Chapter 81
By Cliff
Beta and Clean up: Not done
Reviewed by Hotpoint and Cannonshop
1 Dec 3052
Outreach
The Pampanito II arrived at the "normal", or as some called it, the commercial jump point that serviced the needs of the star system that held the planet called Outreach or the Mercenary Planet as most people called it. Captain Maureen Farren looked over to her XO strapped into his own chair on the bridge of the jumpship. She looked at her almost husband and she gave him a little smile. "Well Mark, this is in your wheelhouse. I just had to get us here in one piece."
Whereas Maureen was born on a planet within the Inner Sphere, Mark had only been in the Inner Sphere for a few years now. Thanks to his SLIC training it would be very hard for anyone, even with a massive amount of training, they would not be able to find this out. Mark smiled back at his common law wife, and he released his safety straps holding him onto the command chair. With a slight push, he started to float around the command center of this spy ship.
In a clear voice and just loud enough to do the needed job, Mark addressed the communication station on the edge of the bridge. "After the house keeping messages are sent to the Warrior's world. Please send the request for a meeting with some of the senior leadership of the Dragoons that is going to be referencing some very sensitive information."
Mark knew that it was going to take some time to get some face to face interaction with someone with enough rank to complete the modified mission that the Pampanito II had been given out of the blue. Then again that was why they make plans, counter plans, and if all else failed types of Plans. Mark had a few manhole covers that he could just drop on the open radio net, if he needed to go that way. He knew that some of those manhole covers would both embarrass a few of the locals, and it would get someone in the higher rank's attention for good or ill.
It had not taken long before his first thought was proven totally correct. It was taking some time even using speed of light radio messages to get to someone above the "stated" rank of Captain or shift leader to talk to them.
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Maureen and the XO were in her working office that was fitted onto the hamster wheel when Mark was passed a note. It was about the latest gatekeeper that the communication team was having to deal with on the bridge. It was only thanks to Maureen knowing her almost husband so well, that she could see that he was getting ready to do something rash. When Mark spoke, she knew that he was crossing the Rubicon with his head held high and a flag flying on his back. She could not help but to both smile and wince at what he was about to unleash on some poor unsuspecting fool.
Mark fought to keep his tone smooth so that the communication tech would not think that he was angry at him. "Okay send the next message but add the first message to this whole rat's nest of attempts. Oh, and also this time have it addressed to Colonel Blake directly."
Mark had a tight lipped look on his face, but the communication rating was fighting to keep from smiling as they hit a few buttons on the noteputer to do the XO's biding. At the last second Mark jumped the script a few rungs and pulled out another manhole cover to be cast onto some unlucky soul. "Put in that we know where the Broadsword class PPC came from. Then as the post, postscript, that if they don't reply to us within an hour of receiving the message? Then we will blast this information out to the whole star system to help with their education. Sign the end of the message with the words Gulo gulo Iuscus.
Maureen laughed when the hatch was closed behind the tech that was already starting to snicker. "Well, now I think that you understand when I say something like. That I had to deal with some phone tree hell. But are you sure that adding the last part and threatening to blast call everyone with a radio in this star system was a good idea?" She raised her eyebrows at the XO, and she didn't add so soon to her question.
Mark had not said a word, but the smile was all teeth, and it was just on the other side of saying that he was going to pee in someone's pool, and he was fresh out of chlorine or care.
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It was less than an hour later that a secure video connection was piped into this office from the ship's bridge from the outside world. "Pampanito II, I am Eric Falcon. You have been trying to reach someone of command rank within the Dragoons. I am the head of Dragoon operations at this station, and Colonel Blake asked me to talk to you directly. You have gotten their attention, and it will be at your peril. What is it that you think that you know about our Broadsword class PPC?" The tone was pure condescending with a huge dose of sneering thrown in. in other words…it was pure clan speak that so many within the Inner Sphere were learning to live with.
Mark gave the hard face man on the screen a smile that said sugar would not melt in his mouth and I dare you to call me on that fact. "Oh, don't worry about others finding out Mr. Falcon. We don't care about the pedigree of your newest weapon that you have only just started selling to everyone as you get more clan grade weapons to replace them. I think that story is something between you and Virginia, she is over in the MoC, and not anyone else's concern. But now that I have your attention, and proof that I know things that the average bear doesn't know. I have other data that we want to trade to the Dragoons, and we think that something this valuable need's someone with the necessary weight on their collar to deal with. If you get what I mean Mr. Falcon?" Mark knew that clanners hated the use of last names and the honorific of Mr. would add even more salt into that wound. Then again, it was common courtesy to use that honorific to be polite within the Inner Sphere.
Mark saw the slight rise of one of the dark eyebrows on the screen, and a slight twitch on the left side of this Falcon's bondsmen's mouth. Mark hit a button and a short video clip he had prepared for this event before coming to the Outreach system was sent to the man on the other end of the screen at the speed of light. "I hope you are, who you say that you are. I know that I would not want the head of Wolf Net angry at me for some minor misrepresentation. I just sent a short clip as a sample of the data that we picked up somewhere south of the clan lines."
The man looked down and even Maureen could see the shock cross the clanners face as the image of a pair of grainy looking but quite identifiable as SLDF warships were seen floating in space. Mark still had that slightly mad smile on his face as he spoke. "We will show the data to Jaime Wolf, or someone cleared to legally speak for him. That is if you all want to buy the raw and processed data we're offering for sale."
The clanner's voice was a little shaken, but it was still clear and there was an odd gleam in his eyes that carried over the video call. "I will pass this along to Colonel Blake on a priority message. Please wait for contact and think you for bringing this to "our" attention." The line was cut, and the screen went black without another word being said between the two men.
Both Mark and Maureen were a little shocked that nothing was said at the name that had been added to the last message sent to the Dragoons. It was almost like this person who all but claimed to be part of Wolf Net had not even bothered to look up the scientific name for Wolverine before contacting them. That was more than a little strange to the minds of the two leaders on this jumpship. The pair of them were expecting at least a little bomb, but this was more like a very soft whimper. They had not claimed to be Clan Wolverine, but that name was not that well known outside of clan space. SLIC assessed that only a handful of people within MIIO or LIC might know about the name referred to as the No Named Clan, if at all by any members from the rest of the Clans.
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It was less than three hours later a small craft was lifting off of Harlech City space port going to a pirate point that only Dragoon own vessels could use that was so close to the planet. In less than two hours, an old scout class jumpship that was still packing some Wolf Net surprises took in the small craft in her only landing craft bay. This jump craft was now known to be used by the Dragoons as payment for a lot of outstanding debts of a now defunct small mercenary unit. But really, she had been part of the Wolf Net fleet for almost 50 years of very hard service.
Currently she was being used as a VIP transport to get from the planet to jump points or other major points of interest around the Mercenary Star for some of the key leaders of the Dragoons. It was expensive to do this, but sometimes time was worth more than money. Besides the craft was listed as not safe for undertaking long distance travel, but she was still useful if you had the funds. At least if she stayed within the Outreach system, she was close to support craft and a metric crap ton of emergency equipment.
