A man out of time, and almost out of time (SIOC)

by cliff.west

You all can thank, or curse, Chris O'Farrell for giving me this idea. An OC/SI gets ripped out of his home dimension when the Dragoons were testing a repair on one of their supporting jumpships. What will happen next, and will it change the whole Inner Sphere?

8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

By Cliff

Fact Checked and Sanity Checked by Drakensis

Editor (that I at least sometimes listen to, so the screw ups are all mine) Drakensis

City of Crimson, Canopus IV

Magistracy of Canopus

15 June 2026

It was like a light had been turned on in his brain as it went from black to fully aware and active. Thanks to many years of training Kelly didn't move a muscle as his brain started to function once more. He just stayed still as he tries to work out what the situation might be and how to get out of it with his hide still at least more or less intact. Quickly he found that he was sitting on a metal chair and all of his clothes had been removed while he had been drugged or otherwise knocked unconscious. He very slowly ran his tongue around the insides of his mouth and found that his special tooth was missing its artificial crown.

That was bad news for him as it showed that he was working with someone with some skills in the line of work he had been hiding from over the last decade. But his heart truly dropped down to his toes when his tongue found a cut on his cheek that held his backup plan if he ever got captured by the wrong type of people. That was a very clear sign that whoever had grabbed him were very skilled in working in the dark. That could mean that he was not long for this world, or he was on his way to see people that very much wanted him to fall off the face of the Inner Sphere so that ComStar would not need to worry about him.

He fell back onto his training and looked for the first memory that he could put a date on, and very quickly he worked up to when he had arrived on this planet. He reviewed his time in a Canopian Pleasure House that had dual uses for a man that had dealt with information as his life blood for longer than he wanted to remember while sober. The data had been that the Dragoons had supply issues caused by the Combine, not that he had been surprised by this information, they were in the Combine after all.

Next, he reviewed his fieldcraft after leaving that very high-end Working House and he couldn't remember being followed as he took a public bus past three taxi stands. He had even paid extra to take the third taxi waiting at a stand set up over two blocks from the nearest bus stop. It was all by the book, but now he realized that someone else had read that same book. He now understood that there had to have been some kind of quick acting knockout gas hidden in the isolated and soundproof passenger compartment of the hover taxi.

"Mr. Kristofur, I know that you're awake, the counter agent that was used is very effective, so it will do you no good to play games with me." These words came in a soft female voice from off to the right of the naked man.

When Kelly spoke, his voice told him that he had been put under by a short list of drugs and not by electronic means. He just didn't know for what reason that he had been taken and drugged. They should have just killed him and dumped his body in one of the many mine shafts dotted around this planet. "Its Major Kelly, Kristopher is my first name. I blame my parents for giving me two first names to be known by." He opened his eyes and saw the outline of a person but a light from near the figure was blocking out any details.

The voice held a hint of amusement as it gave a reply. "Really? I didn't know that Vesar was commonly used as a first name."

Only someone very well trained would have seen the micro reaction coming from the man tied to the sturdy chair. He gave a soft laugh to cover up any reaction, not knowing that it had failed very badly. "I'm sorry, but it looks like your grab team picked up the wrong man. I think that we can come up with a suitable fine so that the boys and girls of my command don't come down on you all too harshly."

The body shifted around a little, but it never came out of the cover provided by the bright light fixed nearby. "Oh, I'm sorry to tell you that Kelly's Commandos's Mule had an engine issue and crashed with the loss of all hands a little over three days ago. We thought about taking the rest of the force under new management, your Condor isn't much but anyone would want a jumpship, wouldn't they? But it was decided above my pay grade that it would be too much trouble to pull off and keep the wrong people from finding out. So, when they come back to this system, the Ministry of Public Safety will have a very detailed report ready for them about the loss of all hands and a bill for the cost of scrapping the wreck dropship hulk. So, your friends, if you ever had any in your entire life, won't be coming to give you another jail break."

The voice stopped talking for just the right amount of time of open air to see if Vesar was going to say something, but it's little surprise that he stayed quiet. "Besides ROM might want to talk to anyone that might know about the operations on Alpha Hydri."

Vesar was starting to sweat at his situation, but he tried to rally one more time. He was dearly hoping that this possible woman was just fishing, but part of him knew she wasn't. That didn't mean that he would just roll over and die. "I'm sorry but you killed my people for the wrong man. My name is Kristopher Kelly, the commander of Kelly's Commandos. I don't think that I have heard the name Vesar before just now."

The voice slowly laughed at the antics of the one-time head of ROM. "Oh, you have some very good fieldcraft, but there is only so much that can be done to cloak your DNA. Besides taking the used condom when you were done was odd enough for it to be remembered by the staff. We had a lot of bad leads about you, but it was worth looking into each and every one of them, if just on the odd chance that we did find you. I know that you're wondering, so we took a sample from you three different times and had them matched to data that was found on New Delos trace back to when you had that nasty flu bug. Each time it came back a match so good that you would have to be a clone or have access to some very high-tech gene splicers that would have been the envy of the old Star League."

Vesar couldn't help but react to this information, but his mouth was still coming up to speed. These were not ROM agents! Not by the hint about wanting to talk to his people and the ComStar prison called Alpha Hydri that he had been broken out of after that failure in the FWL, thought the one-time head of a powerful intelligence gathering agency. But as far as he knew, there were only two groups that could have access to him on New Delos, one of those was SAFE and the other was the Wolf's Dragoons. One was much worse for him, and it was not the intelligence agencies of one of the five great lords of the Inner Sphere.

The woman's voice came back to his ears as his brain worked on this latest bit of news that he had been able to work on. "I bet one part of you is remembering all of that ROM training that is saying how bad my fieldcraft is being."

The woman's voice gets a little husky. "And to a point you're right. Only Jaime and Blake wanted you to know what was going on, just in the off chance that you forgot about little old us. You also might have started wondering what has been going on for the last three days. Well, you see the Canopians have some amazing drugs, and you were just sitting there. So, we pumped you full of the normal stuff we use and then did a brain drain on you. Then we did the same thing with what a local friend gave us to play with, just to see if anything else came out of your grey matter. I was a little disappointed that we didn't find anything new with the local made drugs, but it was just a test if Wolf Net runs out of our supply."

With that name drop Vesar Kristofur had started to thrash in his bindings and started yelling any word that came to his mind. One of the tricks to counter to an interrogation is to yell yourself hoarse. After all you can't tell secrets if you can't speak.

An alarm sounds from near the person hidden by the bright lights. "Oh, good your body should now be clear of the counter-agent that we had to use on you. Now let's see how you react to what House Liao likes to use on anyone that displeases them bad enough. Too bad I won't be here to hear you scream; I understand that its very unpleasant… at least until your brain starts over heating in your skull. The betting pool has been set up that says how long you will live after we stick you with the pointy end. I have six hours, please be a good boy and don't disappoint me. The leader of MU/MU and ROM should be made of some stern stuff even if you're going to be 57 in three months. Oh, and the Black Widow sends her regards and wishes you a long and slow death."

The hidden body left, and Vesar now noticed the slight burning near his spine at the base of his neck. Soon he was screaming but not because he wanted to so that he could not answer questions, it was screaming made up of pain. The pain would only grow, and the victim's perceived passage of time would slow to a crawl as the drugs added to keep him from slipping into shock took effect.

The Wolf Net agent went to a second room that had a nice flat screen display and a device recording everything that had been happening in that interrogation room for the last few days. Now she was thankful for the soundproofing in that room and that this video screen was angled away from her. Even one with her training and psyche could only handle something like that for so long before it became wearing.

The only other person in the room turned from the active screen and looked at his subordinate. "You did a good job in there Mary. When he's done, the cleanup team will take care of it and the building to make it all go away. They want you to courier all of the data for higher to read, you're going to be there if there are any questions."

'Mary' nodded her head to her boss; she had been the one working over the subject for over a week. She knew that you don't give some things away when you're breaking a subject at this level. "I'm going to An Ting?"

