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.

76. Chapter 76 15 Jan 3052

Chapter 76

By Cliff

Beta and Clean up: Not done

Reviewed by Hotpoint and Cannonshop

15 Jan 3052

Split system

In orbit over Maniae

Robert was looking out and over this part of the modified station that was in orbit around the super Earth sized planet called Maniae. The top deck of this one time lost space station, the deck that had held the massive turning mass of a gravity deck over a kilometer across, was now a massive green space. It now held fruit trees, food plants, and even a few birds in carefully selected areas of the onetime hamster wheel. Someone with some level of art skills had been at work on the walls and ceiling of the area of the deck above eye level.

The colorful designs were applied to those metal walls that would lend any visitors to forget they were in orbit over a mostly dead and hostile planet. One that was going around a star that was in the back of beyond of "civilized space" as far as the occupants were concerned. This was not just a waste of "useable" space to help with the mental health of the "ship's" crew. Then there was the air that the green plants cleaned as they grew, and when harvested those same plants would provide fresh food. Fresh food sooo can't be overrated for a space based crews peace of mind. Besides anyone who lived in dropships, jumpships or on other space stations quickly worked out that live plants added something to the recycled air that had to be breathed to understand.

Robert was seated with a small data pad in his lap, and he got more comfortable in the park bench that had been put in this spot for a reason. The noteputer held a lot of data, and any spy group within the Inner Sphere would have paid a lot of whatever you wanted to have half an hour with the little device. Most of the data was related to the Clan mechs and the versions that had been seen on the battlefields across the Inner Sphere, so far. It was light in details for some things, but it was all information that was on the information nets, if you knew what to look for and had the free time. Oh, and a SLIC grade code breaker would have been needed. Sometimes it was the smallest things that was the most helpful. That data was not why he was needing a quiet place like this. Robert looked down and reviewed some of the text from a different file on the device.

Things were not going well for Duke Terry back on her planet. They seemed to be going downhill in a major way, again. What he was reading was a coded message that would look just like a love letter to those that didn't know what to look for, but Robert could read between the lines without too much of an issue as well as SLIC. The first mission to be launched to pull out some of her people, about six or seven of them was planned. They also were going to put in some SLIC trained people to help with ideas on how to pack up any "capital assets", that she was going to be taking with her on this exodus she was planning. Clan Wolverine and the Colonials had to do this type of operation before, with the Colonials having some very recent experience.

That mission was going to be handle by a small craft coming from a Star Lord that was supposed to be heading to its new owners within the Inner Sphere. Amazingly SLIC and some key leadership on New Circe had surprised Robert with some of the support they were giving up for this part of the mission. You see the team members that were going to be staying on the ground with Duke Terry would have a booby-trapped first generation Tacfax with them. This small but powerful device was only to be used when things went south. The device could also be used when something that the operator felt was important enough to risk the use of that device to get word back to at least the Split system.

That mission to support Duke Terry was due to be launched in a few days from this star system. Dropping off of that team was not the primary reason for this run to the more populated areas of the Inner Sphere. The main reason for the run was to take the cargo ship and cross load items that were being used as payment from MMM to the SLiE. It also would be picking up the first group in the shuttling of Families to leave the Inner Sphere going to New Circe. That was a change in the plans that had been needed when Robert had picked up a message from a ComStar run HPG. Jess had given Lora a timeline of the Styx's travels in case of emergencies that had been updated by Jules on his last stop to Canopus. She had run into one, but not in a bad way, and it was something that many had hoped she would have been able to pull off while she was managing the Resort on that capital world.

Lora had been able to pick up a used mixed uses Monarch class passenger liner and cargo class dropship that had been taken out of service due to the renewed war against the Clans. This newly acquired dropship now could be used to lift out some of the returning Families that had been found by the alert. Some of those same undercover SLiE personnel recovered by that song had already been trained to crew a dropship like this one. It was a good use of already trained personnel, and besides it was not like they were short money. It would also help provide more support coming from this part of space without impacting the SLiE's war against the Cylon Empire. They were even able to save some money if the Monarch took a ride out on a jumpship that MMM had paid for to come out this way as far as Dunianshire. Dunianshire was where the cargo payments to the SLiE coming from MMM were going to be held under heavy guard. Robert thought that it was a play to get "him" to go back to that planet. Well Copeland Supply, Salvage, and Resale would be stopping by, but it would not be the Styx that would do the stopping.

The Star League in Exile always like there command teams to think on their feet instead of sticking to the plan until "death do you part". At least not if there was a better way to complete any given mission that higher command might not have time to react to the rapidly changing situation. The military side of the SLiE called this a leadership challenge, and they expected their people to know when to chance it and when to call in support from higher.

The Star Lord was one of the jumpships that had been brought out to be sold to the Inner Sphere and not updated with SLiE or Colonial level of technology. Now it was proving to be more useful in actively supporting the SLiE and not the sale block. The downside was that the old jumpship was not an updated ship with Colonial made artificial gravity plates or an updated interstellar jump drive. That also was going to help her in some ways, which had not been expected. She was just like any other jumpship that was working in that area of deep space. The increased traffic between Duke Terry's world and the other key local planets meant that the large jumpship did not even stand out that much in the current situation. It even had a full trained crew thanks to combining the crews from the two Invader class jumpships that had already been sold on the MoC markets.

########

Robert was thinking about what might or might not happen in the near future for this part of space. He was just wondering how much blood those changes were going to cost when those changes were done. Robert had to pull himself out of that melancholy and he decided to review more about what had been found under the Resort. About the only upside in the batch of reports Robert had been given. It had been about what had been found by Lora in those tunnels and soon to be started to be shipped out. All so that the items could be sent back to New Circe, the other part of the good news was that they were repairing a lot of found items before it was shipped out. That was going to slow things down on the Resort's side of things, but it also let Lora and her people know what "extra" parts might be needed to support the found items when they got to their new homes.

The reports collected from the Combine on the open and restricted news reports that had been passed along had been quite a read for everyone. At first it had been a punch in the guts when Robert had read the headlines. The idea of losing a major world of the Inner Sphere to the clans was bad news, no matter what way that you might try to wrap it. To lose one of only four capital worlds in the Inner Sphere would be a disaster on a truly epic scale. Just before Robert had made the last jump out of a system with a working HPG, it had passed along a whole lot of data in a dump of information that was to be passed along to any planets they passed. That last data dump had said that the clan attackers had been turned back, and that was very good news.

Some of the reports in that open data dump had also hinted that the attack by the clans on that planet had been expected, and the Combine had been preparing for this attack for some time. Those preparations had included raising more local militia combat units, hiring mercenaries, building a lot more fortifications, and laying in all kinds of supplies. Robert had no idea if any of that was true, or not. It did seem that the first attack on a major Inner Sphere world had been done by two different clans in one hammer blow attack. The reported attack on Luthien was the largest ever reported with some report saying that it was the largest assault on one planet going all the way back to at least the early stages of the 2nd SW or late 1st SW.

Robert had no idea when the second attack would go in to take the Capital world for all of the Combine. He was not a ground commander by training or experience, but he was pretty sure that there would be a second attack made by the Clan forces. And if needed? A third, fourth, and fifth attack would be launched by the Clans to take an important world like Luthien off the playing field. Clan Wolverine knew all about how far the other Clans would go, if they wanted to put a planet under new management. They were rumored to say that the Clans would use everything but nuclear weapons, but the Wolverines knew that even those weapons were not truly off the table.

########

Robert was brought out of his daydreaming by an alarm sounding on his handheld computer sitting in his lap. It was the notice that a support craft from the home system had arrived at the Split system. If it had been any other type of visitor? It would have been a totally different alert going over more than just his device, but the whole frakking station/ship at the same time. Robert had set the alert up because he wanted to watch the trans-loading for all of the cargo that he would help with in scattering round this section of space. Then he and not a few others would watch as those ripples made their way closer and closer to the clan corridors to bleed them even more for every planet they touched. Now Robert had a shark like smile at that last line of thinking.

The interstellar starship would also be bringing any written orders for Robert or others working on the Lyssa. The SLDF had more than enough TacFaxes to function in supporting this mission with orders, but they still like to send any "special" orders in hard copy. It was to guarantee security of those orders, and out of habit that the old SLDF had picked up from the age before faster than light interstellar communication. The core of the Star League had dropped the practice about when the HPG network was almost finished on the main routes.

The interaction with Cylons had only reinforced this habit that Clan Wolverine had restarted in the early days when they were planning to run away from Clan space. It had not taken long for the slowly intermixing of Cylon Rebels, Colonials, Victorians, and members of Clan Wolverine to come up with ideas on how to set up some checks and balancing system, all to keep the Cylon Empire or anyone else from knowing things that they should not.