The small jumpship arrived at the commercial jump point, and the small craft was quickly launched from the slender hull out the Number Two Bay. The Number 1 and Number 3 bays were used as cargo holders on the Scout class jumpship. The ST-46 had been given a clear path to the Cyclops class space station even before the jumpship had left the pirate point near the planet. This was a rare event, but not unheard of, at least not sense Jaime Wolf took over leadership of this star system. When the Dragoon's small craft docked to the huge station, it was a very stressed-out looking Colonel Maeve Wolf that floated out of the craft.
It didn't take Maeve but a few seconds to visually find the person that she was going to have to work with on this task. Eric had been a recovered freeborn member of Clan Jade Falcon, and he then had been "traded" to the Dragoons. That was because the FedCom had no idea what to do with the idea of Bondsmen. "Well Eric, you have a way of waking a girl up quiaff. I would recommend you change to something a little more subtle. That is if you are looking into getting past the first date with any of the locals."
Eric had a few dealings with Maeve after his arriving on Outreach and being accepted into the Dragoons. That event had happened after he was finished telling the Dragoon integration teams that he had trained and worked as an entry level member of the Jade Falcon's Watch department. That Watch training had been before Eric had been brought out to fill a mech's seat one more time in a garrison unit. It had taken some talking and explaining to Eric that even slightly above Inner Sphere average mech jocks were easy to find, but that finding good Watch members were as rare as hen's teeth. The Dragoon placement team had told Eric that if he wanted more responsibility, than staying out of a mech was the best way to go with the Dragoons. Eric had taken the advice from someone that had been living in this part of the Inner Sphere all of their lives.
Eric gave the woman a level look. "Not funny Colonel Wolf. How is the training to be The Wolf's adjutant coming along QuiAFF?"
Maeve grabbed a hand hold and looked at the man and wondered for a second if he was getting ready to test her. That was one of the practices of the clan way "only" sometimes used in the Dragoons, and many ex-bondsmen had been finding that one hard to leave behind in any major way. After a few heartbeats, Maeve decided that it was a harmless question after all. "Tiring, that man puts in twelve hour days, on average. And he has the mind that is so twisted to put wild vines to shame, and at the same time it is like a steel trap for facts. He definitely keeps me on more than just my toes."
She was not going to cover all of the training in large unit tactics and strategic thinking that she was being given or the other classes that Jaime felt that needed to be covered by him. Also, the not so little fact that she had beaten The Wolf in the first tabletop exercise two days ago, was a secret that Maeve was going to keep to herself for just a little while longer.
Eric pointed down a corridor and gave a grunt at what the Colonel had said before speaking. "I hope you have paid attention to that training. This group left the Lion they brought with them about a minute before you exited your shuttle, and they will be in the secure briefing room very soon. The meeting is scheduled to start in an hour, but it would seem that this group does not want to be late to this "little" trade meeting."
The last few words fell out of Eric's mouth had a more than a little scorn to it, which the home clan born warrior could not completely hide from those that knew what to listen to. A warrior of the clans didn't like to think about all of the trading that was needed to be done, all so that they could be trained to fight much less what was needed to get them into an Omnimech for more than half a year. Well, that was unless you were a member of the Diamond Sharks or a member of the merchant class that was a failed or very old clan Warrior.
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Maureen and Mark looked up when a young woman entered the meeting room on one of this station's two large hamster wheels. Both visiting officers carefully didn't say anything about how young the Dragoon uniformed woman looked, and it was not just because the two M's (Maureen and Mark) were in their upper 30s. The pair of outsiders just waited, but in the back of both Mark and Maureen's minds things were being said. Mark had the additional thought, or maybe fear was a better word, that they might just be dealing with another gatekeeper after all. That was something that was not going to make both of the M's very happy. Then the tables turned on the pair of outsiders.
Maeve could see the older woman's eyes twitch just a little, and she had a good idea on why that might have been. Maeve was very aware of her age in the eyes of other commanders within the Inner Sphere. "I am acting Colonel Maeve Wolf. I am currently the top assistant or adjutant to Colonel Jaime Wolf. His doctor vetoed him making a high speed run to make it to this meeting in a reasonable time line, so it has fallen to me. I hope that this is high enough rank to talk to you from the Dragoons?" Maeve had just thrown down her gauntlet.
Maeve knew that this was not totally the truth, but Jaime was giving her more and more duties to match that acting rank that she was authorized to wear on her formal Dragoon uniform. "I have a memo, if you would like to review my credentials." The tone held just a touch of warning in it. It was a touchy subject to challenge a mercenary on their "posted" rank, and that was on top of that Dragoons were well known to be…. prickly at the best of times.
Mark almost challenged her on this statement, but a quick grab of his hand by Maureen stopped him cold and brought him back to reason. They would just have to let this play out as it was going to, at worst they could just leave with their data not traded. Still a little of the right tone slipped into his voice would get his point across to the young woman. "Jaime Wolf has been known to do stranger things in the past, so what is one more item to add to the list. I just hope you are not wasting our time; we have to travel to pay the bills."
Mark passed over an off brand data pad common within this part of the Inner Sphere, only this one was fitted with an overly large touch screen attachment. That one piece of tech that was just short of cutting edge for this part of space, but still common enough if you had the C-bills. Maeve Wolf reached over and took control of the device, but she didn't activate it as she kept her eyes on the man. So instead of looking down, she shot both of them a level look. "You got a few people's attention about the references in your last message sent about that you wanted to speak to Colonel Blake. That is where I would like to start this meeting, your video can wait."
This was part of the plan that said Maureen would speak to any questions of this type. She was listed as being the captain of the jumpship, so she should be the leader in this meeting. "As we told the young man standing in the hatchway behind you. We don't care about those new PPCs, but it was a good way to cut through the red tape so that we can talk about the real business that we are here to conduct."
She was not going to say anything about MMM, the Wolf Net agent, or that they had used the scientific name for Wolverine at the end of the last message this vessel had sent. She was just thankful that Mark had not used gulo gulo terra-somnia at the end of the message. It would be very hard to explain how they might know the scientific name of an animal that was a gene modified species made back on Strana Mechty. It would be up to the Dragoon, to address any pointed questions to those points of the attempted communications with someone of rank.
Maeve Wolf gave each of them another level look, but they did have a point about rapidly cutting through the layers of filters between them and the higher levels of the Dragoons without risking leaking something many might think was very sensitive. She thought that they might have just picked a few words without knowing the real meaning that some of the Dragoons might pull out of it. Still, she was here because of the data about warships working within the Inner Sphere that had no known owner in the Wolf Net files. Anything else could or could not be talked about after this lock was undone in one form or another.
When Maeve finally activated the screen on the device that she had been handed, Maureen started talking again careful not to let it be noticed that she was glad to avoid anything related to Bear Slayers or Wolverines. "We were in the Odessa system after a slight miss jump due to a miss entered coordinates in the navigation computer that landed us at the wrong end of the jump point. This event let us pick up the observed data that didn't fit with what was supposed to be going on in that star system. So, we decided to make a plan and find out what was really going on. When you travel the space lanes, sometimes you get bored, and maybe you spend too much time looking for nothing. As a hobby, some of my crewmembers put together some spare parts and we left those "objects" on our next trip to Odessa. There were just to see what might be found with some civilian grade spare parts. When we came back a third time? I was surprised that we both could find those things, and they were full of some very strange data."