'Mike' did a slight head shake from side to side. "No, you're going to Blackwell and after dropping off the data you're going to be assigned to something called Project Caveman. Before you ask, no. I have never heard of that project before I was told of it, and I have that odd feeling that I don't want to know."

Mary eyes were locked on her boss but still giving the odd look towards the screen of the most hated man in the Wolf's Dragoons shaking and giving silent screams to the walls. "Cover story?"

Mike moved from where he was standing to a small table in the center of the room with a packet. "Recently discharged mechwarrior Talisa Maegyr is flying out in a month to the Taurian Concordat. She is picking up a locally made Thunderbolt to replace her family machine that was shot up so badly that it had to be scrapped by order of her higher command. After picking it up, she will be on a chartered liner going to Galatea, but at a stop on New Valencia she will be hired by the Blackwell Security Unit."

It was only thanks to her training that she didn't jerk her head at what had been said by her boss. Talisa Maegyr was Mary's given name, at least it had been her name until she had been found in that orphanage all of those years ago. She had been selected by agents of the Dragoons back in 3012, mainly because she had over 100 hours at the controls of her family mech before ending up in the orphanage. That was just enough time to prove that a person could use the helmet and at the same time it was not enough experience to develop too many bad habits. She would have had more time, but her father had been killed in that same machine that left her an orphan and a ward of the state. A state that saw the draining of her family's funds in just a few months leaving her without a future or a C-Bill to her name.

In a steady voice that she knew didn't fool her boss. "A Thunderbolt?"

Mike passed over the packet filled with notes, travel tickets, documents, and some cash. "Yes, and like I said you did good work with this one. Think of it as this being an early reward for not killing that ripe shite stain out of hand. You're a very good agent and I will hate to lose you, but you have always wanted to be at the controls of one of the Gods of War." He did a slight head shake, and his eyes got a knowing look. "I would offer you a little piece of advice, be careful how you keep tabs on that hidden little Kell… it… knew about. I know that family is one of the soft points you are still working on covering."

It had been a major surprise that in one of the interrogations of Vesar that they had found that one of the Kell brothers had a son that was being kept from his father. One that only a few key members of ComStar's ROM knew about and were playing hardball in keeping the boy off everyone's radar.

She could feel her eyes getting wet despite all of her training. "A T-bolt is a hell of a going away award, and Mike, I will keep your advice in mind. I was planning on pointing this out to the local Wolf Net commander about what we found about the young Kell, but I was going to be way hands off."

Mike has a smile that reached his eyes for the first time. "Oh, and you might need that Mech after the Widow finds out that you're the one that got to kill him." He does a chin point to the screen with a man screaming out of a silent open mouth.

"Oh damn," was her only reply at thinking about what that woman might do when she found out that little nugget of information.

Mike let his voice get softer, but that little smile was still on his face. "When your final report is done and you pick up the data, why don't you take some time off. I have a feeling that it might be some time before you can take any more down time if things get as interesting as I think we are heading to."

Fort Jaime, New Valencia

Crucis March, FedSuns

Mid Aug 3026.

Boris looked over from his perch on the high stool next to the bar top and shot a look away from the holo image in the middle of the room. "Well, the cat's out of the bag." He knew the other pair of men well enough to know that they knew more about this then he did.

Franko snorted as he takes a small pull from his bottle of beer. "All aspects of these events have been too big of a story for it not to have make the rounds of the news services of the whole Inner Sphere."

Drake adjusted a little in his recliner and thought about when the next two objectives were due to be finished. This was only a half-second delay before his mind got back on track. "It's going to be hard for the average person to know what really happened with dozens of details mixed up or intentionally obfuscated in the published reports."

The agent also adjusted his seat on what he thought was the most comfortable couch he had ever sat in. "I don't know if it was just bad luck or someone in Wolf Net in the background. Its above my paygrade, but I have to wonder if this would have been kept quiet if the information hadn't come from a local giving an interview to the FedSun Independent that broke the story to an Inner Sphere audience outside of intel work."

The head of Wolf Net for this part of the FedSuns knew he had his friend and Boris complete attention. "Did you notice that the local had been very clear when she had said that the ocean had been caused by terrorist that had found SLDF nuclear weapons in an underground cache."

Boris spoke up in one of his rare times that he felt that he could add something when a pair of power players were exchanging small talk. "I think she said at least twice that the terror group had been the reason that the mixed force of LCAF and AFFS had come to the planet in the first place."

Franko leaned so far forward that he came out of the couch so that he could tap bottles with the displaced man. "That was part of the plan, at least 80 percent of the population hates terrorists."

Drake decided that he wanted to change the subject just a little. "I saw that one of the unexpected issues that has popped up on Helm was that the global temp has dropped by a very noticeable amount."

The agent shakes his head, but his lips are a thin line. "Thanks to a few smart people looking, we know that the cooler water is taking a lot of the heat out of the local rock and atmosphere. The computer model they ran says that it's still expected to keep dropping because it has yet to come to some kind of balance." Now he snorts. "Soon the planet will be on its way to becoming a lot wetter, cloud covered, and greener than it has been since any time after the Combine had tried to blow the planet apart. You know when they had not found the well-hidden, until now SLDF cache, with a huge number of nuclear weapons in its weapons lockers just waiting to be unleashed."

The displaced man was looking back at the screen as a new story that had come out of the Lyran Commonwealth started to play. It took them all of three minutes to know that another part of the information on Helm had made it into the news cycle. Drake could only shake his head with a sly smile on his face that said he really wanted to say I told you so. "The news of a raid on a lostech base was to big news, just as Snord predicted. Looks like part of the real story leaked a lot sooner than anyone in the halls of power and LCAF or AFFS command had hoped."

Boris took a few sips of his beer and then tried to roll a hard six. "Do you think that the hidden movements will gain traction?"

The ex-army NCO ran his fingers threw his short but growing dyed hair and then spoke only when his friend gave him a slight head nod. "News that is going to be a lot less public was in the intercepted intelligence reports that I'm still allowed to read when I can visit a certain office within Blackwell." He could see the confused look on the close in security detail.

Franko gave a shoulder shrug. "In a rare event in human history, three different intelligence agencies have been working together on one set of missions or goals. While Wolf Net is the smallest of the three groups, it is hyper focused on military topics. Also, its tech is second to none, not even ComStar has some of the toys that Wolf Net could call on when it's needed."

After a second to take another sip of beer and at the questioning look from the bodyguard, he thought he knew what was causing the issue. "This Dragoon tech was not shared with the other groups, but the fruits of the COMINT, SIGINT, and MASINT that they generated was used to help LIC and MIIO on the disinformation and the corresponding mole hunt in both house's areas. Those other two Intelligence groups have a HUGE! HUMINT catalog to call on along with a broader set of analytical skills than Wolf Net could call on to make sure that only the right people knew about the Dragoon's part in this and to help point towards long hidden agents berried with those two friendly groups."

The ex-NCO had been listening very closely and compared what the Wolf Net station chief had said with what he had known as having almost a decade of training and experience of that kind of work in the Big Green Machine. He had been keeping track of the number of beers that had gone down this throat, so his mind went to a dinner a few days ago.

Franko looked down only to have to use his off hand to wave the smoke that billowed up from the green wood burning fire. This was only his third attempt to learn how to BBQ like the man from a different universe seem to do with ease. The first two attempts had only been saved to still being vaguely edible by the timely intervention of Drake.

That same man was looking from the side of the blue/white smoke cloud, and he stopped the local from sticking the sharp points of the grilling fork into the skin of the bird by tapping on the metal with his own set of very long metal forks. "Just close it up and lit the smoke do the hard work, right now you're just letting the heat and taste out."

With a shrug Franko closed the top of the grill and reached for his bottle of beer sitting safely away from the heat. He looked up and noticed that the displaced man was not moving from where he had been standing. "Yes?"

The ex-NCO didn't say anything for a while. "So, the cat's out of the bag in the halls of government. How is the second part of the mission?"