Robert and the Styx had been in this system for a few weeks now. The repair bays and crew on the Lyssa where taking care of a few issues that had started to show themselves to the crew on the Styx while running tests. It was nothing that major for a jumpship like the Styx and her crew to deal with, yet. But if those issues were not taken care of now, then later it would be a major problem. The jumpship would have to make the trip going all the way back to New Circe to have the work done. That repair was not the only work that needed to be done to support the resupply missions supporting the war effort against the Cylon Empire. The cargo bays on the Styx and Hercules were filled with items that had been collected from the Inner Sphere. Soon the huge cargo dropship would be refilled with supplies coming from the SLiE's home planet to be spread out around this part of the Inner Sphere.

########

The captain of the Lyssa was reviewing some reports that would be sent in their complete form back to headquarters. Those full reports would be put in the official records and checked against the Crip note versions that had been sent out on the Tacfax mounted in his communication section. He had plenty of time before the newly arrived ex colonial cargo ship left to make its way back to New Circe. It would take some time to empty a ship the size of the Zephyr into the cargo holds of the Lyssa or into the newly opened storage caves on the planet below them. The SLDF was not above putting all of their eggs in one basket, but they also would spread things out if they could.

The military officer looked up when one of the duty comm techs approached him from the side, words did not need to be exchanged. He could see the pale look on the young man's face and by the way that he was holding the noteputer in his hand it was grave news. The commander took the device and quickly read the executive summary on the report that the duty tech thought might be a major issue for them. He had quickly worked out that it was indeed not good news.

Without looking up, he had started reading the full reports. While still reading, he addressed the young enlisted person. "Make sure a copy of this is sent to the Captain of the Styx, and to Commodore Copeland with a notice that it would be good for them to read it post haste. Then set up a meeting with them and our command staff."

#########

Robert was still in the green space that was over a Kilometer around when Jules came into the open space and started looking around. Robert raised his hand from the bench under some type of citrus tree that had been grown from seeds first brought from the Inner Sphere many, many decades ago. Now some of the later generations of those seeds were supplying some food and clean air on this space station/jumpship. As Jules walked over Robert was studying his longtime friend's face and he was not sure he liked what he was seeing.

When Jules took a seat on the other side of the bench? Robert had a good idea what was vexing his friend, but he was going to ask anyway. "So, I take it that you read the whole situation update report that SLIC generated?"

When Robert only got a positive head nod from his old friend, he asked another question. "Do you think it will hurt us?"

Now Jules adjusted his seat so that he was sitting almost sideways and looking more face to face with his mission commander. "The loss of almost all of the 3rd Regiment is going to stop any replacement mechs being sent to cover the loss of that Wolfhound and the old Sentinel. You already knew that what was left of those two mechs were only good for recycling. We were lucky that only one of the pilots can't be returned to duty. I would even expect that we might even have to send some of the firepower support back to New Circe, if things take a bad turn."

Robert made a face as he thought about having to send the Hobgoblin back or some of the ten mechs that remained in operation for his ground security. "Well, looks like I will have to be about activating my plans for that Victor. Well at least a lot earlier than I had first planned. If I move that forward, then it can replace one of our two lost mechs."

Jules saw something in Robert's face and he snorted. "Okay Robert, pull the other one. You were never going to send that Victor back home, and you, I and half the tech crews knew it from the day you didn't strip it for parts to sell."

Now Robert could not help but smile at not being able to fool his longtime friend. "Okay you got me. I already talked with the Lyssa's commander, and he is willing to trade some luxury items for the weapons that we needed to finish the work on that mech. He did tell me something strange, while we were negotiating on the trade."

When Robert saw "the look" coming from his friend, he filled in a few blanks. "They are keeping about a quarter of the tooling that we got from the Bivouac system here. I would have thought with the Yukon going to be out of service for the next eight months to a year, that they would need every tool and set of tooling we could send them."

Robert smiled at his friend, and he held up his hand to stop the other man from interrupting him. "And before you ask. The Lyssa has now been charged with the mission to provide any repairs and support of all missions taking place within the Inner sphere and the local patrol area. That is why so much is staying here and not going back home. They also received a population boost of a few thousand souls, along with word to make ready for twice that number in the coming year."

Jules was lost in thought for a while as he worked his mind around the changes. "Did they make any changes to the shopping list we have on file?"

Robert was not surprised in the least that his friend asked this so fast. "Yes, they did." Robert had to do a little head shake to show his disbelief. "Besides picking up more of the "public transportation" assets as we can find. We are to pick up a dozen Thunderbird frames with the lowest amount of flight hours that we can find. The bean counters back home must have been screaming, when they were told the expected price per airframe. We also are to pick up another dozen Neptune class subs "or the like capable vehicle", along with any large deep diving undersea combat and exploration craft." Jules's eyes went wide when Robert had used air quotes over the words, or the like capable vehicle.

Robert had an idea of why higher command wanted a few more of those Neptunes class underwater combat vehicles, but this number was way outside what he had thought the need was for. Then there were the notes for deep diving gear and diving support craft that they were asked to look for. Robert had no idea why they would want that, but he also knew enough about how the world worked, not to ask…at least not to ask until he made it back to New Circe. The first thing that popped into Robert's mind was that they were looking for something lost in one of the deep oceans back in Colonial space.

Robert was thinking and talking at the same time on very different subjects. "To recharge our trade goods, they shipped out 7,500 tons of standard grade battlemech armor. That is the sum total of all of that tech type of armor on New Circe that is not currently on active combat units. At least that was what the note said, and we are not to promise any major lots of that stuff for future use. I know that there was some Armorscale, Valieant Lamellor, PanzerSlab Type 5 and some Numall Durabond type armors in the cargo. They also sent 10,000 tons of second generation armor that was pulled off of what was stored to be used as replacement armor, or it was pulled right off of machines that were updated coming out of the cache sites. I know that better armors are being used to refit older combat units to increase their survivability in combat. I would bet that most of that old second gen armor is going to be old Paulian Heavy Ferro Fibrous and Aldis X. But nothing was noted in the files, so we will need to have some of our people check on it before we head out."

Jules gave a snort about what his friend had just said. "That should drive anyone that is watching us right off the deep end trying to guess what we are going after or that they will be having to deal with when they get froggy."

Robert didn't disagree with his best friend. Drawing attention was one of the reasons that the resupply runs were spread out. They would make one huge run and then slip back out off the edge of the map before to many groups could react. If the clans were not distracting 90 percent or more of the funds used in the spy games for the whole Inner Sphere? Robert might have had to revert to playing more games with the IFF systems on his ships, but his name now cut threw a huge amount of red tape and anyone that wanted to play tax games. But there was going to be a time, when Robert's mission ships would draw to much attention, but that was why Robert had so much firepower on the ground and in space working with him.

For the next few hours, the two men made plans and then they ripped those plans apart as the pair tried to come up with ideas on how the next run would or could break for them. One of the things that they talked about was how many SLIC operations currently might be going on around the Inner Sphere. This was only the first brain storming session, and they would have more along with more people attending the session.

Robert and Jules had another meeting like this, and it was when one of the SLIC team members assigned to the Lyssa passed them a report that said a huge number of Com Guard units were being moved around the Inner Sphere. The latest set of reports on the Com Guards had made it look like they seemed to be heading towards one planet near the Clan invasion route. Later the SLIC team had some more information, and they gave it to Robert and Jules in order of confidence in the report's truthfulness.

Robert and Jules only left the old grav deck when a little alarm went off to tell them the time. Today was the last day that both men would be able to enjoy the space. Jess was still having to buy rounds for the mission crewmembers, but to keep the cost under control. Robert had put out that any rounds would be had only in the Lyssa's bar, and it was a limited time offer. The Head cargo master for the whole mission had worked out that it would be for one hour, but for three days, and today was the last day of her buying drinks.

Marian Hegemony

Nova Roma, Alphard

15 Jan 3052

Sean "The First Caesar" O' Reilly walked around the long desk that dominated this briefing room. He passed by a full length mirror and stopped to check out "his look" in the reflection. He stayed looking at his reflection and adjusted his outer covering to make it look "more Roman" like to his own eyes. One part of Sean's mind noted that he and the "new" Hegemony had come a long way in the almost four years after his father's climbing accident. It was just too bad that they had so much further to go, and Sean felt like any grace period was almost over.

When Sean was satisfied with his look and had allowed him time to think without showing it to the rest of the people in this room? The Caesar was ready to address the room. "So, the III Legio lost almost two full Cohorts in the operations in the Marantha system? And the MiM was able to trace it back to us even threw our normally very effective subterfuge?"

The Prefect of Whispers had kept watching Sean, and he kept his voice very level and calm when addressing the man that might not be hitting on all cylinders. "Yes Caesar. We think that the assaults on Ballalaba and Islington are in retaliation for that attack."

Sean walked slowly back to his chair at the head of the long table as he was talking. "Have "we" received the final report from Legatus….Amulius."

The Prefect of Whispers made a sour face, it was sometimes dangerous to correct Sean. "Amulius was only awarded the rank of protem Legatus, Caesar. He has skills, but Amulius could not pilot a mech and then there was another…issue. He is an ambitious man, a lot more ambitious than a man like that should be. I know that Amulius was planning to take all of the praise if this raid was successfully by sabotaging the Prefect on the ground."