Mark picked up the story, just as they had planned for him to do in this little song and dance. "I have some skills making things that can survive in Death Pressure, and the captain tends to give me a lot of free rein for my hobby. That is as long as I replace anything that we might damage in my tinkering around or is lost. I had at first thought that we might have found an illegal mining operation of some kind in Odessa. The reward on turning them into the local government normally gets "us" some easy cash or maybe a favor or two from the local leaders. Favors are the high end currency of the space ways." Mark tilted his head to one side. "I understand that it is the same way with most mercenary units over battalion size."
Mark wanted to sound like he was rambling, and he felt that he was pulling it off by the look of the clanner standing by the door that was going by the name of Eric Falcon. "Anyway, when we got a better look at the data. It was pretty clear that it was not a mining op, and those had to be warships sitting close by. We could have done one of two things with this data. First, we could have turned it into some random official in the FedCom. But who could we give that to, and not risk these guys in Odessa knowing we did it. A Tramp vs a warship is a losing proposition no matter how you cut it, if they found out we were doing a little spying on the side. That left us coming to you guys, to see if you all were interested. You're the only ones outside of the Clans, MoC, and ComStar that has a warship of any size above an assault class dropship. And well, after the last few months? Let's just say that ComStar is not on my list of people to trust."
Maureen visibly put her hand on Marks arm, but it was all part of the show. "We have all of the raw data to back up what you're seeing on that little device. How about we give you time to review that little data sample and talk to any…experts you might have handy."
Maeve was looking at the video clip just as it zoomed in on what had to be a large warship with four huge thrust bells mounted on its square aft. "Yes, maybe while you take a tour of the station? As far as I know the Dragoons are the only ones with a functional Cyclops I class station outside of Clan Space." Maeve could feel that she was losing control of her face at seeing the pair of images of SLDF warships.
Mark put some pressure on Maureen's leg with his own hand that was hidden under the table. This was the signal to accept something that they didn't want anyone else knowing was important to Mark as head of this SLIC backed mission. Maureen just smiled as she addressed the very young looking Dragoon colonel. "I think that it would be nice to have a tour while you check out that little data sample. We can always have you over to our ship for a second meeting. I didn't think that "we" would get all of this worked out at one meeting, so we have planned out to spend some extra time in system…. As long as no one else knows what we found."
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For the next two hours, the pair of non-Dragoons were given a very rare VIP tour of the space station with the high tech maintenance slips. A set of passive visual and audio recording devices that the pair of M's activated after leaving the meeting briefing room, just in case someone used the same briefing room. They were able to collect a lot of information that would be useful for the people back on New Circe before the batteries ran out on the short range transmitters. It was when they were almost done…well the tour guide was starting to get a dry throat when an Elemental in a ship' suit found the group walking around the corridors.
A note was passed to the two M's that asked if another meeting could be held on the Pampanito II…soon. Maureen agreed and a time was quickly set up by using the stations hard line phone system. Soon the Lion class dropship had left the space station and headed back to the Tramp class jumpship that could have been packing three dropships but now only held one. The Pampanito II was only carrying two dropships when it had arrived in this star system. The lion run by SLIC and a cargo dropship they had picked up to help with the cover story. That cargo ship was now almost all the way to Outreach for a "normal" cargo run.
This left two open collars for when an Intruder class dropship came flying under the Dragoon flag to be attached to the spine of the Tramp when it was almost the time for the second meeting with the Dragoons.
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The meeting was again held on the hamster wheel, but this time it was a lot smaller briefing room. There was a big difference between the "free" areas on a Tramp class jumpship and a Cyclops I class space station. There would not be any armed escorts for the Dragoon officer allowed onto the jumpship. But only a fool would try something dumb while at the Mercenary Star with a member of the Dragoon's command staff. Even an armed jumpship like the Tramp would be easy pickings for the weapons on that one Dragoon crewed dropship, much less on the assault team that was just waiting for the word to breach into the jumpship. None of this was said aloud, but you didn't become the master of a jumpship or dropship without knowing somethings about how the real world worked and know more than a few different ways you could die.
Maeve Wolf had to smile to herself as she moved down the jumpship's corridors. One thing that could be said about Zero G, four hours of sleep made you feel as refreshed as getting a full eight of rest. At least for the first few days, after that it was not so much fun being in Zero G outside of the hamster wheels. She made it to the office on the grav deck without any issues, the Dragoons had a few Tramp class jumpships under there command. She took her seat across from the odd captain and her XO thinking that things might just settled down after those first surprises.
Stanford Blake and Jaime had been surprised that these merchants had not wanted anything or give up anything reference the copy of the Bear Slayer being made on Outreach for Dragoon use and selling to other units. The legal department of the MoC already had actions going against ComStar and the FedCom for their version of the Bear Slayer they were making in slowly growing numbers. The FWL had just paid MMM a fee and had started making their own Bear Slayers along with help from MMM to get it all going. MMM and MoC were trying very hard to keep on the Dragoon's good side and not even brought up the issues of the Broadswords.
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Before anything was said, the jumpship's captain pushed over a data drive to the Dragoon officer. Maeve looked down at the device and then back to the pair on the other side of the table with a look of utter confusion plastered over her face. "What is this?"
Maureen gave a level look to the other woman and a slight little uptick was on her lips. "That is more or less the only copy of the data that we showed you a few clips of. It is now up to you to decide what to do with it. I would suggest that you take a lot of somethings that are very heavy, then you go and take that old SLDF Navy base away from the current owners. I also would suggest that you do it before someone gets a little too used to having big damn guns at their beck and call."
Maeve had already worked out that the small moon had to be an old SLDF base, and it was one that the Dragoons had not known about from the data that they had been given by the Clans when they came to the Inner Sphere back in 3005. If the Dragoons didn't know about this? Then it was a very good bet that the rest of the clans would have not known, or they had forgotten about it. That was information that was scary on so many levels for the leader in grooming of the Dragoons. But now that Wolf Net knew where to look, it was only a matter of time before the Dragoons started putting the pieces together.
Maeve had no idea how long she was quiet, but it was only a few heartbeats. "How much is this going to cost the Dragoons? Also, what do you really want to keep quiet about the IER PPC?" Maeve knew that this was the wrong move as soon as the words had left her lips. It would shift the power from her side of the meeting to the side that these strangers were on. That was breaking rule Number 4 of Jaime Wolf's rules of negotiation, always keep in the position of power.
Mark shot a look at his girlfriend and then he spoke up, this was going to show the Dragoon leader that both of them were co-leaders on this vessel. "This is freely given, just like us not saying anything about where you got the designs for your Broadsword class weapons. As we have said before that issues about copy writes on the Bear Slayer is between you and MMM to come to an agreement about. We voted on the idea that we don't have a dog in that fight. We have something else to discuss about, but before we talk about anything else. "We" have to know that "we" are dealing with the right kind of people. After all the MoC will not use this type of information and weapons against us, at least for the next dozen years or longer."