The Wolf Net agent thought about telling the other man that he needed to go into the office to find this kind of information out, then again everyone near here were loyal to Blackwell and the Dragoons. "The First Prince now has proof that his in-law is working with the Confederation and wanting to be the next ruler of the FedSuns. The Lyrans haven't said who they caught, but they got at least one big fish in their own mole hunt outside of the head of KDI. It should make the news in a few weeks or so, that should be when the Archon lets some key leaders know about the recovered mechs and tanks that will go into the rebuilding of the 4th Lyran Guards… just as you suggested. When they are done setting that up, and then they will start spreading out the non-SLDF grade mechs and tanks to round out depleted combat units in the more at-risk areas. I know that they wanted to keep a lid on this for a lot longer, but it just was not possible with some many reporters looking under every rock. This works out better for our side, at least in keeping the eyes off of the Dragoons and Blackwell."

Drake gave the other man a level look but tapped the grill near the temperature gauge instead of saying anything. The agent took the hint and closed the draft damper and then opened the lid just enough to vent out the heat but not the smoke.

When the lid was again closed, Franko spoke. "We got the first layer cover story out first and a metric crap ton of people are now looking for a group called Toyoda that is really close to Toyama. That was a stroke of genius about dropping a name of a person that was the head of ROM, and an organization that no one should know about should have 'them' very upset. They also have to be wondering what Vesar was doing with that cache of SLDF grade weapons, older battlemechs, and so many nuclear weapons." Both men stopped talking for a few minutes as they had each had images of the First Circuit's reaction to this news.

Franko still had that full smile on his face when he filed those images away. "It was a great opening move and now that these mixed intel groups left enough breadcrumbs for the Combine, Confederation, ComStar, and the League to point fingers at each other for years and not be totally wrong even if they were just wrong about Helm. The great thing was that some of it was not even totally false data in the case of the Red Duke and a few members of the FWL wanting a cache site of heavy weapons to overthrow their superiors in the Federal government or Combine." There was an old saying in the FWL about it is always almost civil war O'clock, but the same could be true of the Combine just worded differently.

Mendenhall was nodding his head in agreement at what his friend had said. "I hope with a major spy war going on between MIIO, LIC, and ROM that it will let both LIC and MIIO set up a few players known to be working with the phone company in other parts of the Inner Sphere get exposed…to third parties."

He was thinking about a book he had read about spy wars during the height of the Cold War, that might or might not have been during a field problem in Texas. "I saw that one Gamma report, that said a couple of known agents for SAFE and ISF had also been given some carefully handled data from the Dragoons about ROM and the Black Dragons agents that were close to them."

These two men with intelligence training knew that it was a lot of smoke and chaff being blown all over the place to cover the importance of the raid on Helm. Well, there were a lot of data points that had come from books that helped connect with data, some that was already known to Wolf Net and the rest of this operation allowed them to take advantage and leverage. What had been a surprise to the man from another universe was that Wolf Net and MIIO already had plans to go after a not small list of what they thought of as ROM agents. It was just a matter of working together with others for a better plan of attack.

Drake let his smile drop like a stone. "Thank you for letting me know when the story was going to break with the news that the Helm's data core being lost while they tried to recover it from its housing and the rest of the base was made public. I couldn't believe it was going to be complete with video of the last dropship leaving Helm before it had to di di mau out of that riverbed. You know that I even try to make some popcorn to watch the show when the breaking news was supposed hit?" One part of his mind noted that this was the first event that he had changed that would be seen from an outside point of view.

That report had been when Drake had found out that only one type of corn can pop, that was a bummer because even if it's not popcorn, it still stinks when it was burned. The whole housing block now hates a family in one home, and Boris had threatened to make him stand by the door and fan the smell out of the rest of the house if he tried that again. The displaced man did pass along the idea of popcorn over to the Civilian Planetary Support division of Blackwell to see if they could come up with something that was workable as popcorn. It was the only division that was even close to being able to deal with the agriculture issues and ideas that came out of his head.

The man from Earth didn't know how much pull he might have even with just a short digital message, so he just marked down the idea in a notebook to make sure that it was checked on later after his memo message had been sent. He would never know that after investing a few thousand C-bills for research and then a massive budget was given to duplicate all of the snacks used in what had been called theaters back on Terra in the early 20th century. It would take less than year but soon this idea was making money for Blackwell, they had started with foods found in North America and Europe. In less than two years New Avalon's most prestigious venues imported these goods at some expense for those with deep pockets to enjoy them while enjoying themselves in those venues.

The ex-NCO stepped in to help move the now cooked meat to the large heat-resistant plates. "How long do you think this will have the other teams chasing their tails and do you have any ideas on the amount of money that they might be flushing down the toilet fishing for the red herrings they were given?"

The Wolf Net agent had to do some hard thinking for a few seconds as the pair entered the home with the hot food plates in their hands. "This is just a guess, but these operations should divert all of those targeted groups until at least the end of the year, and it should cost each of them something in the tens of millions before they get back to normal or what passes for normal on what they are routinely looking for."

"Well, damn. I was hoping for more, but if the right people end up catching a bullet by their own people's hands? Then it's still a good thing in my book. I hope that the power players remember that it's thanks to Wolf Net, those other two agencies were able to clean up their own house a little better. The hard part will be keeping those same political masters accepting of the fact that the Mole Hunters didn't get all of the ROM and Black Dragon moles, and they need to be happy with just mounting a few heads on pikes." While Drake was talking, he was hoping in his head that this should help with the Word of Blake issue.

The agent smiled as he took a large bite of the freshly cooked bird with just the right amount of sauce and the displaced man timed it right and started speaking again. "Still, do you think that the Archon overreacted when the head of House Stewart launched those counter raids? How did that break down anyway?"

Franko had to think for a minute, but all he could think on that subject happened to be the items that were not to highly classified. "As soon as LIC knew that they were about to jump the FWL border, she took the lead and launched units that she had been holding at high readiness on New Earth. It hasn't made the news yet, but the LCAF took Xi Ursae Majoris from the Iron Guard. Colonel Holmes got off planet with only a little over a battalion of combat forces, but all of their dropships made it to the jump point. The reports said that they fought like the devil but not with any great skill, at least not against two LCAF mech regiments with support."

The man from a different universe was lost in thought. "So, she used the expected counter raids about Helm to get a little more experience for… future operations of the LCAF."

The Wolf Net agent gave a humm of agreement to that last statement. "The attacks on Oliver were cover. But if the LCAF thought that they could hold it, they would have. Instead, they pulled back after smacking around the local defenders for a week after landing on the planet. My bet is on the Capellans taking Procyon, if they don't 'ask' for help from the LCAF or see if the FWL can get reinforcements sent down from Pollux or Devil's Rock first. The reports say that it was easy to take over the two massive space habitats at Graham and I bet some of the decontamination equipment found in Helm will be sent to the planet to help with the way that things were left there." It was not going to be said that any help in cleaning up the surface of Graham was going to be an uphill battle.

Fort Jaime, New Valencia

Crucis March, FedSuns

End of Aug 3026.

Drake was watching the drop port, and he was fighting and failing, to look board out of his mind. The released news of the launching of Galahad 3026 had started right on time. It was also in the size that he thought was about right from what he could remember from a different universe, not that he could remember details. But it matched with what he had read about in those Wolf Net reports that might or might not have been direct copies of AFFS or LCAF documents that MIIO and LIC thought were well hidden. He had known for years that just because something was in a classified document, leaked or otherwise, didn't make it always correct or even a half truth.

That event had quickly been bumped from the news headlines when word of the raid on Helm was carried by ComStar News Network. It had been hard, but the displaced man was keeping up as best he could with the real-world events and the flood of misinformation flooding the Inner Sphere from what felt like a dozen different firehoses. What had fascinated him had been when images of an ocean suddenly showing back up, for about a dozen listed reasons. Too many, but not any of the talking heads, it was not surprising that it had caused a few issues for the locals to have to deal with.

