Geoff Cale's opinion it was akin to being mugged by a bunch of angry metal Munchkins with sandblasters, although he wouldn't have phrased it quite that way in front of his wife. Despite her tiny frame, by New Circe standards, Callandra "Cally" Cale had quite a temper on her. Unfortunately, there was so much incoming fire that even lacking good target prioritisation. The Praetorians were going to win this engagement by sheer weight of fire.

"Front towards the enemy, steady retreat backwards, use your rear camera so you don't trip over anything. And use your gravity plates to help stabilise your mech as required!" Cale ordered. That was one nice benefit of the artificial gravity "boots" on the latest Mercury III designs, you could not only walk relatively normally on low-gee moons and even asteroids. You could even turn up the AG field to several gees if needed, making you more stable and harder to get knocked down by weapon impacts.

Unfortunately, while turning their backs to flee would have just gotten them all killed sooner. The Mercury III was by no means nearly as fast going backwards as a Praetorian was going forwards, so the tactic only brought some extra time and delayed the enemy mechs from getting close enough to indulge in melee combat.

Centurions weren't the only Cylon machines with claws, and Praetorian claws were a lot bigger.

In previous skirmishes with Toaster mechs, the Medium Pulse Lasers mounted on the Mercury III had proved perfectly adequate. But even concentrated on one target, they just couldn't bring down an individual Praetorian fast enough. Not when the overall disparity in numbers was so large. Cylon mechs were falling to the Mercury's, and the hovertanks were doing even better with a series of one-shot kills. But as the number of Praetorians engaged climbed above two dozen with indications on sensors that more were coming on fast. Cale mouthed a silent prayer to Almighty God, hoping that his wife wasn't right about Zeus etc. instead.

"Okay, I'll take that as a sign!" Cale exclaimed when missiles started crashing down among the advancing Centurions. Those were super heavy warheads of the Thunder-Javelins, which meant the new Fjellfross heavy mechs.

"Sorry we're late kits. Frakking Navy landed us further away than planned. How the hell can they navigate from one star to another, but they can't find the right crater to set down in?" a voice asked rhetorically over the comms as a company sized skirmish line of Fjellfross heavies mixed in with Stag III mediums waded into the fight.

With an LRPPC on one arm, a 50mm LB-X UAC autocannon on the other and a rack of Thunder-Javelins mounted on one shoulder. The 75-ton Fjellfross was the first SLDF mech to be designed and developed from the ground up to integrate Colonial and Wolverine technology into one death giving package. They didn't exist in particularly large numbers as yet, industry on New Circe was stretched to breaking, but they were intended to chew up and spit out Praetorians. All while being able to switch the autocannon to cluster rounds to deal with Centurions and Raiders flying close-air-support missions. The older 45-ton Stag III itself carried an LRPPC, along with Medium Pulse Lasers, and they soon set about the Cylon machines as well.

With their advance broken within minutes, the Praetorians began to pull back in some disorder. Many were badly damaged and leaving the wreckage of at least two dozen machines behind. As he later passed by one of the fallen machines it must have been playing possum, because an arm reached out and claws that could have disembowelled a Tyrannosaur raked the right leg of Cale's Mercury III, rending deep gashes in the armour.

Cale looked down at the still partially operational Praetorian and the damage to his mech. "Frak you and all" he muttered, pressing the button that caused a pair of mech-scale vibroblades to slide out of the housing on one wrist of his Mercury III and power up. He himself had suggested the modification after tangling with Cylon mechs before.

The Wolverine battlemech reached down and sliced the Praetorians arm off before decapitating it.

Following on behind the mediums and heavies, Cale and his lance kicked the head along as they went cross country. They got it almost halfway to the Cylon base before the next firefight broke out.

#############

Note:

Lisbon Maru: I replaced this ship mainly due to hoping that enough people had looked up her name. Besides a Mammoth holds more cargo than a mule class and needing to put the spy sats out made it a good time to replace her.

The extra KWIs: On this trip Robert should have only had 50 cannons, but many had been found or recovered from Star League or Dark Caste depots sense his last run to the Inner Sphere.

Lora's notes: Think like Tony Stark in the first Ironman movie when he started to build the first suit in the cave. That is how she copied any sensitive notes.

Information on the last planets: This far from the clan invasion routes, they only know about the First Wave and maybe some of the Second Wave attacks.

The Attack on the Mammoth: You will get the write up in the next chapter.

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