Sean made a face, he never like asking the same question twice. "I take it that his final report, and our spies reports sent via the HPG do not match?"

The Prefect noticed the slight change in tone, and he had to fight to keep from showing any distress. "No, Caesar. The raid was going as you planned, but then Legatus protem Amulius made a change. He diverted at first just a few of the combat forces to attack three dropships that were not in the plan that you approved. That was the start of the issues for the mission, when he attacked those dropships a combat force not expected was engaged. Our spies on the ground all agree that this diversion became the focal point that caused the whole raid to fail."

Sean kept his voice as calm as he could. "And what happened to Prefect Rogge?"

The man in charge of the spies of the Hegemony had to fight to keep not from looking towards the leader. "He made it to a local safe house, but he died when the locals followed him there. He shot himself instead of being taken alive for interrogation by MiM."

Sean started drumming his fingers on the arms of his thickly built almost throne. "Was the value recovered close to our losses, not counting the attacks on two of my planets?"

The Prefect that handled trade both into and out of the Hegemony knew that he had to speak up. "If we just lost the heavy hover APCs that we did, yes. As it is? Not even close."

Sean tilted his head back; his chin went up and he used his command voice. "Bring Legatus….Amulius to me, unharmed. I will see to this myself."

Two hulking guards gave a fist to breastplate salute before exiting the room. They, like Caesar, knew that the person in question was waiting down the hall. While the two guards were gone, Caesar gave a few more orders. It was surprisingly simple for such a complex mission, that he only needed a little less than a dozen words.

##

Legatus Amulius walked into the office with his head held high. The raid had not turned out the way it should have. But he had gotten the two dropships, the collected cargo out, along with a little less than a dozen mechs and about twice that in hover APCs. All of those people had gotten back home because of him. Now Caesar was going to reward him for his quick thinking to save so many of the attack force. Everyone Amulius had talked too had said that the power players within the government were happy with what he had done. He had started prepping the "real" story as soon as the dropships had left the jumpship.

Sean could tell by the look in the other man's eye that Amulius didn't know what was about to happen to him, and Sean smiled at the other man. "Legatus Amulius! Welcome back! I heard a lot of things about you."

Amulius was all smiles at the tone coming from the leader of their people. "Thank you, Caesar. And I hope that not too many lies were told about me. But I am only doing Caesar's will." He let a soft chuckle slip from his lips.

Sean felt a real smile come to his face. "My, you are an ambitious man."

Amulius gave a slight bow of his head to Caesar. "Only when it comes to doing my duty for my Caesar."

When he did the head bow, Amulius didn't see the look in Caesar's eyes or the hand movements. If he had, then maybe Amulius would have lived for a little longer. Then again, maybe that would have been more painful. He didn't know anything was wrong until Amulius was forced to the ground. Now he started to struggle, but four very strong guards were holding him down. When Amulius tried to scream, a tube was being shoved down his throat and he could not breathe for long seconds and then air again filled at least part of his lungs. As Amulius thrashed around he saw Caesar standing and hovering over him.

Amulius started to speak threw the tube but stopped as something started to flow into his stomach at a rapid rate. A soft voice spoke in his ear from Caesar. "Oh, don't you worry? There is an air hole so that you will get just enough air…. to live. Now Amulius you are way too ambitious for your own good, and more importantly. You have lied to me, and you were caught at it. And those are two sins that I cannot let you live with."

Now Amulius looked up and he could see the syphon as more and more water was poured down it and into his body at a rapid rate. After what seemed like a decade of pain, those sets of strong hands lifted him up off the floor and Amulius was brought to the side room. That room had started life as a restroom, but now it had been turned into something a lot different.

As he was being carried into that room. Amulius was very confused as he looked down at his feet, but he could not see them from the hyper bloated belly. He had always fought to stay in good shape, so that belly could not belong to him. A sword that was called a Gladius came out from the side of his field of vision. Someone lifted Amulius's head to look at Sean O'Reilly more or less eye to eye. The smile on Caesar's face was as cold as space.

Sean tapped Amulius on the nose and pointed to a camera mounted high up on the wall behind him. "Amulius, you will die for your crimes, and all of my people will see it. Your crimes are using your position to undermine your commanders and undermining the defenses of the Hegemony for your gluttony."

Just when the Caesar stopped talking the short stabbing blade went into the distended stomach of Amulius, and a fountain of blood and gore fell onto the tiled floor of the onetime restroom. Amulius was still alive when the door closed behind Sean and the guards, but that only lasted for a minute or two. His death would be shown on every planet as an objective lesson. When the MoC turned out to not only be raiding but taking Ballalaba and Islington under new leadership. The blame was laid at a Deadman's feet called Amulius the Ambitious.

Note: This ending was written after talking to a Roman historian about Caligula, and it was thought that this was one of the more common ways he had someone killed. I hope it was not breaking any rules.

Sian

15 Jan 3052

Tsen Shang read the reports about what happened to the operation in MoC space. This was a weekly briefing that was held with all of the leaders of the different divisions of the MASK. Tsen just could not manage every little operation that the MASK was currently undertaking. Still things would fall onto his head if something slipped through his mental fingers and even when things didn't. He might be the concubine for the current leader of the Confederation, now in the form of Romano Liao. And the fact of who he shared a bed with would not keep him alive one second longer.

The briefer that was responsible for the operations in the general area of the MoC and connected areas of space just finished speaking. Tsen had not liked what he had heard from that man. "Let me get this straight. All of our operations we have been supporting in the MoC have as good as have been gutted for the short and midterm? We also have lost a jumpship that was crewed by one of our best teams that the Celestial Wisdom paid to train and can call on. All because one of "our" people decided that they could take out some cargo ship. Oh, and not only did they fail, they burned one of our teams that was feeding information to the Marian Hegemony?"

The senior colonel looked like he wanted to bolt for the door, but in the end. He just deflated a little before addressing the question. "Yes, and nothing was gained by their losses. But they didn't act on their own. We have a copy of a directive from Major Ye Peng hinting that the Confederation needed any shipment of Star League grade weapons."

Tsen Shang rocked back in his chair as he went deep into thought. He was a very smart man, just like you would expect for the head of the Maskirovka and a person sharing a bed with someone like Romano Liao. It didn't take long for him to pull up his mental file on one Major Ye Peng. It took only a few seconds to work out the political situation around that one Major. The patron of Peng, was Senior Colonel Wang Jingwel. Both men were always playing games to get ahead at almost anyone else's expense. A little of that was expected within the Confederation, but too much was as bad as having too little.

Tsen now had an evil smile on his face. "When is the Celestial Wisdom due her next intelligence update?" Tsen could see when his question was worked out by those in the room, and then he continued. "I think that the duty Senior Colonel is currently sick and cannot leave his bed… due to doctor's orders. Maybe Senior Colonel Wang Jingwel should be brought in and do the daily intel brief this afternoon."

One of the other Senior Colonels sitting around gives a sly smile that she quickly covered with her hand. "You know sir, I remember seeing him at the mess this morning. He didn't look good, I think that I will go check on him."

A few hours later Tsen was standing at the end of the corridor that led to the Celestial Wisdom's Throne and briefing room. There was a high pitched scream and the sound of a single gunshot echoing down the halls. Tsen had a hidden smile that was hard for even him to keep off of his face. He knew that Senior Colonel Wang Jingwel had a little habit. He would do the briefings cold and just read the data from the Noteputer and not even "wasting his time" in reviewing and understanding the data before he started the briefing to the Celestial Wisdom. Tsen would bet that Jingwel didn't know that he was courting his own death until Romano literally shot the messenger.

1 Feb 3052

Canopus

For some reason this jump makes Robert's stomach a little unsettled when the jump was done. This was the first time in decades that Robert had even felt a little jump sick without him having way too much wine before a move was made across the stars. It was another sign that Robert was getting up in age and the clock was catching up to him. Then again that was one of the reasons why the SLiE had a very high end medical industry. Robert made a mental note to check in with the mission doctor about that issue, but at least he didn't have to worry about being pregnant. That story about a Colonial and a Wolverine finding out mid mission about a bun being in the oven was too good not to get passed around at the drop ports and space stations around New Circe.

Still this body discomfort only delayed Robert for a few seconds to make a mental note to make sure to check in with the mission's medical team in a few days. The whole ounce of prevention versus a pound of cure. The HPG team hidden in his ship had slipped a few messages into ComStar traffic not long after the Styx had left the Split system. Those messages were to let some key members within the MoC leadership and Lora to know that Copeland and his ships were on the move again. It would also let them know that he was heading in that direction. Those messages also told them that they had a load of cargo, and they had an adjusted shopping list that needed filling.

The timing for the Styx to arrive at the jump point in this star system had been planned for, by both parties. And it would be the first meeting of the Styx and the MoC flagged Warhammer as far as anyone knew. After arriving at the jump point, and the Styx had set out her huge solar sails to "recharge" the jump drive. The Styx had been passed a message on tight beam from the commander of the Warhammer. They wanted to set up some meetings between Robert and a VIP that just happened to be out at the jump point and had a cabin on the Warhammer.