Drake had to shake his head to get the past out of his head as he counted six cargo dropships landing around what was being called Fort Jaime among Blackwell's personnel. He had been going through the 'mech training, for a second time, but this time he was in a group class instead of getting hovering attention from hell. During one of those classes, he had heard a rumor about a way to get more training without direct instructor support, so he had volunteered for it. Little did he know that it was going to be dealing with work 'mechs and not war machines.

A voice that sounded like the woman had been gargling with razor blades or had been smoking all night spoke. "You seem to know your way around this place."

The man from Earth turned and looked at Talisa and he tried not to smile. He was one of the few that knew that she was a Wolf Net agent at the controls of a new built Thunderbolt. Her cover was that she was hired, along with her new-built pocket-assault mech, to add some extra mass to the Blackwell security unit. She had been in the training unit that Drake had been assigned to as one of the instructors. Talisa would be keeping an eye on him as well as providing protection if things went sideways for the package and Blackwell as well. It was a case of three birds with one stone… at least.

After only a few heartbeats he decides to play along, it's not like she wasn't cleared for most of Caveman. "When I asked for more time in a mech, they took me out here to help with a project that was short manpower."

Caveman pointed off to one side of the onetime and would-be-again Dragoon base. "The original massive underground bunkers were cleaned out and then more were built under cover of other missions over the almost two years. After someone did some back of the napkin math, it was found that it was not going to be enough. So, after cleaning those bunkers up, unpacking, inventorying, and then repacking more space was still found to be needed. Soon every mining or loading mech Blackwell could get back into working order was re-tasked with digging, building and then covering more bunkers. What they were missing was the people to help with the grunt work and heavy lifting, that is what they had me doing for that extra training."

The dark-haired man from another universe did a hair-covered chin point towards the plasma torches slowly falling in the sky. "All of that work… er training is now going to come in very useful. I was told that these six dropships were only the first of eighteen chartered small cargo dropships that are due into this part of the planet over the next six months."

The female mechwarrior's face only moves a little but then her shoulder hunches. "Why so many? It would have been quicker to use just a few larger ones. The more you run the same path the easier it's to be ambushed."

He was not going to agreed aloud that it would have been faster and cheaper to just have landed a few Mammoth dropships, but that would have drawn a lot of very much unwanted attention to this operation. "The problem was that Blackwell had only been known to have used a single dropship of that size in the last hundred years, outside of ones that had been under the Dragoon flag. So, to keep the cover intact, smaller and more dropships, like Buccaneers and Trojans, are going to be used to bring the Dragoon's part of the recovered items from that cache site."

The ex-intelligence trained NCO could see a slight shift in the young woman's shoulders. "No, the Dragoons are not getting that much. They also are carrying other needed supplies that had been bought on the open or grey market. The fact that they were also bringing in other items that Blackwell and the Dragoons could use in the coming war was just icing on the cake provided by SHIELD." Blackwell was getting ready for the not just the rebuilding of the Dragoons, but the 4th SW, and the coming of the clans and that took a lot of supplies."

A snort slips out of his lips at thinking how often he had read about how others would have done this, and it would have been so much better than with what the 'real' writers had come up with. "Now the Wolf's Dragoons are a lot like the dog that caught the passing car, even with 'only' taking a third of the recovered items from the cache. They had no place to put that much equipment and then keep it safe from others that might want to take it off of their hands, the same as had been done with that old SLDF cache."

Talisa looked lost in thought and her had drifts slowly left and right. "It's going to be hard to keep all of this quiet."

He gave a loud snort. "Well, thanks to a whole lot of behind-the-scenes work, Blackwell's and Dragoon involvement in the raid isn't well known to the rest of the Inner Sphere."

The female agent turned so that she could see the face of the odd man that she was keeping an eye on for Wolf Net. "How many?" Her voice was without emotions, and it held the threat of a professional black ops agent.

The other man didn't even pause for a heartbeat. "As far as the report I got from Wolf Net on that subject goes." He waited for a few seconds for drama. "Less than thirty people outside of the ones that are under the Dragoon's control are known or suspected to know of any involvement of the Dragoons or Blackwell with the Helm raid. That should help keep this stash of war material hidden until the 4th SW has been concluded… well maybe only until it kicks off?" He was not sure it would last that long, but as long as it lasted for the rest of the Dragoons to get out of Combine space, he would be happy.

Mechwarrior Maegyr does a slight turn to look at the man she was supposed to protect or shoot if it looked like he was going to fall into a short list of unfriendly powers. "You don't really believe that… do you?"

The dark-haired man with old eyes gives a slight frown. "The rebuilding of the Dragoons from the damage they would take getting out of Combine space in the short term could be mostly explained by support from Blackwell that they could have had hidden away over the last two decades. Then there are the open contracts that they were known to be supporting with Hornet, Flea, and many other major and minor items that something the size of the Dragoons needed by the job lots from across the Inner Sphere. There have been a few carefully placed reports that will say that Blackwell has not been able to get these items over the border for a while now. That was the plan, but there is an old saying about man plans and then God laughs."

Drake was a little distracted by seeing one of the winged dropships made a turn that didn't seem as polished as the other pair of Buccaneers it had followed today. So, he didn't notice when Talisa walked away and exited this topmost viewing platform. The man from Earth had been looking over to a second man leaning on a thick metal bar rail that went around the six-story tall building. When his body became more centered over the bar and not hanging out into space, he spoke to his friend as not to startle him. "So how are the others dealing with all of this windfall?"

The Wolf Net agent adjusted his protective glasses saving his eyes from the glare of the plasma thrusters falling from the sky, but he didn't look away from the site of the six plasma torches getting closer. "The Archon and her staff are now using Clinton much the same way we are, and the Davions are using the bunkers around New Avalon's NAIS to store their part of what had been recovered from Helm. That is where everything will be inspected and then made combat ready before fielding."

He had to stop talking and shift around as one of the bright flares shifted and was now too bright for the man. "That was to include the full and unencrypted copies of the library core in each of the now three locations… that we currently know of. Each realm has eight more copies that they are spreading around to make sure that something like Holy Shroud doesn't happen again. The Davions already are planning on working up a single already existing RCT being outfitted with upgraded technology in one form or another."

Years down the road many armchair analysts would publicly wonder why the LCAF and AFFS were not just passing out all of these new toys to more than the one showcase unit or standing up many new fighting units with all of that SLDF tech they found. They even would bring up about the best mech jocks in each unit could have been set up like the old SLDF Gunslingers. But as the old saying goes, amateurs study tactics, and professional study logistics. It is more or less the same reason that the GDL couldn't use the mechs in the books when they found the cache, the people that knew how to work on SLDF units were on a very short list.

The captain from Gamma looked over to the agent and joined the conversation. "How long until they were ready for combat with the Dragoons?" He didn't need to clarify what he meant by 'they'.

The head of production for all of Blackwell, Mary, gave a snort loud enough for anyone within a dozen feet to hear her. "These mechs, tanks, and everything else have been more or less successfully mothballed for a few hundred years. It will take at least a dozen trained techs two or three weeks, with a lot of overtime, to get only one of the mechs or tanks ready to be tested by a new pilot or crew. Then it might take two or three test runs, after the pilot was ready, before getting it to take the first step. All of this needs to be done before the machine is ready for shipping to a combat unit."

Drake gave a loud snort, but Mary kept talking in a tone that the key leaders of Caveman had learned to endure. "That was the rub ain't it. The Lyrans and Davions only had a few techs trained to work on these types of machines, much less the updated weapons tech that about half of them are packing. Most of the techs with the skills are training other techs related by blood to them or getting ready to retire to tend their gardens or taking up other hobbies full time outside a mech bay."

She did a half turn to look at the face of the man that had interrupted her speech and pulled the dark glasses off. "And where were those few techs that they do have? They are deep in the guts of NAIS and Clinton slowly spreading their knowledge, it should take at least a year to get the first classes of real techs ready to go to their new units or start working on those newish mechs and tanks."