Maureen hit a button that now glowed, but it really didn't do anything but glow. The only way to know that, was if you were doing something that the device was just supposed to have stopped. Now it was time for Maureen to take up the game. "You noticed the Lion class dropship, I assume? The people on that dropship will now be able to hear what is going on, but no one else. It will be them that will be evaluating any of your replies to a list of questions that we will be asking."
Now Maeve felt ice flow down her spine at both the tone and the words that had just been used by the woman. She had an idea of what weapons this person might be talking about, and it was not Bear Slayers. There were only three groups that held active warships, The Dragoons, ComStar and the MoC. The MoC had been known to have "bought" those two small warships, and that meant that they had been sold by "someone" off the edge of the map. The last three words on the message had slammed into her brain like the words of the gods. Not trusting her voice for a few seconds, the Dragoon officer only reply had been a slight head nod in understanding.
Maureen Farren rocked back in her chair and thanks to the gravity of the hamster wheel, she didn't go floating off at her actions. She pulled out a data pad and seemed to be reading from it for some long seconds. "They have heard about those small clan units that have been working below the truce line for some time now. They are looking for certain people, according to the reports making their way around the Inner Sphere." Maureen left the rest unsaid as the pair waited to see if this person would connect the dots or not. Then they were going to have to see if they were going to be shot or if the Cyclops I station, and her CAP would just blow the Pampanito II out of space.
Maeve Wolf kept her face under control, but it was a near run thing to keep her jaw from hitting the deck. "I was not born in the clans, and I was raised to be a pragmatic mercenary. Colonel Jaime Wolf, myself and most of the leadership think that this is a political move by the current iLKhan to keep him in power. They had started out with three Broadsword class light dropships and a Scout class jumpship for moving each of the dropships, but they are not working together."
Maeve felt a snort slip out of her lips. "Two of them have already run into each other and…..there were some pointed issues between the different clan warriors. We know that one side lost two Omnimechs and the other side might have lost three of their combat machines. When they left that planet, and I can tell you they did so without finding what they were looking for? The locals were able to recover enough parts to put one Blackhawk class omnimech back together with some nice spare parts left on the side to keep it working for some time." She kept her tone light, but inside she was laughing whole heartily at the misfortune of at least two different clans.
What was not said, was that most of the clans were still having issues policing the post action battlefield. In short, now those two of the three Clan Stars would not be at full strength for any future operations. At least not until they went all the way back to their Clan Invasion zones for support and resupply. That was something those three hard core Crusaders Stars were not going to do. They would only return with the shield of having a new blood name, or they would die trying to get one. Well maybe the crews on those dropships that filled the same roles as the Leopard class did for the Inner Sphere would return with those small jumpships. But only after the last of those warriors was so much meat rotting on a battlefield somewhere within the Inner Sphere.
Maeve gave another snort and her sharp mind started to connect some possible dots. "They have gone out looking for someone connected by blood to what the Clans used to call Clan Wolverine. Jaime and I, along with most of the rest of the Dragoons, well minus maybe some of our new bondsmen think it's a fool's errand. By now even the few oldest of the serving Dragoons have even given up that issue, at least now that the whole Wolf Remembrance and key leader Journals from the SLDF are available to read by members of the Dragoons in good standing. I think we lost more than a few that could not live with finding out that they were lied to for so many years."
Mark gave the younger woman sitting across from him a level look. "And what would happen if they found a connection to that group? What would the Wolf's Dragoons do?"
Maeve Wolf, the next leader of the Dragoons, unless something odd happened and took her out of the chain of command in one of two ways. She gave a snort, and then she went on a diatribe of a reply, which lasted for over an hour and had used enough strong words to make a spacer blush. To say that the M's had been surprised at her reply was like saying an Atlas class battlemech was a little on the large size for a personal weapon.
The young Wolf Dragoon was not even upset when a computer generated voice came over the speaker that suggested to her to please check with her boss to make sure of her statements, before a contract was going to be offered to the Dragoons. Maeve was about to make a slight objection to this request, and then acting Colonel Wolf thought about all of that data. She really should check on that, and she was not "the leader" of the Dragoons at this time.
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The Dragoon dropship left the Tramp class jumpship to take a fast trip back to the busy Cyclops class station many kilometers away at the edge of the jump point. From the docking point on the Dragoon crewed space station, Maeve Wolf made a fast trip through the massive station to the Wolf Net office. It had been set up to keep an eye on ships and people that arrived at this jump point for the last many years of this star system being the heart of the Mercenary trade. They also would watch and collect information on any group needing the high tech repair slips on this station and could be rented out to service to any one that had the need and the coin to pay for the services.
Acting Colonel Maeve Wolf was looking at the screen as she waited for a reply to come in from the planet closer to the star of this system. Even using modern speed of light communication, she was too far away from the Planet of Outreach to have a real time conversation. At no time did she even think about wanting to use a HPG to make the speed of light issues a lot less. The people of the Inner Sphere were not mentally geared to think around that speed of light issue. While the acting Colonel was waiting for Jaime Wolf's reply to her last statement, she looked at the staff of the local Wolf Net team working in the next room. They all were shoulder deep in the raw and processed data that she had dumped on them when she had first entered this set of rooms.
The speaker changes it's audible tones to let the waiting person know that more data was coming in from way too many light minutes away. Maeve looked at the face just as it started to move again in a fluid motion. Jaime's old but still energetic voice comes out of the nearby speaker a heartbeat later. "Blake told me that they have the data and so far, it looks authentic. They will check it against what might be found with the local team from our data library."
Maeve nodded her head. "So, that leaves the big question. Will the Dragoons work with, and not try to kill, someone that might be a little too closely connected to The No Named Clan than anyone might have thought was possible before today? This was asked in more or less a direct question, and they are waiting for a reply that they will judge us on."
It was sometime later before Jaime gave a reply, and it was longer than was needed for the speed of light radio waves to criss cross this part of the star system. A loud sigh came from the speaker and for a second Jaime Wolf looked every day of his reported age if not more than a few more years. "There are so few of the old clanners left within the warrior ranks of the Dragoons to have that much in the way of a power block we will have to deal with. The bondmens will be a short term issue, but they are not that large of a power within the Dragoons."
Jaime seemed to age even more before her eyes, and he kept talking. "So little, that it should not be an issue with the major leadership of our people. But just to make sure of this assumption, this information would be kept very close hold. All so that any bondmens would not find out about them, unless they are a special person with a vetted need to know. Right now, this information is compartmented, it would be you, me, Blake, and maybe two or three others after some very careful vetting. We can work on if we think that it needs to be expanded at a later time, but only after you get back to the city."
The meeting lasted a few more hours, but that was only due to the limits of speed of light radio waves moving between those two locations. Only a few more questions and requests for guidance passed between them. Only then did Maeve leave the office to get some food, but it would be a while before she would be able to get any much needed sleep. Maeve Wolf just had too much on her mind, and not for the first time she wondered how The Wolf had been able to do things like this mostly alone after his brother was killed for so many years.