The meeting was going to be held on the modified Vincent class warship, and a small craft would be sent to pick up Robert, his staff, and no more than two armed escorts. Robert had agreed and supplied a message back with a list of names that held his own, Jules, Jess and two security personnel. Only the command staff on the Styx knew who really would be on that flight.

########

Six hours later a silent running Mark VII landing boat had slipped through the dark and docked with the side of the Tramp. It was also noticed on the Tramp that the small craft had made it between the warship and here by slipping around and out of line of sight of any craft that was not carrying the MoC flag. Someone seemed to want to make sure that no one from the outside would know about the meeting. It was something that was hard to do, but it could be attempted if you had the right skills and right information.

It was during preparations for this first meeting to start that Robert "ran into" Virginia Hall on the 60m grav deck that was built into the warship. It was not uncommon to hit the grav deck before a meeting was scheduled to take place. It was not lost on Robert that this was the only hamster wheel deck on this whole frakking ship. Robert had quickly found out from her that the Wolf's Dragoons had been able to send "a few hands to help" with the MoC in getting this warship ready for not just operation but some level of combat operations. All Robert had agreed to do was get them a ship and some short training to get it moved from the Holding system to the capital system.

If the new ship's crew were not ready to run the ship? That would be on them, and the cost and training did not cover learning about how to fight the ship. The Dragoon levies were just going to give them help to show them how to run the two different types of engines. If they wanted to learn anything else outside of a handful of emergency procedures? The MoC based crew would have to find someone to sign a contract to help out with that, and the Dragoons had stepped in one more time now that they had proved to know something about real Warships.

Now Robert was thinking that the Dragoons were going to help with more than just covering a training gap. The Wolf Net spy had not confirmed this, but maybe she did have some very valuable information that Robert could use. Robert put the weights down that you were to use to keep your health up while traveling between the stars without gravity. It would look odd if he didn't use the workout equipment.

Robert looked at the very fit looking woman and he had to fight to keep his mind on his work. All he had to do was picture what Terry would do to him, if she saw him looking at this woman like this. Think spoon and it is removing a sensitive part of his anatomy slowly. Very, very slowly and very dull.

#########

Robert put the weight into the locking holder near the wall, and he cleared his throat. "So, Virginia. I heard that the Clans ran into a buzz saw on Luthien. It was almost like the Combine was expecting them to show up….early."

Virginia had been putting on a show to see what kind of reaction she would get out of the strange merchant that was the only person currently in the gym. She was surprised that he opened a conversation this way and not about how she had been moving so suggestively near him. "From what I understand. The attack on Luthien had been expected, and it was expected for some length of time by many people with a lot of gold on their tunics."

Robert makes a mental note to make sure that he lets the SLIC team know that they had been right. Still Robert wanted to do some more digging. "I was reading a report from Voice of the Dragon, and they made a reference that it was a fake story about mercenary units playing a major role in the defense of the Black Pearl. I have learned, that when something like that is said, that it's a cover for something else."

Virginia gave a snort at what Robert had said. "What has not been in those news releases from the Combine to the rest of the Inner Sphere? It was that the Dragoons and Kell's Hounds had been sent from the FedCom to help there one time enemies fight off the clan invasion. Those two mercenary units had been the key in stopping the clan attackers and sending them back off planet. And oh, it was an attack by two whole clans with four full galaxies of clan combat power devoted to the attack."

Robert gave a small smile. "What about the follow-on attacks? I haven't heard a peep out of any one about that."

Virginia gave him an odd look and then her eyebrows raised. "Oh, they were fighting with all of their forces in the system in that one attack. Only their warships weren't called into support, and if even they had? I think that the Clans would have found that the Combine had a few gifts to give them that they would not like to receive. The Combine is not going to let there be another Turtle Bay with orbital fire support being just used only on one side of the conflict. At least not without having some….options."

Robert had been surprised that the Nova Cats and the Smoke Jaguars had not put in any additional attacks on that very valuable capital system as soon as they could. "So why had they not put in another attack after pulling up other units from other planets? Or why some of the other known invading clans had not stepped up and put in their own attempts to put the Combine capital under new management."

Before Robert had stopped talking, Virginia had smiled a knowing smile at him. "Ohhhh, they had other issues to worry about that made even Luthien seem like small potatoes in all of their eyes."

Virginia could see the look on the other man's face, and by now she was pretty sure that she had been able to pick up some hints off of him. "Well, it seems that ComStar found out that the Clans were planning on taking Terra from them all along. That caused them to freak out… just a little. Okay, wayyyyyy more than a little. After some thinking ComStar decided that they didn't want to fight on Terra, but they were not just going to give it up to the Clans. So, they are going to fight a Trial for Earth and that it was to take place on Tukayyid in early May. So, you see that is why they didn't try again for Luthien. At least not when the real prize is Terra, and they can jump the line."

Robert smiles a smile that he knows would set off all of the Wolf Net agent's mental alarm bells. "I see, why they all might be a little…distracted. Oh, and since you brought up something about orbital fire support. My people have a few more corvette sized warships and some spare parts that could use new homes. If things keep like they have been going? We will have to see if we can still work together. So, what do you think Miss Wolf Net agent?" She didn't say anything for long seconds, but it now was time for the meeting.

After the main meeting was over. Virginia passed along that she did not have many details, but she did say that the Wolf's Dragoons would pay the same amount as the MoC had. That is if there were another warship like the Warhammer to be found out in the deep black. Robert referred back to a message he had gotten before he had left the Split system. When he gave her a more detailed update? The blood had drained from her face like an elevator on its way to hell. When she had first brought up the idea of "buying" a warship most of her brain had only thought of it as a joke and a CYA or maybe just giving her bosses a far end limit. Now that joke had come back to bite her in a very soft part of her body. Before the meeting broke up Virginia confirmed another meeting was set up with Robert.

#########

Three dropships left the jump point after the last of the paperwork had been done, and the last of the funds were showed to be transferred by the MoC to a set of accounts Robert could access. Only two dropships were known to have come from the jumpship called Styx. She had carried back the Monarch class passenger liner from the Split system to her home station at the Resort. Robert was in this star system for two main reasons. Well two main reasons after the final meeting about the small warship was concluded.

One reason was to pick up another load of Families and the gathered-up supplies that they had brought with them when they came to this planet. It also was for Robert to pick up more cargos to start working on his now much longer shopping list. They only had the cargo hold of the Styx, the Bad Kitty, and the Monarch might have some lift open after it had done it's primary mission. That is if she was ready to leave again soon enough. The huge cargo ship was still back in the Split system, the Styx only had three collars. Even with all of the firepower in this system, there still was a war going on. So, the Hobgoblin was carried in the huge cargo dropship's place.

When they left this star system again? They were planning on making a quick trip back to the Split system and to the Lyssa waiting there. They would unload the cargo and the liner would be replaced by the Mammoth class cargo ship for a longer run back threw the Inner Sphere. Then Robert and his crewmembers would start looking for a list of supplies, again on less well-known planets then the MoC Capital. That was the plan anyway. In fact, they more or less were able to keep to that basic plan. The next time that the Star Lord or another SLIC crewed ship made a run. The Monarch would be dropped off somewhere, and it would make its own way back to Canopus using normal merchant jumpships on the space ways.

#######

Robert had planned to spend at least seven days on the planet of Canopus. He had to spend most of his time at the capital city. He had hoped to spend most of his time at the Resort, but instead Robert had to delegate that mission to Jess. Robert had to do some face time with some very happy senior leaders of the MoC while they were here. Some of these things were in meeting rooms, others where at dinners, and a few others at parties he had been "invited" to attend. Robert was not surprised when he was asked about another warship in some of those situations.

Robert was just surprised at the number of times that he was asked that one question in so many different ways. Trading two billion C-bills did not seem to dawn on most of the mouth breathers as being that big of a deal to come up with. Little did most of those people know, but the MoC had signed a contract with Robert for another Blockade Runner. The data flow was not all one way in those types of events that Robert had to attend to keep the lines of supply flowing. He had been told that one of the light battle armor suits had been traded to the FWL as the kicker of a deal between MMM and Corean Enterprises.

There had been a bidding war between Corean, FWDI, Irian Technologies, and Kali Yama Weapons on Kalidasa for that one suit of light powered armor. In the end Corean had won with them paying to break down and move one of their "Inner Sphere Standard" battle armor production lines and then move it all the way to Canopus. They would show MMM how to set the battle armor production line back up, and then Corean would get half the production for the next five years from that facility. Corean also would pick up half of the R&D tab using the second suit to jointly break into the secret of stealth battle armor. It was a very good deal for MMM and MoC, but at the same time it was not that bad of a deal for the FWL arms manufacture.