The smile turned into more of a sneer like she smelled something that had turned in the cooler. "Snord and the rest of the Dragoons are a different kettle of fish compared to the larger players, not that it's going to stop some from pointing fingers to make themselves seem smarter to the average person."

Franko had turned sometime during her speaking without being noticed by most of this group and spoke to them. "But the Dragoons are in Combine space and Hanse made sure that none of these SLDF machines would cross his boarder to an enemy power. If MIIO gets even a hint of this happening? Then you can bet your bottom dollar that Blackwell will see a few RCTs dropped on our heads and a new company leadership will be assigned as fast as they can file the paperwork with the Exchange Commission."

The CEO of Blackwell walked up from behind the group so quietly that few of them noticed her arrival. "Before anyone asked how that will impact us. Blackwell has the techs trained to do the work, but if we take too many mechs and tanks out of mothballs. It wouldn't be long before all of our techs would then be spending all of their time just maintaining the machines and not making parts or getting new built mechs and tanks ready for new crews or to be sent to their new owners. So, most of what was recovered will be staying in extended storage status in the bunkers that we had expanded under Fort Jaime for the time being."

Seeing that she had everyone's attention she put on a show. "Only enough work will be done to keep them from breaking down any further after being pulled from under that mountain range. When we have more people freed up, then we will slowly bring a very select few of them back to be fully functional." She did a shoulder shrug. "At least this way it will cut down on the required time to get the rest of them fully combat ready when we need them to get the rest of the Dragoons back into fighting trim." This had all been said before, but many people tend to keep asking the same question until they get an answer that they want to hear no matter how bizarre it was.

Drake decided to ask something that was out of left field. "Would it have been better if we just moved them out to site B instead of keeping them here?" He didn't want to say the code name Bristol outside of a controlled office.

Franko gave the displaced man an odd look and then he remembers something that was not known to most of the people around here. "It's too far to move that much cargo and keep it all under the radar. And when they need those mechs and tanks? The Wolf is going to really need them to be able to be put back into operation very quickly and not waiting from them to be shipped all the way back here."

The only mechwarrior in Project Caveman, Captain Richard Heutzenroeder, was frowning. "Damn, I have to admit, you all do have a point."

The man from Earth looked over to Megan Foster, the CEO, but he didn't know who would know this. "What about some of the low numbers of one type of mech they pulled out, like the Royal Highlander and Rifleman II?"

Megan gave another shrug and shot a glance over to the Wolf Net agent. "I would suggest that most of those shouldn't be sent to any of the combat units, but shipping off unique machines for combat is just another day in the story of the Inner Sphere… at least after the First and Second Succession Wars." Seeing the look from Caveman she relented. "Maybe a few of them would be used for studies or put somewhere for a very rainy day. Someone will have to come up with a reason why, for each one, and then get The Boss to agree to any storage plan."

Drake's face froze as he had a flashback of the WoB attacks that he had read and even played out a few times, and he dearly hoped that they would not be needed. He had to fight to keep from losing his lunch right on the spot, but those around him would think that the odd face was his reaction to the news about not using the rare battlemechs. He thinks that his friends knew why he had turned that color of light green and grey that only those that had seen death could truly make.

The agent spoke up to draw the eyes of the rest of the group towards him and away from his friend in distress. "And thanks to the high anti mech walls that went around this base, no one can see what is being unloaded from those small cargo dropships. They will only be able to see what is going to the production campus down the highway."

The reports had said that this mission was going to be undertaken with the smaller types of dropships, at least small as those things went with the largest being a Mule class cargo mover. Even the crews on the dropships had a hard time knowing what they were dumping off at this militia base even if they lived in the cargo bays on the vessels hired to do this work. Before loading on New Avalon each mech, tank, and container of supplies was wrapped within a thin metal cover that made them look like your average shipping container for consumer goods and not a god of the battlefield. It wouldn't take that long to empty those dropships into the nearest bunkers with the trained crews on hand and under the pay of Blackwell but only those cleared by Wolf Net.

It was only after the visiting dropships had left the planet that a small and very trusted team would get to work deep underground. They ripped those concealing metal covers off of the war fighting equipment hidden under them, and only then could the specially trained Blackwell team do an inspection. All of this had to be done before the item was moved to a deeper cavern through sets of hidden doors at the back of those bunkers, at least that had been the plan.

Drake was watching as the sides of a transport trailer was peeled away like a banana before his eyes. As soon as the two teens driving a pair of trucks with hitches and ropes attached to the thin metal walls hit the gas, the thin sheets of metal were completely ripped off of the heavy skeletal frame. The sheet metal hit the deck with a loud crash when the two tow trucks did a hard turn.

The displaced man should have been in one of those wheeled movers and not in a heavy loadermech. That was thanks to many people knowing that he was still ongoing mech training and very few outside of SHIELD knowing that he could drive heavy equipment before coming to this universe. So, while teenagers finished clearing the metal for recycling, he got ready to lift another twenty ton hover APC off the heavy parts of the shipping frame. After a few shifts of the loading mech and two thumbs up from the ground safeties, he mentally centered himself to be ready to start carrying the twenty ton load down the corridor to a second bunker where it might later be inspected, repaired, sold, or stripped for spare parts.

The ex-NCO had to shake his head at the hovercraft in the twin arms/lifts of his loadermech and spoke aloud. "Who would pay to put an Artemis IV on just a lone LRM 5 rack? Talking about a waste of money!" He knew that he was talking to himself, but he didn't really care.

He shook his head and then he was quickly distracted by the blonde hair flashing in the review mirror of the machine he was strapped into. The man from Earth thought that the blonde hair dye was a bit much, but Franko had insisted before assigning him to the task. The agent had clearly stated that it would be done with him awake or asleep, and that it didn't matter to him how it was done.

It was during one of the latest rounds of that refresher 'mech training when the last disk of the displaced man's friendly interrogation was passed over to the local assigned MIIO team. This was just in case that LOKI or someone from MIIO decided that it might be worthwhile to take Caveman off of Blackwell's hands in the dark of the night. That was one of the reasons that he would be underground moving mechs, tanks, and using the mech simulators for the next few months and not spending very much time in his assigned quarters. Blake and Franko were not that worried that the leadership of those two Great Houses would order something like that to happen, but who knew about rogue units or operations they would not know about at least for a few decades.

After the man from Earth was done moving a dozen more hover APCs that they could not find any data files on, it was time for lunch. A large tent had been set up to feed the people now working out of the refitting Fort Jaime that officially now belong to Blackwell. The huge multi room tent also served as the break room that was required for every four hours of working in the heavy moving machinery to keep them safe. To help with this mission of relaxing a few sets of huge screens were high mounted on the walls in that room, but they tended to only show local and Sphere wide news or popular sporting events.

Drake was sitting and reading because even if he was not going home, he had other education classes that needed to be tended to and hiding out of sight from the rest of the outside world would not delay it. He looked up when he heard a world's name that clicked something in the deeper part of his brain.

A woman in ComStar robes was talking on the nearest high mounted screen. "The LCAF had taken and is still holding Graham from all commers with heavy aerospace fighters and dropships supporting direct actions against all attempts to liberate the star system from the Lyran occupiers."

A man with a strong FedSun accent interrupted the ComStar talking head by talking over her high-pitched voice. "I bet the assaulting units were not pleased to take on that radioactive little garden spot from its formal owners, and those prima donna aerospace pilots are not going to be very happy living on a space station 24/7." He had a sneer on his face that screamed Mech Mafia to anyone with half a working brain. "Most of the total population in that system live off the planet's surface, but it was still a valuable star system for the League."

Drake gave a snort and spoke in a very low voice that he shouldn't have needed in this empty tent. "If you knew what to look for, and thanks to SHIELD, they know were some high valued real estate might be located."

He closed his mouth with a clop and thought that it was not what the real estate might physically hold, but it was what it was legally connected to that would be the most valuable. His eyes drifted over to a man sitting close by and at the look the man from Earth could tell that Boris had heard him.