########
It was 24 hours later that Maeve's dropship had been reattached to the hull of the Tramp class jumpship. Again, what was as good as the second highest leader of the Wolf's Dragoons had no problem making it to the meeting room on the Tramp. The two people that she was expecting to see were already seated in the office on the hamster wheel waiting for the Dragoon officer. Before Maeve took her seat, she passed over one of the two small cases that she had carried to this meeting from the dropship.
Maeve had to smile at the look on those two faces as the two lead crystal bottles filled with amber fluid were exposed to the rest of the room. Even the SLiE knew what Louis XIII Treize Cognac was, if only in reading about it or seeing an image. Besides there were some old entertainment shows in the SLiE that had the hero toasting those that died fighting the clans with her last bottle of Treize as the closing scene. Maeve had to pull a few strings to have something like this, but that was why you had Wolf Net. She had asked for a case of the best liquor that could be found on short notice. But in the short amount of time they had to pull something out of the hat, Wolf Net had only been able to find these two very expensive bottles.
Maeve smiled at the pair of shocked looks on the other two faces. "These are compliments from The Wolf, for your discretion on anything related to the weapon that you referenced in your opening message. And I am to give you this." Now Maeve passed over a thick digital data storage device across the metal topped desk. Maeve noticed that it was picked up, but that it was not immediately put into any device to read the data.
Maeve also noticed that it was the XO of the jumpship that had first picked up the device that she had passed over. The Acting Colonel felt her nose rise just a little when she started speaking. "We Dragoons do not like owing people. Something like that can come back to bite a mercenary unit in a soft spot at the most inopportune time. So that device holds all the most up to date data files that we have on the Clans, current ComStar situation, and the splinter groups from ComStar that Wolf Net has on file. That is as updated as when I left the station to come here." Maeve Wolf was not going to say that a lot of the data had come also from MIIO and LIC. There also had been some data added by the limited Wolf Net penetration of MASK and SAFE.
It was Maureen that reached forward to take the data that had been put on the desk and out of the XO's hands. "I'm sure that it will be helpful, for certain people, that I know might like this information. Still, I have to ask you a pointed question Colonel Wolf. Can your people work with some people that might have been distantly related to what the rest of the Clans now called The No Named Clan? I need a yes or no, please?"
Maureen gave another snort when she saw something cross the Dragoon leader's eyes. "I know that Wolf Net is looking, so I will tell you something. I was born in the Inner Sphere, and I even have been dealing with MMM or MoC for many years. I'm sure they have already looked at my captain's papers that are filed in both the FWL and MoC. And again, they have been on file for years along with my birth cert. Oh, and don't forget my dealings with the FWL and half a dozen different major companies in the FedCom in my life. So, good luck trying to see how I fit into all of this mess. I am just acting as the middleman. One that just happens to have a jumpship and that has a commander that can keep her mouth shut for long lengths of time. Those were things that my current charter found useful to have on this run."
Acting Colonel Maeve Wolf made her back go straight at how well this woman had hit the nail on the head with what Wolf Net had been checking on this jumpship captain. "I talked to The Wolf, and he has offered to put something in writing, but only as long as you don't publish it. At least not unless you let the command team of the Dragoons know about it first. What he said, is that "we" do not care about where they have come from? Just as long as they treat the Dragoons fairly in any business dealings in the board room or on the battlefields. If you don't treat us fairly, then we will treat them the same way.. until the last Dragoon." Maeve tried to channel the exact tone that Jaime had used, and she thought that she did a passible job.
Maureen smiled and she could see that Mark visibly relaxed at the words from the Dragoon Colonel. "Okay, now I must ask something in my Captain Maureen Farren hat for this next part. If you would reach under your chair and pull out the data pad. This is what "they" will be talking about to bring to the Wolf's Dragoon in this business deal. This is the real reason that I have brought this group to your star system."
#########
Maeve about came out of the chair when the image of a SLDF Vincent MK 39 class corvette came to life on the screen. The display also gave details on the warship as it currently was, and what was left to be done for it to be fully brought up to SLDF accepted deployment. It was an impressive amount of detail on the device in the Dragoon's hands. Now comes the time for the horse trading to start and the woman on the other side of the table struck first to knock the future leader of the Dragoons off her pace and it was just not a bargaining technique.
First off was the requirement that the people who owned the warship warned Wolf Net to pull out of an arc of territory on the map. The map that was used to mark the arc had been dated from before the Star League civil war. It had shown most of the powers on that edge of space from that time along with a few changes. The arc went from the outer edge of the Taurian Concordat going towards the area that now held the Marian Hegemony and just a little more. Anything outside of that arc was fair game, but on the inner edge it was asked to only be more targeted missions and not just fishing expeditions. It had taken some time for both sides to understand that Wolf Net could not just leave some uncovered areas.
This area would kind of point in the direction of were the owners of those warships might be, but then again, that was an arc that was many hundreds of light years wide at its narrowest point. With Wolf Net more or less out of that area for fishing. This would reduce SLIC's watch list to only the Cylons, pirates, local governments, ComStar, and all of the splinter groups from ComStar to keep an eye out for in that part of space. It was not much of a reduction, but it was something.
When they had worked out that part of the deal that concerned Wolf Net, then the real trading for the small warship had come online. Maeve was a little surprised when the idea was floated by the jumpship's captain that the total payment would not be due until after that warship was picked up by the Dragoons. It was normal for a mercenary unit, even for a group the size of the current Dragoons, to have to put at least half of the funds down when the agreement was reached with a weapon's supplier. That was not a small risk for the sellers to be taking, after all this was a warship and not "just" a full production run of battlemechs.
Maeve Wolf thought that the deal was done and then a flashing light started on the table, which caused Maureen and Mark to ask for a quick break. Food and drinks were provided for the Colonel before the pair left the room to the Dragoon officer. This was all stage craft, but the pair of M's took the time to have a little meeting with some of the SLIC specialists on the ship. After about an hour later, the two Ms returned to the meeting with the Dragoon Colonel. It was time to have a real hand off of weapons between just the two ex-clan units that were not warship related.
The second exchange of weapons would be a full battalion of third and fourth line heavy and assault battle machines that would go towards helping with the rebuilding of this mercenary unit or sold to third parties for funds to help in that rebuilding. After the transfer, it would be up to the Dragoons, on what would happen to these 36 battlemechs that were carried as "just" cargo mass in the Lion. They were all wrecks, but they would be repairable with the right spare parts, time, and qualified repair techs needed to do the work. Nothing major was broken on them, they just were missing a few….items off of their hulks. Some of the mechs had been captured from pirates and a few had been bought off of Duke Terry for first study and then very quickly stored in cache sites. The mechs bought from Duke Terry's were added in as bulk cargo early in the planning, with the rest coming from machines in the cache. Those other mechs that were mostly Lancelots, Black Knights, but with two Highlanders added in and not just for some spice.