Robert took in all of this information on the battle armor situation, but that was only part of the data he needed to get. Robert knew the SLDF had wanted to "sell" at least another four of the corvette sized warships, and a metric crap ton of spare parts that were not needed by the rest of the SLDF naval forces. Robert had pushed in some of these meetings, that his partners would sell those types of spare parts to only those groups that they had sold the warships to, kind of as a package deal. When he brought this up, in the right types of meetings, it was greeted with smiles.

Robert did not want to sell weapons and parts to ComStar and a few others that he did not call out by name in those meetings. It might have been surprising to some back on New Circe that the Combine was on Robert's no to sell to list, and that was because of the slave pens that his people had found when they had returned to the Inner Sphere. Clan Wolverine had a long memory, and they might forgive but they would never forget.

The Confederation also was not on his preferred list to sell to, not after reading a few reports that he had been able to "acquire" on his travels. Besides selling to the MoC? That had left the FWL, FedCom, and amazingly the Wolf's Dragoons. Those were cleared groups along with a few of the more well-respected mercenary units with some connection to the old SLDF that were on this list of people, that Robert felt comfortable with selling something along the lines of warships and the spare parts needed to help maintain them.

Robert had been able to get some detailed reports from the MMM, that they had gotten from their own sources and MiM. Those reports had been added to the information that the Families had provided, and what the other supply missions had been able to put together. Robert didn't want to get a blind side hit, so he tried to make sure they had some facts to support Robert's whims.

When Robert had addressed this complex issue to higher command? He had been surprised by the reply sent to him on the TacFax. They had told Robert that they did not really care that much about who bought the supplies off of him, besides ComStar. It was his job to do that. They just were making sure that he had the needed supplies and maintain security for SLiEs. As a side note, made by Admiral Xi, that had said to the effect that was why Robert got paid the big bucks.

He knew that it was time for him to shut up, soldier, and get those cargos back home. With his marching orders in hand, Robert went to work with a smile on his face to do the things that needed to be done. But he was going to do them in his own way. Oh, the joys of having an independent command so far from the flagpole. Robert had only one small voice that said, that he now had enough rope to hang himself with. Robert was in an independent command, but only until he was called to testify before parliament.

########

Robert was very happy to check out the Resort after the meetings on the planet and at the jump point, along with the long burn before he could again smell fresh air. He took a whole two days off from working to enjoy the Resort away from the demands of command. That is until Virginia Hall bumped into him while he was getting the tour of the public areas of the Resort that included stopping at a few nicely stocked fishing streams.

Robert had no idea that Virginia had jumped a small craft normally used for deep space travel, and she had made a very high speed burn to the Resort from the largest city on the planet. Robert had been surprised when she had brought up that she wanted to have a private meeting after he had put away his rod, reels, and other "toys". This had intrigued Robert, so he packed up his things after Virginia had returned to the main areas of the Resort.

Lora could tell that something was going on between the "visitor" and her boss, but she made sure that the visitor had not gone off on her own to find Copeland. Lora did not say anything until the other woman had left the fishing stream, and they had headed for the resort's main restaurant concourse. But before she could ask, her boss locked eyes on her and gave a slight negative head shake.

Robert could tell that Lora was going to keep digging. "How about we head to your working office?"

#######

Robert turned and looked down at the notes he had taken during the meeting, and then over to the documents the other woman had "given" him. "She is with Wolf Net, but don't jump out the window jest yet. She was born into them while in the Inner Sphere, and not to the clans. It would seem that being a mercenary for almost half a century has mellowed out most of those born in the Inner Sphere or the few that are left alive that were born out that way. And she has a good idea of who we might be, she is just missing any proof to back up her "wild" ideas. Oh, and she could care less about that kind of thing."

Robert has to speak more rapidly to keep Lora focused. "She dropped a hint that her bosses might be looking at picking up their own Blockade-Runner. Now it looks like she would like to put some details together to send back to her boss. Now, how are you separating the sheep from the goats in this place?"

The change of subject at the end caught Lora a little flat footed, and it took her a few seconds before she could get her mental feet back under her. "AHHH? When we have someone that makes it this far, and we are still not sure that they are a member of the Families or not. We let them come on out to spend their money taking a vacation. When they arrive? I have a specialized team that will work on trying to figure out if they are our people, not, or people doing some digging about us."

Lora stopped talking until Robert gave her a head nod to show that he understood, and that he didn't seem to have any issues at this time. "This normally is done by just asking if they are just on vacation when they are eating or out away from anyone that might be watching them. If they are our people? They will normally say something to the effect that they do not know what they were doing next. When we find out that a group is definitely not ours? We come up with a story that we are overbooked and we will pay to send them to a nearby resort if we are running short of space in our other wing. I have made some arrangements with a few different high end resorts on the planet, that were willing to take some guest off of our hands for the right price."

Robert nodded his head again as they talked in this carefully made office that was set aside for him, and certain others can use. Lora ended her update with a short walk that had the pair of them stop at the hidden command center for the Resort. It was almost like a command center on a warship of the wet navy, not the black navy, set up. From this location, Robert could see the mixed lance of mechs that were working on the north edge of the Resort. He also could see the medium-heavy mech lance that was on QRF duty sitting in a central area of the Resort, but in a tunnel. All of those mechs had been bought off of MMM, and about two thirds were updated with Star League era weapons. Also, the lightest mech that Robert could see was the 40ton updated Clint.

The rate of pirate attacks had been climbing around the areas the MoC claimed, but the attacks had dropped when the MoC military had been able to increase their patrols. Then the "pirates" had changed their tactics on the locals. There had been three attacks on this planet by units that had somehow been smuggled onto the planet beforehand. MMM and other defense production companies had been springing up around the planet like weeds, and they had been the targets for these attacks. That was mainly what had made the leaders very upset about the turn of events.

So far none of these attacks had been directed at the Resort, but Lora was not taking any chances with her mission. There were more than a few warehouses and other storage areas at the small drop port that serviced the resort. They were not listed as being used in any data base on the planet, but they still would draw any off world based attackers to them like a moth to a flame.

Cargos and people were coming to this part of the planet, but the warehouses held very little of great worth. Those tunnels under the Resort were getting a real workout, and Lora had put in a lot of effort to map them out. They still were not done with that job, and some were thinking that they might be used by an attacker. All they would need to do was maybe find one of the half dozen access points Lora's people had found already. That would be very bad for anyone that tried that move. Heavy mechs up close in personal would be bad news for the unwary.

Robert was distracted for a few seconds as he watched a live feed from a pair of cameras that showed some cargo being moved into the cargo bay of the passenger liner. It had been overtly moved from one of the "real" storage areas to the "target" before being loaded onto the Monarch class dropship going by the name of Rose. About half of the cargo being loaded were items that Lora had been able to pick up from the tunnels or on the local open market.

Robert had already checked the accounting books for the Resort. It was quickly looking like Robert would be able to focus most of his limited on planet time into looking for those hard to find items that his people might need. It also was looking like this Resort idea was also turning into the first collection points for the supplies flowing at a steady rate back to New Circe.

########

The next and third meeting with the Wolf Net agent went well, and much to Robert's surprise. It was not just about the warship or their spare parts to support the modified corvettes. It would seem that the Wolf's Dragoons had a list of parts they were looking for that had been sent to Virginia on an emergency HPG message. They almost all were parts that a warship would need to keep it ready for combat. Robert had to pull up some special data to get a grip on this information. If they had not been at the Resort for this meeting? Robert would have had to wait until he had gotten back to his dropship before he would chance reading this kind of data.

At the top of the list Virginia had given him was a list of parts needed to support a KTI 389 computer system. It took Robert looking at the notes to find out that these were parts for the fire control system on an Aegis class warship. They also had listed weapon trunnions that could only fit the triple turrets holding the Sorenstien-45 class naval lasers. This was one of the weapons that were found mainly on late generation Sovetskii Soyuz class cruisers. They also were looking for breech blocks for three different types of naval autocannons and of the like for Imperator 20, Luxor 10, and Oriente 30. When he got to the list of parts for a KF King LX? This had gotten him to stop reading, and that was as far as he went down the list in that sitting. He put the digital device down on the desk.

Robert made sure to have his working face on when he looked at the woman on the other side of this desk. "Miss. Hall. This is an impressive list that you had put together. And I have no idea if we can supply all or even a single one of the parts on this list of yours. This is above both my paygrade and the experience of a lowly merchant captain. I will first have to push this to my partners, and they will have to see what is available."

He made sure that the Wolf Net spy saw his screen. "Can you give me some more information about your little wish list?"

Virginia Hall made a sour face, which she did not even try to hide. By now she understood that playing such games with Robert would open her up to him playing games with her. And Robert Copeland was very good at playing games. So, in one of the few times in her life she told almost the whole truth.