After a few seconds the close in security detail person put his own book down, looked at the screen, and then back at his friend. "What has you in a mood?"

At first nothing more was said and then with a sigh Drake put his noteputor down and looked at the other man as he made eye contact, he pointed in the direction of the screen. "While the news was playing on the flat paneled screen, I had a flashback about some of my time in place we called The Old Rock Pile. We had found out that among certain types of groups back there acted very differently in how they traded than anyone from my unit was used to dealing with in the civilized world."

The other man gave a come along motion after a few seconds of quiet. "Those clans didn't use cash, credit cards, or digital coins to transfer payments around to other groups for large projects. They would physically hand over some high value objects that had an accepted value between two divergent groups like you would a C-Bill."

The man from Earth was not going to say that these items had names like Stinger missiles or other like types of high-end SAMs or ATGM that had a certain reputation and were not made in the good old USSR. After a few seconds of thinking he realized that maybe not much had changed in eleven centuries for the human race. Only now they were not worried about SAMs or ATGMs or anything in that class of weapon. They were looking at things a lot bigger than even a dozen of those 50-pound weapons from a different universe.

Before the guard could say more, Drake waved toward the screen again. "That land that is so valuable on that wrecked planet in his mind had once held the physical offices of Mitchell Vehicles and over a dozen major weapons production lines. It had taken some time for the legal documents to get filed in the public domain for some of Project Caveman/SHIELD's plans to be kicked off."

The other man snorts and quoted some legalese he had heard once. "Yeah, after all it was considered good form to at least have the ink dry on the forms and the bureaucrats are going to not be happy before the next legal or legalish move could be made. All the LCAF needed to do was stay on this planet long enough to get those documents filed and the grounds picked clean one last time. I think that they will be done with the last before the first with so much experience stripping planets in the last two wars."

The ex-NCO was one of the few on this side of the Inner Sphere that knew that ComStar had been pushed into setting a precedent when the Lyran Commonwealth and Federated Suns had asked for a neutral third party on obtaining delinquent licensing agreements. He pitched his voice very low, but he was not going to talk about anything that was classified, not even here. "In one of the few times in not so recent history, the phone company hadn't known what was planned by a major House and they fell into a trap when they accepted open ended legal verbiage. ComStar had thought that this was just something that the two powers were working on with dealing with listed destroyed manufacturing centers in their own areas. It now looks like Mitchell Vehicles Interstellar is going to be the test case that these robe wearing jerks were not expecting." The close in protection guard gave the package an evil grin that said he understood what had been meant.

Franko stopped by the room that a displaced man was using as a private bedroom and living space with a twelve pack of beer and something that passed for a Chinese dish of noodles, vegetables, and spicey beef. The pair said very little at the start of the meal and what was said, mainly was centered around small things. When they were about halfway done with the main meal, the agent went into more detail on a subject he knew his friend wanted to know about but couldn't make it to the meetings.

After he took another sip of a caffeine loaded drink the agent spoke. "So ,not wanting to waste this kind of joint event. Kat decided that other stones needed to be thrown into the workings of the rest of the Inner Sphere just to see what would happen. It was a 'legal' order under the name of the Archon that caused some major heartburn for the Estates General even if ComStar's Legal department is on record of agreeing with the Archon…in theory."

The man from Earth looked up from his food. "Have they given out any details that will be coming out to the public?"

Franko smiled a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Oh yes and it will be hitting the business news in the next few days. But if Mitchell Vehicles had the license to make something and they no longer could, for say nine decades? Well then, the Archon will first takeover ownership of those legal production agreements and then she will find someone that could use those licenses." He was cutting down dozens of pages of legal speak into just a few sentences and both men knew it.

Drake smiled with a mouth half full of sauce covered noodles that were barely contained within his lips. "I saw some of that on a news show after my last work shift on a business analyst set. I understand that the off the cuff statement started a real zitshow. The talking head said if it broke that way then some not so minor companies would be spending a lot of political capital and cash all across the Lyran Commonwealth."

The agent let out a huff. "Didn't know that, and they are right about the political capital but it's being spent along with boatloads of cash even on old Terra to stop that idea after it was showed to them. It's just like what we talked about in the Project when we war gamed this out. I remembered that you said that the Lyran Estates General will have to step in and put forward that this could only be done after a case-by-case review by the Estates General but it should be workable."

The Wolf Net agent smiled and spoke after finishing his latest bite of takeout food and got ready to pad his friend's ego. "So, you were right, and they already started behind closed doors… I think they are calling it being done in committee."

The agent was watching and seeing the wide eye look from his friend at the compliment, and he continued. "They already sent a group to The Triad to talk to the Archon. But wouldn't you just know it, Graham IV didn't have a seat in the EG and the EG had no problem looking the other way in that case. If only that the Archon would slow down on looking at other companies from around the Commonwealth to repeat any success this 'radical plan' might achieve.

Drake shook his head with a wry smile. "So, Mitchell Vehicles is going to be the lamb sacrificed to public opinion and the Archon. All to protect the other golden calves the Lyran nobility and the powerful are keeping under their coats. Still the whole military industrial complex of the Commonwealth has been put on notice about the use it or lose it licensing law that now there is proof that it's here to stay. I can't wait to see the look on some of the faces in SHIELD when I get back and rub this impossible and waste of time we are undertaking."

Franko pitched his voice low, like he was about to speak a secret. "I have to say that I was one of the ones that thought this was an impossible dream, but I didn't want to rain on your parade. I also heard that the Archon was not happy with this move by the EG, even if it has been done behind closed doors, and she has a long memory about some things. As the makers of the Lucifer aerospace fighters are about to find out… the hard way if our agents on that side of the Inner Sphere are right."

He had almost let slip the slang term of Lockhead for Lockheed/CBM that had been used by a slowly growing number of Blackwell's key staff. Only about four knew that the term had come from a person in Project Caveman…one Drake Mendenhall. It was not just the aerospace jocks that wanted that company to roast for still making a fighter without an ejection seat.

The man from a different universe wondered what it cost the Dragoons, and why did it remind him of his time in the rock pile he had been talking to Boris about? Then he was told why that feeling was not as out of the blue as he thought when the agent kept talking. "All of the Mitchell Vehicles license or assets on Graham are to be 'given' to Blackwell Heavy Industries. That gift cost us a lance of assault mechs that are to be sent for the Archon to use, at her sole discretion."

The displaced man almost choked on his drink. "That is not normal... is it?"

Now his friend gave a slight head nod up and down. "No, it's not, at least not in my experience. Oh, and to just let you know. That lance is going to be made up of two recovered but fully operational Atlases and two newly built Marauder IIs, all handed over to House Steiner and not the supply department of the LCAF." It was not widely known that the Archon had turned down four new-built Ringo assault mechs for these specific four mechs.

He saw the sour look and he had a good idea on the reason. "Calm down there cowboy. Those licenses would have cost us tens of billions if they had gone about this through normal channels and only if the other side had been willing to give up those licenses in the first place."

The agent was now smiling like a cat that had eaten the prized canary after his friend had been reminded of a few things. "Now Blackwell can build anything that Mitchell Vehicles was on public or official records as having been producing on that planet, all that Megan has to do now is to wait for the dropship to arrive with a hard copy of the paperwork. And if you think that she is waiting that long before the products start rolling? Then I have a jumping assault tank for sale… just dropped once."

He waited for his friend to stop choking at having one of his lines toss back at him but modified for this universe. "One of the things in the fine print was that the LCAF would get the right of first refusal on the buying of up to ten percent of anything made and sold on the open market, with those licenses. Blackwell now has eight decades to use them or lose them under this new law we advocated to her. And just like what had happened to Mitchell, it could happen to Blackwell if they can't find the funds to build the products."

He lets his eyebrows rise just a little as he kept talking. "This was good timing for the Dragoons, because the first test build Shoguns are coming off the lines at a certain under sea facility in Commonwealth space. The first ones are going to be just like the 2Es the Dragoons already have in the field. After the bugs are worked out on the Nemo line, they should be running out the better 2777 designed 2H's that the SLDF used as fast as they can." He suddenly stopped talking.