What did the acting Colonel think that these 36 less than whole battle machines that were mostly made up of old SLDF designs were worth? She gave up to the "Wolverines" some mechs of their own. The odd group had gotten four complete captured clan Omnimechs to include a 100ton monster called a Dire Wolf. The Dragoons also would turn over ten captured Elemental class battle armor suits to these slightly off people. That the machines would be mostly "real" captured and operational systems, was required by the digital voice on the speaker. It would take a full week for the captured equipment to be brought up from the planet closer to the star. The Pampanito II only had to release the Lion and wait for it to make it to the Cyclops I station. Then the dropship opened her cargo bays to be relieved of the cargo of the mech battalion.
Only agents within MIIO knew something was going on between the Dragoons, a merchant jumpship, and a captain that had been known to work for MMM/MiM going back to times even before the Clan invasion. That was something that was not even rare for the Dragoons to do before the start of the 4th SW. They had been doing things like this going all the way back to when the Dragoons first started buying local made Hornet and Flea class battlemechs right from Inner Sphere factories. MIIO were watching the jump point in the Outreach system. And yet they still didn't catch a heavy encoded radio message that was sent from the Jumpship in question to the planet surface about a minute before a Tramp class ship jumped out of this star system.
########
It had been five days after the Pampanito II had left this system when the next major meeting was held referenced to that one special jumpship. This one was being held on Outreach with some key leadership of the Dragoons, but it was a very small meeting. It had taken that long for all of the data that this odd jumpship had dropped off to be looked at, was then reviewed, then analyzed, then reviewed a few more times, and finally for the reports to be given. This had not been the first meeting about this data, but it was both the highest level meeting and the one with the most complete data sets to be briefed about.
This meeting was between three people, at least it was only three people that were sitting in this one secure room. You had the leader of the Dragoons and the up-and-coming leader, along with the head of Wolf Net. The rest of the Regimental commanders and large units were not present for this little get together deep underground. The first two hours of the briefing had been mainly about the core of the meeting that had been held at the jump point. But now it was time to talk about the elephant in the room. It was about what had been shot to them literally at the last minute from the jumpship as one more question was added to the long list she had left behind already.
Colonel Stanford Blake looked at the older man first, but he was also judging the hoped-for next leader of the Dragoons at the same time. "Thanks to data supplied from many sources, we know that the data addressed to you and Maeve was definitely sent from the Lion carried by the Pampanito II. Now a lot of people might have known about where the message had come from going towards the planet, but none of them would have been able to break the encryption on that message. At worst, someone might know a message was sent from that jump point at a certain time and that it was sent from the general area of the jumpship Pampanito II going towards the planet. I think that last is the worst case."
Jaime was physically tired, but his brain was just as sharp as ever. "And the Data this last second message held?"
Maeve now spoke to the group. "It was a warning about the ComStar supplied nav data everyone uses. Only they didn't come right out and say what might be wrong with the data supplied by ComStar. It only said eleven words in the main body of the message. Odessa, Gabriel, Herakleion, Jardine, Sharpe, Obeedah, Versailles, Taussen, Tangerz, and Mayadi."
Maeve sat back in her chair and felt like rubbing her eyes to get the invisible sand out of them, she was amazingly short on sleep. "We now know that the base in the Odessa system was a SLDF base that we didn't know about until "they" pointed it out to us. When you add in some of the stories that have come out about some of the games that ComStar has done in the past, which took some digging. Some of the names in the message came up on that detailed search, but there should not be anything interesting there."
She drummed her fingers on the tabletop. "The breakthrough came while I was using a copy of the data files that we had worked out the deconfliction line for Wolf Net actions and these strangers. The file they had given us was detailed in that one area of the star map, but while I was doing some name searches. Someone activated my data wireless connection, and while I was watching…. names on my non nav computer started to change before my eyes. I had the local Wolf Net team and local computer support try to find out what was going on." She was not going to cover the screaming fit that the changing data had caused. The rumors about it were quite bad enough and only a little exaggerated at this point.
The head of Wolf Net took up the story. "Something in the ComStar supplied nav data was changing data that it was not supposed to or cleared to do according to the supporting notes. This was a very nasty bit of software, which we will see if we can use it in the future for our own needs. Right now, we know that it would hunt for certain data in any files on a given computer. It will scan even files that were not even related to Navigation files. As it happened, we had to use the backup Nav computer on the Alexander when she was moved out of storage before starting her trip to Outreach. The main Nav computer was fully operational, but there was something wrong with the connections going from it to the jump engine. One that refused to be tracked down by the repair teams even after many months of dedicated searching."
Blake made a sour face that quickly turned angry. "We did the same search Maeve showed us on that old nav com, but we had a totally different results on that isolated system."
The head of Wolf Net hit the display button near his chair. "This is what we found." He took a deep breath and made himself stay calm so that he could return to this briefing without needing to take another dose of his hypertension medication. "Odessa is listed as having a SLDF Navy support base. The data base on our warships also had a system called Herakleion but not one called Jardine. The same was true of Sharpe, but not Obeedah. We did find those two missing systems in the ComStar supplied data but not the names that our old SLDF computer held. So, what if Herakleion, is Jardine, Sharpe is Obeedah, Versailles is Taussen, and Tangerz, is the star system called Mayadi? It would put one of these hidden worlds in each of the major States of the Inner Sphere." A new image was now displayed with the suspected planets that were addressed to them in the coded message. Blake was not going to say that this was just a substitution code commonly used by people in his line of work.
Maeve looked at the data, and her jaw dropped open. Still, she worked out something before Jaime. "They stole five worlds as well as having Terra in their pocket? They could have launched headhunter attacks on each of the House Lords without anyone noticing they were getting ready to start a war on that kind of scale. They also would have a hidden support system that no one even knew to look for in case of a larger war."
Jaime had a hidden smile at the quick thinking of the person that most of the people in the unit wanted to see as his possible replacement, but only when he decided to retire from the active roles. Maeve had pointed out two very good reasons for those worlds to be where they were and why. He looked around the room. "There needs to be another meeting between me and Maeve about this data. Nondi, Hanse, Melissa, Victor and Katherine are due to arrive on planet in about a week to ten days. I think this is something we need to show them."
It was Maeve and not Blake that spoke next. "We should not tell them where we got this data. I would like to keep a certain jumpship and her crew out of any notes or other ways that might point to them for MIIO or LIC to go look at. It would risk news about a group that wants to not be noticed by people who are that close to clan space, or to any groups that are known to leak information very badly at times. If we let MIIO or LIC know about "them"? It could jeopardize us getting this warship and maybe others in the future. We can always ask "them"…before we let outsiders know some pre-approved key details about "them". We can use this information maybe to get something that we want from them, after all information is just another form of a weapon."
########
Jaime was thinking and not talking as the acting colonel talked. The real reason that the leadership for the FedCom as well as both halves of that massive political power were coming to visit was not known to but a handful of people within the whole Inner Sphere. They were coming to see the Dragoons for some detailed medical checks that they wanted to be run on the whole royal family. The Dragoons had the best medical care that could be found anywhere within the Inner Sphere. Well, any place that was not in some parts of the Clan Invasion controlled zones. But then again only Clan warriors and maybe the odd special person got that high of a level of medical care within clan space. The rest of the medical support for members of the lower caste of the clans were not so lucky, not by a long shot.