With a straight face and a level tone she focused herself. "I have no idea what most of that list contains, much less what they might be needed to support. I was just told to pass it along, and to make detailed notes on any replies you might give me over them. I also was told to ask about any high-tech weapons that you might want to sell and the cost this might entail. We have access to a wider market base than you are going to find on your own, and the Dragoons have worked as middlemen on other weapons sales for decades. That is anything short of going to a major star system for something like the Vincent I asked about already. My home is called the Mercenary Star for a very good reason. With all of the fighting and rebuilding going on with this clan invasion? We can move a lot of weapons, even at a slight mark up. The Dragoons have always reserved the right to buy those items before anyone else on those local markets might see them. That is in the small print of the contract you will be required to sign on any deals."

Virginia did not say or need to say on the other facts that were also covered in those future contracts. It was that there would be another markup that would have to be paid. Whoever bought weapons in the Outreach system would pay for the Dragoon techs to double check to make sure the items worked before being turned over to the new owners. Oh, and maybe to see if they could find out any clues about where they had been before they were brought to the Wolf's Dragoon's world.

Virginia had been true to her word about keeping what she thought that she knew to herself. But that did not mean that the rest of Wolf Net was not still trying to figure out who these people were and where they might hang their hats. But as far as Virginia knew, as of this meeting? That looking into Robert was very low on the list of the topics that Wolf Net was currently looking into.

Virginia had a thin lipped look on her face. "Now Mr. Copeland, if you don't mind. I would like to get back to trading. I have some more of the Bandit and Badger classes of tanks that we talked about before. So far only two dozen of each types have made it to me. But I been able to have an additional mixed company of Bandit Cs and Badger Cs sent to me on a priority cargo run. I had to fight very hard for those last two classes of tanks to be sent all the way out here to me. It would seem, that any that make it to the open market are being snatched up by the FedCom. I have put a notice that a percentage needs to be set aside for high value trading people…..like you. I would say, that you are about at the top of a very short list of high values trading groups that I know of."

Robert at first did not know how to respond to this information of being on a list of High Value trading groups. At first, Robert was proud and then he was worried about so many people that "knew" about them. It took him about a half a second to come up with a statement for something that was easy to be miss understood. "Thank you. I know that my partners will find a good home for those "new" tanks. I take it that we will use our last payment as a guide for their value?"

Robert let a small smile come to his face that fit the mood. Finding almost two full battalions of APC/tanks and a company of them where clan tech grade was very welcome news. Even more so after the news of 3rd Regiments more or less total destruction at the hands of all of those Cylon nuclear weapons. The SLDF ground forces commander would enjoy hearing that so many replacements were at hand. Well, they would be at hand when they got all the way back to New Circe. Virginia passed over an invoice with numbers near each class and type of combat vehicle. Robert reviewed the numbers, signed the document, and then passed it back.

Robert noticed that now Virginia Hall had an odd look on her face, and she reached into her large carry bag, but whatever she pulled out was kept from the line of sight of the other man. When she was back fully up right in her chair, she had a very still face look. "I think this now would be a good place to restart. But I have to wonder what this might be worth to you?" She showed Robert a little of a leather-bound book.

When Robert did not say anything but look at her? Then it was Virginia's turn to be a little confused with the meeting. She laid out the over three inches thick, richly leather bound and embossed book for Robert to get a better look. There was the well-known simple of the Wolf's Dragoons logo stamped dead center of the book, in what looked like gold, blood, and silver. It looked very expensive even to the untrained eye of Robert's. Then Robert also noticed that there was not a title any were on the outside of this book.

Virginia now could not keep her face from changing, she was shocked that the man across from her didn't know what she was now holding. She needed to take a few centering breaths before she could continue. "After "The Wolf" released to the rest of the Inner Sphere that we had been working for the clan, until we broke contact with them back in 3020. I used that information to pass along that I did not know anything about the Dragoon's home clan. I asked for a briefing to know more about my people. This is what they sent me." She patted the book in the middle of the table.

"This is my copy of the whole history of the Clans, it had a selection of Remembrances for the Wolves and the Dragoons. It also has a section on the current weapons, or at least the weapon systems that had been deployed into the Inner Sphere. I would ask that you do not let anyone outside of your key staff read this book. This is a deal between you and I, and I would like to keep it quiet….even from my own people."

########

This was just another move in the spy game, and it was a major show of trust she was opening with. What would happen to Virginia if it got out that she had traded this book to an outsider? Well not that much, but there were very few people in the whole Inner Sphere that would know that information. If someone from say the Clan Jade Falcons did this? They would not have to wait for a circle, they would just be thrown out an airlock with a slowly leaking space suit. That way they would die a lot slower.

#########

Robert took the book in his hands, and he flipped through the thick off white pages between dark leather covers. He was just mentally noting the chapter titles, and he only stopped when he got to the area that held images of Omni mechs, Omni fighters, and half a dozen warships in very sharp detail. Robert knew what this book was, but only thanks to his briefings before taking the Pilgrimage. This was an official Remembrance for a Clan. To be able to touch one of these books was rarer than finding another Terra standard planet on a miss jump.

Robert made a show of carefully closing the leather bound book and setting it back onto the desk between them. "Okay, Virginia. No games, what do you want."

Virginia now let a small smile come to her face. "I want a room and an office on this Resort." Her voice was firm, and she made sure her shoulders were set in a position just the way that she wanted them.

Of all the things that Robert had expected her to ask for, that was not even on the list. "That might be harder than you think. Why?"

The Wolf Net agent was perfectly still as she was sitting in the office chair. "Robert, a person in my line of work needs to have a bolt hole. In fact, they need to always have more than one bolt hole within easy reach. I know that some of the people that come out here to visit are not staying in the local area, shall we say. I have no idea where they are going, and I don't care. I just would like a fallback position if something happened to the Dragoons, or if I suddenly find myself out in the cold for any of a dozen different reasons."

Robert was having to think on his feet very quickly. Having a Wolf Net agent on the grounds could cause trouble, but if she was on these grounds then someone or someones could keep a very close eye on her that reported to SLiE. "Lora is in command of the Resort, and she runs it as she sees fit, but I will put in a good word for you. After that? You will have to talk her into making any arrangements like that."

Virginia had not liked that comment, but it gave her a starting point to get a lever into that idea. The pair of them spent the next hour working out a deal on a list of different issues. In the end? Robert got the book and the most current updated technical readout on most of the weapons that were currently used by the Inner Sphere and an outline of their order of battle. Things like Master Computers fitted into mechs was a new twist on a very old idea, and one that the old SLDF and the Clans had seemingly not to have thought of.

When it was all over? The Wolf's Dragoons would have first pick on any weapons that were for sale when they arrived at this planet with MMM, and the MoC government getting seconds. At first look it was not a good deal for MMM and the MoC, but the pockets of the Dragoons were not nearly as deep as MMM much less the MoC currently were. Where the MoC had been able to come up with two billion worth of C-Bills to pay for the warship in a little less than a year. That would be harder for the Dragoons to do more than once or twice, much less possibly every few months or a few times a year. Also, the Dragoons would have to pay to ship and protect all of those weapons to get them all the way over to Outreach.

#######

The next major meeting that Robert had to deal with was with MMM. It was time for the SLiE to make use of the growing dropship yards that MMM now had in operation all over the MoC. Admiral Xi and the SLDF Navy had wanted to start buying Lions and Overlord class dropships off of MMM. They were to help deal with all of the battle damage generated by fighting the Cylon Empire. The idea had been that Robert would pick up from MMM dropships, minus weapons and other combat equipment fitted to them. It was brought up by MMM that such modifications would not lower the price by that much. Oh, and it would draw a lot of attention when word leaked out about them being sold absent weapons. Even if they were marked as being modified as "just" cargo carriers, they should have some weapons fitted to them when they were handed over. All you had to do was look at the Mule class cargo dropship to know the truth of this statement.

When the meeting with MMM and some underlings from MoC ended? Robert signed a contract that said Copeland and company would purchase one Lion class dropship that would be ready to be picked up by the end of March of this year. Also, Robert would be picking up a total of six more dropships of that class, after the current orders had been filled for a total of seven Lion class dropships. Most of the money to pay for these dropships would be coming from money that MMM was paying into accounts for Cate's Hold and other royalties owed to Robert's company.

This jumping of the line would make some customers a little upset with MMM, but the government of the MoC had agreed to be bumped on their next scheduled dropship delivery to keep the waves under control. The MoC military would still be getting another new dropship, but the extra cash that the government was going to get from this deal would let the MoC add a second dropship almost for free. And that made both the military and the MoC government leaders very happy with the deal Copeland had signed.

Some of those banked funds along with what Robert had brought to sell on this trip were going to be used to fill the cargo holds that Robert had brought with him. The foundries of Canopus would also have the second load of steel ready to be loaded. It was "only" going to be about 10,000 tons of steel, but it would round out the lift ability on this part of the run made by Robert.

All of the armor Robert had carried had been off loaded and sold at what was almost an obscene rate in Copeland's favor. The armor plates were of different and of odd sizes. But those plates were a lot cheaper than newly made plates currently on the open market. Armor plate was very much still in a sellers' market. You just had to put the standard and Ferro-Fibrous armor plates into an armor press/bender to flatten them before use. Then they could be attached to mechs or tanks. The smaller plates would only take somewhat longer to attach to those combat machines. A little, okay a lot, of grinding would only be needed to hide the patch work design of the welding.