Drake looked at the other man and then threw up his hands when his agent friend didn't say anything more for almost half a minute. "And how is the legal department handling this? Come on man you're killing me."

The other man shot the man from Earth and his friend a knowing smile. "Thanks to the legal loophole that SHIELD made sure to slip into the original contract, anything that Blackwell makes and sends to the Dragoons would not be counted as being sold on the public books. After all who knows were the Dragoons got those mechs in the first place." The smile now turned into a truly evil grin that only comes from messing over the tax man no matter what universe you might have been born in.

The displaced man sat down his little food box and let out a burst of howling laughter. "That was a very good thing, because I knew that Zeta would soo not like another group or unit having one of those Shoguns when they're short of them. Do you want to bet that those special machines would draw a little more weapons fire than normal if the Zeta's saw one of them on the other side of the battlefield?"

Franko gave a snort at the little facts that his friend had pulled out of the conversation. "Yeah, not going to take that bet."

Now Drake let his voice drop, and it sounded a little more serious and he jumped subjects on the Wolf Net senior agent. "I can foresee a time when anything that the Dragoons or Blackwell needs will just be a case of how many battlemechs would it take to bribe someone to hand it over to Us." His voice went a little sing song. "Blackwell would like to make your J Edgar hover craft on our own lines, would two lances of Wasp work? No? what about a lance of Phoenix Hawks? No? Well, well we have an extra Cyclops. Thought that might work and nice doing business with you."

While those words were being said aloud, his mind was working on something else. Like was this right or legal? Not to him, but this is battletech, where lives are cheap and mechs are not, thought Drake.

Franko saw the look cross his friend's face that hinted about dark thoughts racing around in that grey matter. "I bet that you're just happy that we have a mix of ten Wasps and Stingers in that lot being worked on in the bunkers. They should be able to get another one of them quickly back into operation for you instead of waiting for your last one to come out of the repair bays… again."

At the blank look from his friend, the agent continued with just a little mirth in his voice. "I hear that you have been beating your current training mech into pieces, so much so that now the astechs and master techs say that it's only held together by tape, hopes, and dreams." He was not going to say that the repair bills on his training mech had already exceeded the cost of a new bug mech and this one had been the second one that he had been assigned.

Now a very sour expression came to the other man's face. "I hadn't made it to a 'real' training mech that local academies use for introductory training, so I'm still stuck in that… repaired Wasp." He had just stopped short from dropping an F bomb, and after a deep breath he continued. "Did I ever talk to you about my first jump jet tryout? Well, let's just leave it at, that it's a lot different than what the simulations lead you to believe." His head tilted down, and a knowing look comes to his raised eyebrow face.

At the questioning look coming from the agent the man from Earth continued. "Yep, I fell on my face. Well, that is, I fell onto my mech's face. Oh, and the idea that my old clanner trainer running the mech piloting classes? He had thought that learning how to use my mech's to jump rope was a great way to work on my fine control." The tone in the last part of the statement showed that Drake had not been impressed with this teaching method.

At the snort that came from Franko that was soon followed by some choking while the man from Earth kept talking. "Yep, it works… about as well as you are imagining it in your head right now. Oh, and did I tell you about them testing me on aero fighters?"

Drake had gotten a blank look that might or might not have been fake from his friend, but he didn't care right at that second. "Yep, I have to take back every bad thing that I have said about the good old chair force back home. My hats off to those damn zoomies."

At the tilt headed look from the agent he back tracked a little to connect a few dots. "Zoomies are kind of like the Mech mafia back where I come from." He waves a hand in the air. "Tracking in 3d is a lot harder than I had ever thought it might be and that is the bread and butter of aviation centered pilots."

The two men were joined by a third man entering the room from the hallway with only a beep that said someone had entered the correct code for the VIP suite. Boris of the close in protection detail made sure the door was locked behind him. After taking a few minutes to get his plate full of food and in opening he added to the conversation between the other two. "I saw a report on the Mercenary Market show a few days ago. It said that Blackwell was able to get a limited production license of the Wolfhound light Battlemech from TharHes Industries for five billion C-bills."

He stopped talking but he could tell that the pair was waiting on him to complete his line of thought. "That seemed a bit much according to the talking heads on the show, but I know a lot of people around here had been looking forward to doing this."

Drake shot a look at the agent only to get a slight shoulder lift to say that it was okay to talk about this subject. "That is kind of true, but the price is being split up so it's not too bad of a cost. The Lyran chipped in a billon C-Bills from a program set up to improve relations with the Suns, the First Prince kicked in about three billion from a fund set up to build or rebuild mech production lines within the FedSuns. So, Blackwell only had to get a loan for the last part as well as pay for the setting up of the manufacturing facility."

The guard/friend let out a harrumph and in between mouthfuls. "I wonder what TharHes is going to do with all of that money, build more Wolfhound lines?"

"Not likely, they are mostly owned by the Steiners. So more likely they will add to the Crusader line or finish the line for the Goliath assault mechs. We know that they have had problems keeping all of the Goliaths they captured over the years from the FWL in working order." The agent drew the eyes of both men. "We talked about it in a meeting when the cost of the license was brought up to the group."

The man from Earth quickly finished chewing the meat in his mouth and chase the masticated meat with a pull of his cold beer. "I must have missed that meeting, how long till they can use the licenses?"

There was nothing said for long seconds before the agent spoke. "A lot sooner than anyone on the Lyran side might think. If things go as planned… Wolfhounds will start slowly walking off the line by the end of next year, unlike other designs there is not that much demand for spare parts because they are so new."

Boris looked down at his food. "So, about the same time as the Falcons start rolling out from their production hall."

The trio talked about other comings and goings that were mostly not work related. That lasted for a few hours until enough beer bottles had been emptied. Then they would feel more comfortable with talking about a few topics that were in the grey areas, but they all were professional enough to not talking about some things even when they were more than a little drunk.

Wolf Dragoons Headquarters, An Ting

Galedon District, Draconis Combine

1 Nov 2026

Jaime slammed the wooden door of an insulated field tent shut, and then he slammed the plastic field table with both of his hands hard enough that it was near breaking stress for both hands and table. These were the only actions that he would take when they couldn't be seen by anyone much less someone that was not a high ranked Dragoon. His driver/close in bodyguard was standing outside of the tent would make sure that only someone from the command staff could enter this tent unless it was something major or planet shattering important. This was as close to a sanctuary as the Colonel could get while in the field.

Half an hour later, Stanford Blake entered the tent to talk to the commander of all of the Dragoons. He found his friend and commander standing at the back of the tent with his hands folded behind his back. He was gazing at nothing out of the small clear part of the field tent into the heavy tree line a few kilometers away. After a few minutes, the head of Wolf Net couldn't be delayed anymore while his commander was lost in thought. They were on the clock, and it didn't care if you were ready or not when the hour of death struck high noon.

Blake cleared his throat louder than he should have needed for a second time to get his friend and commander's attention. "I take it that the meeting with Tetsuhara didn't go as well as you had hoped."

Jaime did a slow turn from the clear plastic that was tough enough to stop a sniper round, and he gave his friend a level look. He had to fight back a snort, "You could say that." He stopped talking and rubbed his forehead as he took a seat behind his field desk with a heavy sigh. "At least we were able to control… the events. We had a hidden camera in that command center, so we now have proof about an outsider letting the intruders onto the grounds of our support base after drugging one of our people. Still, that didn't stop him from getting hurt."

Blake gave his friend a look that said this was news to him. "I thought he was only hurt when the sabotage activated on the hover sedan. Did something happen after he got home? I don't remember getting a report on this."

The head of all of Wolf Net was already running down a mental list of assets that he could call on if an example needed to be made on some third party. One part of his brain whispered that this was not the Clan way, but a larger part of his brain yelled that this was the way of the Inner Sphere, and the Clans could all go get hanged. Besides they thought that he and the rest of the Dragoons were dirty and dishonorable freebirths anyway.