It had started back when Nondi Steiner had made her way to see the return of the victorious Kell's hounds from the battles around Luthien. She had a close connection to this unit from its birth thanks to her sister and then her niece. It was both a political and a personal necessity for her to be here to see her family, and to see what she could do to help with the healing and the units rebuilding. While she had been checking on the wounded of the Kell's, it was stumbled on that she was overdue for a medical checkup…by a decade. She had undergone a long delayed medical checkup by a doctor from the 1st Kell's Hounds. That kind of what happens, when you tell a wounded soldier to make sure he gets his checkups after losing an arm to being ripped off by Clan battle armor. Sometimes the oddest things will come out of a private's mouth when he is almost out of his mind in pain, depression, and getting way too used to taking handfuls of pain killers at a time and many times a day.
Nondi had showed to the young soldier that it was not that hard, and she had a mercenary doctor give her a checkup right then. Few will know that it was that off-hand remark by a wounded infantry man that would change the whole Inner Sphere. After Nondi had undergone a long delayed medical checkup by a doctor from the Kell's Hounds. Many of the medical staff made some very pointed comments to her security detail about doctors that were more worried about politics and not the health and care of the Archon in all but name. The tests had found many indicators that pointed to cancer, just like her sister and her husband but without the core reason of exposure that had killed the pair. The Kell's doctors had started the common treatments that afternoon and messages were shot from the planet going to some key people in the Royal family.
This medical finding had caused the staff in the Federated Suns part of the FedCom to be more forceful about Hanse's health. The image of a younger and pregnant Melissa dragging an older Hanse to the medical room by a sensitive part of his lower body was proven to be false, but only just. The images of her with a…strained look on her face was not disproven. After the results came back from the medical Labs. They also had sent another round of shockwaves going between both staffs. The first impact had landed squarely on the kitchen staff, and now Hanse was on a very controlled and even supervised diet.
Now that Melissa had been cleared to travel once more. She was bringing the whole family to Outreach for a very detailed medical checkup. But she was not coming with just the family and their escorts. Tagging along with the royal family was a huge staff coming from NAIS, to undergo cross training so that this would not be an issue in the near future. At least it would not be an issue for the Key leaders of the FedCom, and then for more people as the new classes of doctors were graduated and were distributed around the FedCom.
The royal family were not coming to Outreach on a Command Circuit, but it was very close to that expensive route thanks to the power this family had at its military command. The Royal family even had been cleared to use a jump point to arrive that much closer to Outreach. It was one of the ones that only the Dragoons had been cleared to know, much less use. Now this trip was going to cover somethings that might not go over that well with the leaders of the FedCom.
Dec 3052
Canopus
General (in hiding) Cersei Gao was watching but looking at the woman to her front, which changed when she started walking in Cersei's direction at a pace that would best be described as bored with her day. When the local was about a third of the way across the massive 10th floor mezzanine and still coming towards her. The local started talking with her hand coming out in a greeting with a very fake smile on her face. "Miss Gao, I have been looking for you. I was expecting to find you to be at the military side of the building." Everyone was still trying to work out were the newest person on the board of directors for MMM fit into the rest of "The World" that was the capital of the MoC much less were she fit in with the rest of MMM.
Cersei smiled an equally fake smile and took the opening to cut threw some of the red tape that had been plaguing this operation for the last to many weeks and months. "Not this time. You see, I was able to pick up some brand-new atmosphere and water processors from a new subsidiary of MMM. I was hoping that your Department of the MoC's government might have the need to buy a few and would not mind setting up a public test run to maybe drive some external sales. Oh, and think you for coming out to greet me in person. I know that you all have a lot of irons in the fire."
Maxine was stunned at what she had just heard from this stranger to the power games of the MoC. Everyone knew that having clean air and water was one of the major issues after the Star League had fallen for way too many planets out this way. Finding replacement parts, repair manuals, or new machines had been a major showstopper for tens of decades for maintaining much less allowing any real population growth on hundreds of worlds. As Cersei was speaking, Maxine pulled out a little device and sent a quick message.
With the message now sent, Maxine looked into the eyes of the other woman. "Really? Then I think I know who to talk to." When this meeting had been set up, Maxine had thought that she was going to be shown some new mining and extraction workmechs that MMM might be getting ready to start making in the next few years to decade. Or at least something along those lines, but this might turn out to be even more worthwhile use of her limited and valuable time.
Maxine led the group from MMM that was visibly led by Cersei Gao into a huge glass elevator and up they went to the offices of one of the topmost bureaucrats of the MoC. By the end of the day, two things had happened in the first aftershocks. Four people were let go from their comfortable government jobs for blocking Cersei access to Maxine, and it was very likely that even more might follow those four in the next few weeks. That final number hitting the unemployment lines would depend on how well or badly the tests of the "new" filters went. That was the other item, Cersei and her team were given a time and place to be with everything she needed to prove that this "new" system truly worked as she was pitching to the MoC.
#######
Two days later Cersei and over a dozen of her specially trained people were in a deep tunnel on the most environmentally ravaged of the three continents of the planet. This part of the planet had been stripped or "worked" as the locals called it before the end of the 1st SW. As her people worked, Cersei was looking at the massive "air lock" fitted into the far end of the tunnel that she and the rest of them were standing in.
The local mine manager was standing beside Cersei, and she could tell that he was wondering at what she was looking at. He went fishing, after all this was old hat to a person that had spent more time underground than he had on the surface of any planet. "We put this airlock in late last year. We needed it to prevent the bad air and water from leaking back into other working areas and losing the whole mine…again."
The man adjusts his hardhat as he kept on talking. "We have been checking out these older mines to see what might have been left behind that now is economically viable to recover. It took us almost three months to put it in, but we have a lot of experience doing that kind of work and it was worth the effort. At first, we used industrial work mechs on this task, but they turned out to be too hard to clean up after each work shift. Then we almost lost a couple of pilots, it was when their suit seals proved less than up to the job in the unsealed workmech cockpits. So, we just went with some older generation bug mechs to do the work that we first bought out of the MMM wreck yard and refitted them with some tools. They just finished, last month another set of temp air locks that is deeper in this part of the mine. The plan was to pump the air and water into some holding tanks on the surface before incineration. Then we would inspect the tunnel when it was declared safe. If we found any signs of useful ores? We would keep going by moving the temp airlocks deeper down the mime."
When he didn't get the reaction that he had expected he added a little more information. "You would be surprised what we have been able to find already." He stopped talking when the woman gave a grunt that he took as understanding the magnitude of this work.
#######
Cersei's people were working on this side of the open "main" airlock, and after a few false starts the air lock was closed and locked behind them. The woman in charge of the mine looked around at the gathering of strangers and local members of the government. Everyone was gathered around a small and temporary command center needed more to make sure that no one did something dumb this deep underground in a contaminated and working mine.