10 Mar 3052

Split System

SLS Lyssa.

Robert didn't even look at the systems when the E wave that he had felt in his guts told him that the jump was complete, that had moved all of them a couple dozen light years in the blink of an eye. The last real star system that the Styx had been in was Canopus, before jumping into orbit over this Super Earth. The Styx had only delayed long enough in her travels between jumps to make any inspections that needed to be done and maybe try to see what was going on around them. The Styx had carried the Bad Kitty, Hobgoblin, and Monarch liner Rose on this run.

The Monarch was not carrying a full load of 200 passengers made up of recovered Families. But all of the cabins were filled, and she was also packing her max load of cargo. The crew that had been on the Blockade Runner now called Warhammer had filled out the empty and very nicely outfitted cabins of the liner. And the ones that drew the short straws were being carried by the Bad Kitty in her empty infantry bays. The Monarch's cargo bays also held some of the old Tunnel Rats class PA(L) found in the underground tunnels of the Resort. The first run of the liner had carried most of the huge tunneling machines that were first found under the Resort. They still had two more of those massive tunneling machines waiting to be stealthily removed from the tunnels.

Jules walked over to the communication station on the bridge of his ship. "Contact the Lyssa and let them know that will be sending over the Bad Kitty and the Rose along with some small craft carrying excess personnel."

Jules only waited for the crewmember to nod her head in understanding of his orders before returning to the center of the room where the mission commander was sitting down. Jules could tell that Robert was finishing off a report for higher command. "Well that run is over. Must say that it was not very eventful, compared to some that we have pulled off lately. So how long do you think that will last?"

Robert moved his light pen over the screen to sign his approval to the report. "Yea it was, and I think this is just the calm before the storm. We will have to see what happens with this proxy battle for Terra, and how the House Lords will react one way or the other."

Before Jules can put in his own two cents into this discussion, the communication tech sounded off for the whole room to hear. "Message from Lyssa Actual. He requests an emergency meeting with the Convoy Commander." That statement made the room that was already quiet even more silent, pen dropping silent.

Robert tilted his head to his longtime friend. "Well, Frakk. You were too close to tempting Murphy, for him not to jump all over us. You just had to say something, didn't you Jules." Robert turned to the younger woman. "Let Lyssa Actual know that I will be over as soon as we have any freed up small craft."

########

It was four hours later when a visibly worried Robert returned to the Styx after his trip to the Lyssa. After a quick check in with the bridge of the jumpship, Robert made his way to his friend and second in command's day cabin. When he knocked and entered the room, Robert could see the concern written on his friend's face and in his body language. All Robert had to do was point to the bar and he quickly got a nod of Jules's head for Robert to get a strong drink.

After putting the short wide topped glass in front of Jules and before Robert could take a seat. Jules spoke. "So, it was that bad?"

Robert took a slow sip of the amber liquid bought in the Inner Sphere, and when he was done, he gave his friend a level look. "Kind of, it will depend on how you look at things. First, we have been ordered back. We are to go all the way back home. Did you notice the other dropships hanging around on the other side of the Lyssa?"

Robert waited until he got a head nod of understanding from Jules. "We will be taking the Hercules, Bad Kitty, and another Mammoth class dropship called the Big Mama. It might be of interest to know that the Big Mama was dropped off here by another Tramp class jumpship…. a civilian flagged one from the Inner Sphere."

Robert had to smile when Jules almost choked on his drink. "Yep, looks like SLIC is running a mission and it is centered on a pre fall Star League grade Tramp. They were able to pick up Big Mama on the grey market with a wiped IFF. They dropped it off here when they stopped by to get updated supplies and to shift some personnel around. With that huge dropship just sitting here, the commander of the Lyssa has been using it to store ores that they have been pulling out from the asteroids and other cargos. After they moved some stuff from the Lyssa back to the Hercules, and then top off the Big Mama? Then we are to leave to make the run back to New Circe. Besides me reporting back to HQ, we are to be the transfer vessel for those cargos instead of waiting for the next ship coming out from New Circe."

Jules finished wiping the amber stain off of his shirt with his off hand and then started talking. "We thought that SLIC would be in the Inner Sphere playing their spy games. So, I'm not that surprised that they found something useful besides a bucket full of lies. What else did you find out? You are too good at digging not to have gotten something else while you were gone."

Now Robert let his work face come down and he used taking another sip of his drink to cover his face. "Well, I know you are thinking about why we are being recalled. But no one has a clue, I think it has something to do with Terry and her Exodus. The other things that I found out, are that the Mammoth that we picked up a while ago had been given the name of Lyssa's Little Sister or just Little Sister. They had been using the local repair shop to make cabins that are a little better, but not much better than infantry bunk rooms only with a more robust independent life support. They are fitted in place of some of her cargo areas. Besides having that Lion to give Terry any needed help. The 205th is sending out a major dropship, and before you ask. No one knows what class it might be, but they think it could be an Overlord, or something bigger. The betting pool has it being a Colossus, than Overlord, and then a Lee in last place."

Jules was thinking but not about the 205th, that just was not his thing. "Okay, when do we have to start heading back home?"

Robert took another slow sip that drained about half of the two fingers that he put in the glass, and he was again thankful for the colonial made artificial gravity decking. Good whisky just did not mix well in plastic containers no matter how "food safe" they were advertised to be. "We don't have a set date, but as soon as we get all of the ores, cargos, and passengers still on the Lyssa back onto our ships. We will need to start heading out soon after. I say we might be able to get a week to ten days before we have to start back home."

The two men spend a little while reviewing what they would need to do to meet this new deadline. This had not been planned on, but they had many years and the other runs to know what to expect. Still a lot of the crew was not going to like it. Most spacers hated change. They would say they loved to travel, but deep down they hated changes that came out of the blue.

8 April 3052

New Circe

Colonial City State.

Bill rocked back into his thickly padded recliner. His feet were soon in the air, and the stresses of the day started to flow out of him even before he had taken a sip of the dark beer in the huge stein. Today had been one of those days that just would not stop giving him headaches no matter what he did to fix the issues. A moving figure covered in shadows from the rest of the room left the cooking area of this "home". The woman joins the craggy faced man on the other side recliner chair, and a sigh escaped her own lips as the chair shifted to elevate her legs.

Bill waited until his wife had finished taking a sip out of the dark red drink that she had taken a liking to after they had settled on New Circe. With a small smile, he tested the waters. "Well, at least this day is over."

Laura gave a slight growl and stopped from going for another sip of her wine. "If I would have known that a single stick would have caused this much of an issue? I would have told those teams to just use it as firewood and not worry about it."

Now that Bill had an idea of the waters that he was about to go swimming in, he put more than a toe into those turbulent waters. "You would not! It would offend the teacher in you. I'm just glad that we had enough warning that it might be coming in on that Colonial Mover. Now we have a whole lab set up in McEvedy City to mostly deal with it. We didn't even have to Frakking pay for the building, and you got to get rid of a dozen over educated people with currently useless degrees and were causing low grade issues in the city for us to deal with. I take it that they turned up something. Do you want to tell me about it, or do you want me to wait for something to be seen on Nation State Morning News?" Bill raised an eyebrow at the last part of his statement.

The elected leader of the Colonial City State put down her wine glass on a handy side table, and then gave her husband a level look. "Well for one thing it is not a fake. The SLiE genetics people ran a test on the outer core of the wand. It was covered in modern colonial made plastics some time before it was placed in that armored glass and pressurized box. The Eggheads only removed about half of that junk. After that they got to what they are calling the organic part of the "wand". They found triple helix strand DNA in the organic cells. And it holds about twenty times the DNA data as the densest parts of human DNA that they know about.

Laura shifted a little in her overstuff chair. "The topper in today's briefing was that the carbon dating of the organic parts of the wand put it between 10,000 and 10,700 years old. That is supposed to be back during something called Early Bronze Age on Earth. They want to cut into the core of the wand, because they found out that it has a metal core. So far all they can tell, is that it's a previously unknown metal alloy that looks like red gold and has some very weird properties."

Bills wife kept talking, but something she had said caused something to twinge in the back of Bill's mind. He dropped his feet back to the carpet and he walked over to the data/entertainment center of their home. Bill Adama might not be "The old man of the Galactica" anymore, and the right hand of the Gods for anyone who lived within her metal walls. But he was still that man and the commander of the Colonial Fleet. The great old warship might not be "his" anymore, but he still kept copies of all the data recorded on the CIC and from other parts of the ship like the landing and launching bay. Well then there were the recordings of the two ships bars, Engine room, and the brig. He had a copy of all of those recordings from even before the start of what now was called the 2nd Cylon War going all the way to when he had officially had to give up the great warship as "his" ship.