Jaime slowly and then jerkily shakes his head from side to side. "No, he only had a broken arm and leg, but the leg is bad. He didn't lose it only thanks to one of our best medical evac teams being on active duty instead of in stand-down mode they normally would have been, if we were not looking for trouble to reach out and slap us. What has my temper up, is that he still won't entertain any idea that the Coordinator is anything but the person of highest Kei."

Stanford frowned deeply but only because how close the DCMS officer was to Jaime. Then again, the man in question was a damn fine warrior in and out of a battlemech, and one that was well liked by many Dragoons. "Damn I was hoping that he would see reason. Maybe somethings can't be changed, but what if we can find the right data."

Thanks to the repeated warnings provided by Caveman a large effort had been spent to counter the propaganda that the Combine had poisoned so many within the Dragoons. Minobu Tetsuhara had been one of the failures in that counter campaign, mainly because he was himself and not propaganda of the Combine.

The leader of the Dragoons gave a level look to the head of his spies. "Well, that is a hell of a statement Blake." He stopped talking for a few seconds as the horror of that thought reached up and grabbed the Wolf by his ears. Then he spoke again and wanted to change the subject about that officer/friend. "Have your people been able to find out what the other sides thought about what happened on Barlow's End?"

Now the head of Wolf Net had to fight down a smile, and he utterly failed for one of the few times after he started training in the Wolf Clan Watch. "Oh, MIIO and DMI are having a field day. They found the prototype jumpship part after a little treasure hunt that we sent them on to provide cover for both sides. Before you ask, yes it was needed… well maybe not, but sometimes you have to let some of my boys and girls have a little fun."

Jaime had a smile on his face that almost reached his eyes. "Oh, and how many stops did you make them do before they found the missing part, and can you remind me what was turned over to the Dracs?"

The other man had a knowing look, but he was a little abashed at being caught. "Oh, only about sixty stops before they got to have the prize back, would have been an even hundred but the team didn't have the time for more games before letting them get their property back. We turned over a clean, but broken, part from an LF battery controller that we recovered from a wrecked FWL Tramp class jumpship in 3015 to the Combine. It should take months to a year to work out that its broken." If it took the Dragoons a month to work that out, their ego said it would take the scientist of the Combine at least that long to come to the same conclusion.

The head of the Dragoons couldn't help but smile at his good guess, because Wolf Net is going to Wolf Net. "What does ISF think about the Ryuken's performance?"

The head of Wolf Net schooled his face once more. "They are reacting about as we planned on when we started spiking their training. They are busy writing reports that are marking up the lower performance and communication issues due to what part of Combine society that the Ryuken were drawn on to be formed into a combat unit in the first place." He gives Jaime a knowing look. "You know that Minobu is going to start working on these identified issues as soon as the doctors return him to command duty… or sooner."

Jaime let out a deep sigh, and he sagged a little in the inflatable field chair and he looked every day of his age for just a few minutes. "I know, and in my dreams, we could have talked Tetsuhara and the rest of the Ni into joining us." He gives a body shake. "Even if Ryuken-ni does learn, that will not help San, Go, Ichi, Roku, and Yon. I know it hurts some pride to throw a few exercises, but it's going to keep more of our people alive in the long run." These two men were some of the few that knew that the DCMS high command would be taking the Ichi from the Iron Man and giving him the Ni after he is returned to service.

Blake had to agree with his boss. "Gamma almost had a riot when some of the Eighth Sword of Light started running at the mouth about beating them in a round of field exercises."

Now Wolf could only frown. "We have to keep things like that under tight control or we'll blow this operation's cover faster than Nat downing a beer or kicking someone's ass in a bar fight. I want all combat units to start reporting and acting that we are down to 75% operational readiness across the board."

For the last month the Dragoons had only been letting eight out of every ten mechs, and other combat vehicles be active at any time. This was almost normal for most mercenary units around the Inner Sphere, but not for the Dragoons, and it was just more cover to show what the ISF wanted to see for a unit that was complaining about the lack of spare parts and other issues that they were working under.

With that taken care of it was time for one last topic to cover before the leader of the Dragoons was going to go out to the range and blow a few things apart with his battlemech's heavy weapons. "How did our counter video plan work out?"

The head of the deep black intelligence unit for the Dragoons smiled and he could not help but laugh out loud. "Oh, it worked very well and now there is a lot of egg on the faces of ComStar. LIC and MIIO released their own version of that video that we had made with timing that was so perfect it hurt my mind. At first, I wasn't sure about your idea of having the Black Widows having that public cook out to raise money for that little orphanage back in September. Now I have to say… it was a smart play, a very smart play, and one that no one on the other side saw coming."

Jaime could not help but add his own laughter. "Oh, that was not my idea." With a smile that was all teeth he continued. "That was all on Nat's after she read that book and then sobered up and hit the heavy bag afterwords. That woman knows how to plan revenge on someone in the oddest ways known to gods and man."

It was Blake's turn as he snorted in wry agreement. "Well now, that makes more sense, and it explains her choice of swimwear. At least this time we were ready when that story broke on the ComStar News Network of the attack. I had thought that the images of her playing a game of sand volleyball in that little black leather bikini without sunglasses was a bit much. The imposters only showed someone that superficially looked like her and not the rest of her company. That story quickly fell apart when anyone looked at the images side by side and then Colin MacLarren, Takiro Ikeda, and Jon Clavell in the same screen are also well-known enough that there are dozens of images of them on file in the news departments around the whole Inner Sphere. That they were not in the released video from ComStar and in the one that was made at the same time of that reported sacking of the Kurita supply convoy and town were supposed to have happen was a death nail."

Jaime had a sad smile on that reached his eyes and shoulders. "Well, that is one land mine we were able to avoid… for now." His voice made the leader of the Dragoons sound even older than he was and in a soft voice. "But what about the ones we don't know about. We stopped them once, now we will only have to worry about the plans being worked on that we won't have any warning about."

He rocked back in the air-filled field chair and with a loud sigh. "Well at least we know who the enemy really is, but between you, me, and the tent walls. I'm looking forward to ending this contract and getting out of Combine space."

Notes:

What did Mitchell Vehicles Interstellar make on Graham IV: Everything needed to make Mercury 97 and 98s, Galahad, Helepolis, Shogun 2F and 2Hs, Kanga jumping tanks, Hellcat 213 and Hellcat II 213B aerospace fighters, Colossus Dropship, and two different types of warships.

Blackwell's Workmech: They are not making unique workmechs, more like they imported locally made parts from other businesses on the rest of New Valancia but not connected to Blackwell and then putting them together in some high tech repair bays.

Type/Model: SLDF APC MK 1 (Ram)

Tech: Inner Sphere / 2750

Config: Hovercraft

Rules: Level 2, Standard design

Mass: 20 tons

Power Plant: 35 VOX Fusion

Cruise Speed: 64.8 km/h

Maximum Speed: 97.2 km/h

Armor Type: Ferro-Fibrous

Armament:

1 LRM 5 w/ Artemis IV

1 Medium Laser

Equipment: Items Mass

Int. Struct.: 8 pts Standard 0 2.00

Engine: 35 Fusion 0 2.67

Shielding & Transmission Equipment: 0 1.33

Cruise MP: 6

Flank MP: 9

Heat Sinks: 10 Single 0 .00

Cockpit & Controls: 0 1.00

Crew: 2 Members 0 .00

Lift Equipment: 0 2.00

Armor Factor: 81 pts Ferro-Fibrous 2 4.50

Internal Armor

Structure Value

Front: 2 24

Left / Right Sides: 2 20/20

Rear: 2 17

Weapons and Equipment Loc Heat Ammo Items Mass

1 LRM 5 w/ Artemis IV Front 0 24 2 4.00

1 Medium Laser Front 3 1 1.00

1 C.A.S.E. Equipment Body 1 .50

Infantry Bay Body 1 1.00

Calculated Factors:

Total Cost: 681,333 C-Bills

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