The main manager stood off to one side and took over the meeting. "Now that the hatch has been closed and tested to be safe from any leaks. We will now remotely open the next air lock that is deeper into the mine. It is just over 600m down the tunnel and around one corner, so you could not see it when we had the main lock open." The woman pointed one of her long and thin fingers and some of her staff went to work on the improvised command center. It didn't take long for a few alarm bells to sound in this part of the mine.
Maxine started talking to some of the other government agents present for this public test. "As you can see the level of contamination is rising in the area that we had cleared out last week. We have many different types of contamination in this one mine tunnel alone. The water and air both have biologic, metals, and radiation of gamma, alpha particles, and even some more exotic stuff. The area that will be tested runs from this hatch, to and through the now open hatch going back to a third and still closed hatch. The total area of tunnels this one part of the mine is about 4km of opened area. We have set up groups of data gathering sensors at the open hatch, outside this hatch, and in the now exposed main tunnel. It is about as comprehensive of a test as could be thought of."
Maxine was not going to say that it was expensive to set up and not only in the amount of lost production. But this was being done as a favor to someone very high within MMM. The worse case would be that the mine might be able to use a failed test to get a price break on the next set of used bug mechs.
As she was talking the group around the command center could see the digital bars that showed lines on two of the screens going from green into yellow and still it was climbing fast into the red zones. The group as a whole spent the next ten minutes getting a brief on what each monitor was tracking and how deadly it was to humans. The mine safety officer was circling the small command center, and then she gives a slight head nod to the top boss of the mine and the only male that was in charge of this part of the mine' operations.
The head of mine safety now spoke to the group before the male could open his mouth. "Now this area has leveled out in contamination that is normal for this part of the mine, and it is about time that we started. Miss Gao. You may start your equipment when you're ready."
Cersei Gao gave a lazy smile, but she did not need to do or say anything. One of her people was standing by what was basically an old urbanmech's powerful heart carried on a flatbed truck. With a flip of a switch, that one person's job was done. Now an engineer, one that had been retrained while waiting at the Resort but now was wearing normal jumpship coveralls explained how the two cylinders worked. He did not tell them about how these odd devices had originally been used on a spaceship that was built to support the colonial government. He just covered what they were going to do in this tunnel in today's test.
The Engineer has just gotten done pointing to the fittings on the tops and sides of the devise to show where the system could be expanded to support larger areas. They all stopped talking when one of the young people manning the different systems in the little command center jumped up out of her chair and ran for the massive air lock like her very life depended on it. They were all looking at her back when she yelled over her shoulder to the rest of her co-workers.
"Two reds! Three Yellows! Make that three yellows and two yellows!" The mine manager and the safety officer pushed everyone out of the way so that they quickly joined the one standing woman yelling at her full volume. A few of the government types started edging a little closer to the large high speed elevators that would take them to the surface and possible safety.
The group could only watch for the next few minutes as the group of mining experts went about their work between the main airlock and the underground command center. Cersei and the two "laborers" that were "working" for her noticed the side on looks that they were getting from a growing number of the locals. The two large people slowly let their hands drift to their concealed weapons. Their long ago SLIC Training if not life experience was starting to kick in.
A wild-eyed safety inspector stormed over to Cersei and before anyone could do anything…drastic. She spoke in a shaky voice to the general in hiding. "How can you do that? It is impossible, unless maybe you have some Star League tech hidden in those devices." Towards the end, the voice got an accusing tone to it.
Now Cersei was about to get defensive, when her "chief engineer" got between the safety inspector and the mission commander. In less than two steps he was nose to nose with the local woman. "About 95 percent of each device can be supported with what is found on this planet just as it is. The last five percent are what we call Line replaceable units that have to be specially built by MMM. You might be able to make those LRUs off site, but you would have to hand make them in a few months, at best. WE have a whole factory that can turn out dozens of the whole systems in a month with a huge cost savings vs hand making them."
Cersei almost had to pull the Engineer away from the woman. "Ma'am. Maybe you can let the rest of us know what is causing you to be so upset with "us". I thought that the tests were going very well?"
The overall mining manager closed in on the group. "We didn't mean to offend you, but the numbers." She stopped talking for a few seconds and looked around to the group from her government. "We are getting readings, which show that the level of contamination is dropping at a rate we have never seen before. It will normally take many days for this area to be safe, and we will still need to send in teams to do some spot checks."
At the lost look that the mine CEO was getting, she back tracked a little. "What those two small processors have done in less than 10 minutes? It would have taken us two weeks maybe as low as ten days to do, and then we still would have to incinerate the pulled out air and water on the surface."
The new head of Colonial Redevelopment had an odd look on her face. Maxine was almost breathless. "They work? They have made it safe?"
Cersei now had her command smile on. "They are working, but remember they only pull the crap out of the local environment. When the collectors at the bottom of the cylinders are full? You will still have to get rid of the crap in the sealed cans the systems come preloaded with. The bio-mater is "cooked" to break it down into carbon or other elements, but the heavy metals and other non-organic toxins will still have to be dumped somewhere, incinerated, or recycled."
For the rest of the day, the whole group stayed down in the tunnels of that mine. That was how long it took for the 4km of tunnels to be "cleaned" before the hatch was open. Before it was opened a test sample of water was pulled from a spigot on the hatch, and it was tested using the traditional methods just in case the monitors turned out to be wrong. After testing, the Colonial trained engineer took the beaker and slammed the triple shot size of clean water down his throat with a grin on his face. He had done it so fast that not one of the locals were able to stop him from the crazy display. The group of outsiders were not allowed to stay down in the mines while the final check on the now opened tunnel was done. That was too much of a risk, and it would violate dozens of safety mining regulations. There were some lines that could not be crossed.
A final report was waiting on the VIPs when the whole group landed on the VTOL pad at the city of Crimson. It had been a great first major public test of the air and water cleaners that MMM wanted to start selling. Cersei and MMM were "paid" for the pair of cylinders, and they started working on second and larger scale test of cleaning out the mine that was being run by the mining company. Some were worried that the test might have been somehow faked. Much to the mine staff's surprise, MMM was willing to let the mine run their own set of tests.
MMM had always believed the best scale to use in testing was 12 inches to the foot. If they could pass this next set of fully independent tests? The MoC government would certify these systems to be sold to any planet within the areas claimed by the MoC. The reputation of the medical technology of the MoC meant that this certification was good for almost anywhere in the whole Inner Sphere…..but only almost. The only problems would be on major capital worlds, or worlds with access to clan level medical technology, or those planets that had leadership that were very control orientated about local independence. At least that was what the marketing department of MMM had come up with, but many of the board of Directors were not so confident with human nature.
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Notes
Chapter length: This one is a bit short compared to what I normally put out. I had to cut it here so that I didn't leave you all with a ….cliffhanger for a month or more. The next chapter is a monster, it's already like 47pages long. The ideas for major parts of this chapter were from input from you'all the readers. I cannot believe that I am at a million words…...and counting.
Nondi Steiner: When I first wrote this? I didn't know that Katrine Steiner had died in 3040 and I had used her. That was a major rewrite to change it so that Nondi was also going in for health checks. I needed this for a plot point. I really wanted Katrina to be around but could not come up with a way to making it happen. You will see more of this rewrite in the next chapter. +_+
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