Laura saw the look on Bills face, and she knew that he was on a mission and likely that it would be worth her time to just wait and see what daggit he was going to pull out of his…..hat. She silently watches as Bill digs threw a mass of digital data, all as she slowly drinks her New Dawn Wine. After half an hour the huge flat screen pops up with a still image that Laura recognized as the ship's brig on the one-time flagship of what remained of the Colonial fleet.

Bill returns to his seat with an entertainment remote in one hand, and his face set in stone. "What you said made me remember something. I was reviewing data on our first contact with the SLiE for an interview the public affairs people want, and I ran across this old recording."

Bill Adama stops talking and he hits the play button with just a little too much force, and the image along with briefing notes start to be displayed on the half wall sized screen.

########

Looking out through the glass from inside the brig Commander Marcus Thorpe of the Star League Intelligence Corps tried to make himself comfortable while they waited. He had been chosen for this mission because he had taken Classical History at university and had maintained an interest in the subject, still speaking a smattering of Ancient Greek although he would have much preferred meeting long-lost Romans instead because his Latin was better. Professor Sundquist the professional academic beside him had in fact been one of his lecturers almost two decades earlier and was far less happy to be stuck in this room, he wanted to talk to as many of these people as possible, compare their histories with his own, and try to work out how in the name of the First Lord they had ended up thousands of light years from Earth thousands of years ago.

'I still think it's Atlantis' Thorpe stated, crossing his arms and turning back to the other man.

Sundquist snorted in response. 'Atlantis was merely a legend based upon the collapse of the Minoan Civilisation' he replied. 'You always were a fantasist young Marcus' he said with a sigh.

'They thought Troy was nothing but a myth too until Schliemann found it, query affirmative?' Thorpe pointed out.

'Affirmative' Sundquest conceded, 'but that was over a thousand years ago' he continued. 'If Atlantis existed somebody would have found it by now' he said with certainty.

Thorpe uncrossed his arms. 'At least I've got a theory' he grumbled.

'No, you've got an unsubstantiated hypothesis' Sundquist told him. 'A proper theory is based upon facts it seeks to explain' he chided his former student. 'Your romanticised view of mythic history might have served you well in the military, where tales of exaggerated valour and appeals to ancient glory are the stock in trade, but in academia we aren't quite so... florid.'

Note: This was from chapter 1 of Hunted Tribes, by Hotpoint and it was used with his permission.

##########

The images stopped and Bill did a half turn. "I think we might want to bring those two in on this little Project." All Laura could do was give her husband a look, before she reached for the small electronic caller to reach out and ruin some other people's evening. Bill had just pulled another gold bar out of thin air.

A Few weeks later

Colonial Embassy in McEvedy City

Professor Sundquist first looked out over the large room spread out before him. This room was normally used for official dinners, but it had been repurposed for use in today's special event. The large room was not filled with warm bodies, but it was well attended. Then again that was something that you would expect with both key leaders of the two most powerful governments on this planet posted as attending. What the local news services didn't know, was that there was going to be a change in the normal briefing order for this event.

As the Professor's eyes moved from him sitting in the high back chair, they went from the press crowd to the people sitting on the elevated platform to his left and right. His eyes stopped on one person with a very smug smile plastered all over his face. He knew that a talk was due for one Marcus Thorpe, when the press and political leaders had returned to their own offices. That was one young man, that was getting entirely too full of himself for the good of the SLiE. The Professor felt his face fall just a little, as he remembered that the young man had been helpful in a matter, which was not related to the Military this time. That was a major surprise, even after dealing with a first contact that led to the Colonials living on New Circe.

One of the staff working for the Colonial City-State gives a small gestor that said it was time to start the show. The professor rose from his chair, and Sundquist walked to the mic with as much regalness as he could muster.

With a clear voice, the professor looked at the far wall and started talking. "I would like to thank everyone for attending. What we are doing here today, is to put on display something that has a large amount of meaning for both of our people. Not long ago an artifact was found on one of the ruined worlds that belonged to the Colonies of Kobal. After study and many other eyes reviewing the idea, it was decided that the artifact should be put on display here in the Embassy set up by the Colonial City State for everyone to see."

He stopped talking and without needing a look for the next step to be started. A staff member removed a cover to reveal a glass box holding what looked like a wooden stick on an ornately carved marble pedestal. Sundquist pitched his voice like he was giving a lecture to first year students. "I give you the Staff of Circe."

There were a few flashes and little else to show that body of people before him cared, and he gave a little smile that Thorpe knew was the anvil about to drop onto the heads of the assembled press pool. Thorpe and his friends had been on the receiving end of that smile more than once, and they had not enjoyed the experience. Thorpe could not help himself as he leaned a little more forward in his chair with a small smile coming to his face. This was going to be too good not to take in every second of what was about to happen….to someone else.

Sundquist didn't notice that movement happening off to his right side. "Now you might think that this is just a stick of wood that was recovered, wood that might not even be from the Cyannus star system. We have already dated the object in question to be over 10,000 years old. Now for those of you, that did not pay attention to your history classes. What we call the Bronze Age on Terra ended a little over 5,000 years ago. It also uses a triple Helix to hold its DNA. DNA that is not in any data base from the Colonials, the Clans, or the Star League."

Now the room exploded into sound, but the professional teacher just held up his hands to stop them and then he pitched his voice to carry over the last noises coming from them. "Now that I have your attention. I will connect some more of the dots for you. You see that age is only for the outer core of this staff, or wand as it is noted in some of the classic literature. The inner layers of this staff caused more questions to be asked about a lot of different subjects. It is made of a rose gold alloy, which in of itself is made up of some very Rare Earths. We are working on the idea that the base metal is Orichalcum with some Promethium, Dysprosium and an isotope of some transuranic metal that we have not seen before but has an amazingly long half-life. This could be an electronic device of some kind, but that is more of an unsubstantiated hypothesisthan a theory at this point." The press pool had no idea why the professor was putting so much focus on two of those last words.

The professor shoots a level look at his one time student sitting to one side. "Now, I will open the floor for a few questions before the professionals handle you lot."

A press reporter with the McEvedy Daily badge on her blazer stands up and is recognized by the professor. "Why are you putting this device on display, and not studying it more thoroughly?"

Professor Sandquist still had that smile on his face, which should have been a warning that a trap had been laid out for someone unwary enough to step in. Just like the reporter was about to do. "Young lady, right now it would be like an ancient Roman from the time of the First Empire's Caesar, which would be Augustus not Julius, studying a solar powered atmospheric aircraft."

Lord Protector Jennifer Vaun stood up and her mic was automatically turned on. It would automatically turn off when she sat back down or left the platform. She had been warned of the Professor's tendency towards dealing with some types of people. "We have already set up a joint group of specialists that will keep studying the Staff, and it can be temporarily removed from display for any future study. But when it is not actively being needed for supporting those types of tests, it will remain on public display."

A Number Three human form Cylon stood up next and she made eye contact with the academic. "You used the term Orichalcum in your briefing. I know that it is a Colonia word referenced for something that is great or extraordinary. Is there a reason to use a Colonial based word in your description?"

The Lord Protector gave a head nod for the Professor to address this question. Sandquist turned and looked at the female Cylon. "You are correct in your base statement, and I am very impressed. But Orichalcum also is a word that is used by Plato on old Earth, and it is also found in some of the more Ancient Colonial texts that we have and will be reviewing."

One of the items he had been directed to not cover, was that they had found a book that seemed to be a consolidation of texts that held translations of what were claimed to be ancient texts from Kobal. A special group was tracking down copies of the original or oldest known copies referenced in that book within the City-State or other known sources. Another strange book that had been found in the same area as the wand and the still working research book for the wand. It had covered notes about a group that had been raising funds to secretly send out spaceships looking for Kobal, The Thirteenth Tribe, Earth, and something that translated to an odd form of "Home".

A tired looking old man rose as he was still taking down handwritten notes, and he had not even looked up when he asked his question. "What was the Great Plato talking about when he used the term Orichalcum?"

Professor Sandquist let out a sigh that his mic picked up and passed to the press group at some volume. He had hoped that something like this question was not asked, but he had not been told to avoid this. Besides he hated keeping anything back from a proper question. So, without even looking to one person he knew had a frakking huge grin on his smug young face.

So, with one word he replied. "Atlantis."

That one word made the room to go quiet enough, that the staff sound engineers thought that something was wrong with their equipment. Just when they started to check the mics, they had to rip their ear transceivers out of their ears. The sudden wave of sound could be heard outside of the thick-walled building. It was only a muffled sound, but you could still could hear that something major was going on inside that building. That one word was more than a ripple that was just cast onto the planet, even before the Colonials started to find out what that one word meant.

##########

Notes

The DNA: The RL Spruce and Pine trees have 7x the DNA in each cell compared to a human cell.

Victor C. It's on page 34 of Shrapnel 6. Robert's is fitted with a Callahan Headcaper gauss rifle, 2x Series 2F ER 5cm laser, one Smartshot Mk4 Streak SRM 4. Copeland still needs repair parts for the HildCo model 12 jump jets, some Durallex heavy armor and they also need two SHS to do the needed work.

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