IDGL-2

=Ian Davion, Golden Lion=
==Chapter 2 – The Golden Lion Roars==
===Friendly Heads Up===
05/13/3039 03:17 Location – Dragoon Landing Site Bravo-3, Remus, Outreach
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The Union-Class Mark V DropShip, FSS Valor landed at the illuminated pad, the thrust plume being redirected into a series of water filled trenches to dissipate the extreme heat and force while the spheroid Union’s landing legs deployed in the cloud of steam.  With the legs firmly on the ferrocrete they then lowered to allow the occupants to disembark onto an incoming black and red painted bus.  8 Mechwarriors, 4 Aerospace pilots and the ship’s crew boarded the vehicle that rolled back to the terminal. 
Inside the terminal Colonel Jaime Wolf waited patiently beside a man and younger teenage girl.  A middle aged man with graying brown hair, battle scars cutting jagged white over tan skin on his left arm, a sleek prosthetic right one, and old burn marks on his face was the first out of the stairwell, “Patrick, so good to see you again!”  The Wolf and Hound shared a quick embrace, “It has been what three years since you last visited?”
The Kell Hound separated and looked around, “Something like that.  I’m impressed Jaime, last time I was here this terminal was much less, well everything.”
“Rome was not built in a day and neither will Romulus nor Remus, although we are making exceptional progress.  My engineers currently expect everything to be done by forty-two.  If I remember correctly you were not entirely complete either last time we met.  How is the arm?”
“Excellent!” He clenched his fist and did several other movements to showcase a smoothness of motion so unlike any other prosthetic they had seen, “I can finally get back in my Thunderbolt after a long hiatus.  My sister-in-law spent many long nights at NAIS working on making it perfect.  She said and I quote ‘This is perhaps my greatest masterpiece, and here you are going to use it to eat with a fork and wipe your bum normally.  My talents are clearly wasted on you dogs.’” 
Raucous laughter erupted from all assembled, Dan Allard clearly hadn’t heard that before, “Classic Riva.”
“You are familiar with my sister and brother-in-law.  However, we have a special guest making his first state visit.”  Patrick stepped aside and another man stepped forward wearing his regular garrison uniform, “Jaime this is Prince Ian Davion,” a slightly older man with a strong military bearing stepped forward, “and Major Bishop Sortek, both of the Davion Heavy Guards.  We are taking them to see my cousin or rather technically they are taking us on their fancy new Union dropship.”''
Megan Kell added blissfully, “It still has that new dropship smell, or rather lack of it.  I only need one air freshener.”
Patrick and Jamie both shook their head at that, “I am greatly flattered to be hosting you while your command circuit comes into alignment Prince Ian and Major Sortek.  Hanse Davion has been gracious to the Dragoons and we owe him a great debt of gratitude.  While we are on introductions this is my son Mackenzie and daughter Katherine.”
Mackenzie stepped forward with a firm handshake that turned into a hug and whispered to Ian, “Just a friendly warning, when you see Natasha run like hell and get out to somewhere with witnesses.”
“When?  Wait, who is Natasha?”
“You’ll know her when you see her.”  He slapped the young Prince on the back and returned to stand beside his half-sister.
Colonel Wolf waved them through, “Let’s start the tour.  By the way if you are hungry breakfast will be on the way.  If anyone acts rather strangely just know we rarely get visitors here so do not look to deep into it.”
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===When the Lion Meets the Spider===
05/20/3039 14:58 Location – Wolf Enclave, Remus, Outreach
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Bishop Sortek and Mack Wolf walked the broad streets of the Dragoon’s private city together toward the firing range.  Both were wearing the battledress uniforms of their respective units which made Bishop stand out like a sore thumb, a speck of green on a tide of black and red.  They each had a holstered pistol on their belts but that didn't look as out of place.  
The men had hit if off in the week they had spent together each was tied to someone higher up in the chain and resented it.  They were both lifers and had a similar taste in blondes, booze, backgammon, and revolvers.  Both had piloted Enforcers for most of their careers although Bishop got a new prototype Mech on this assignment that he couldn't talk about yet.  They even had the same centerfold, MechJack's Miss April 3034, Alara “Kitten” Kaiten of Thraxa, in the back of their lockers.
“I keep trying to get the Colonel to hire at least one company led by me out to the Magistracy for training duty but he won't bite.  I'd be willing to take my fee out in trade if they don't have the creds.  It's not like we are getting any action on or off the battlefield now with all the rookies.  If you have the cred to pay our rates you want the Wolf's Dragoons! Not some puppies.”
As if to demonstrate, a SIBCo (Standard Instruction Basic Company Bishop figured) of Dragoons was crossing the street on their after lunch run.  The Sergeant continued the cadence as they passed while the two men waited for the 24 man group to clear the street.  “How many of these SIBCos are you training, Mack?”
“Me personally?  Three a year typically, we might get six quality Warriors for further instruction if it’s a particularly good group, average is two or three.  The good ones that almost made the cut are assigned to the support units or referred to A list Merc groups.  The lower performance ones typically find their way into a lesser outfit out of Harlec but we keep a close eye on them.  This is my off cycle so I have to submit to training rather than render it.  Then we do six months on contract before rotating back to do it all over again.”
“What are they training you in now?” asked Bishop
“Strategy and Tactics for Integrated Interstellar Operations.  It's a lot of sim table time, I try to avoid going to the class and you have given me an excuse, thanks for that.  I will be deeply saddened when you depart.”
They arrived at the firing range and checked out regular rifles preparing for a shoot house scenario.  Both were Mechwarriors but they had trained in basic infantry tactics so this was for personal challenge.  Mack said he could do it faster than Bishop and drinks plus bragging rights were on the line.
Mack edged him out by 10 seconds and went back to his bag.  His CommPad was blinking noting that he had received a message during his time shooting.  He opened it up and checked his feed.
<<TBW:  Nice try cub but I won our little bet, drinks on you!  Haha>>
Bishop went into his bag intending to check as well, “Hey, where’s my CommPad?  It was in here earlier.”
The Wolf let out a long exhale and leaned his head back, “I know where it is, you will get it back soon.  Drinks?”
“You want to get drinks now?  There might be something serious going on.”
“If there was anything serious going on you’d still know about it.  And yes I want to get drinks,”  he muttered “because I won’t have the money to get my own for at least a month because of that damn Black Widow.” under his breath.
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Ian Davion walked across Cameron Square, the Dragoon’s had rebuilt much of the old Martial Olympiad complex and the Square was the most impressive section of the city.  It took up four city blocks with a massive Cameron Star landscaped in stone with many interlocking paths to walk making for a unique fractal design from above.  Even at ground level it looked spectacular, exotic plants from across the Inner Sphere grew in between the pathways in multicolored splendor, the smell of flowers drifted in between on the warm breeze.  
This was the nicest area of the city a stark contrast to the more standardized military town layout that made up the rest of the Enclave.  The area around the Square was built up and civilians milled about, he could see some Blackwell Industries execs and men in suits on their way to the tram he just departed from.  He looked at his CommPad again orienting himself toward the long end of the Star, Bishop had sent him an address and a request to meet.
“What are you planning, Bishop?  My birthday isn’t for another three weeks.”
The building was one of the nicest apartment buildings he had ever seen, he took the elevator up and stopped by the door.  A display reading, “Come On In,” in bright multicolored letters marked the door he wanted.  He opened it and stepped into darkness, the display changed to “Do Not Disturb,” but he didn’t see that.  Ian stood there in partial darkness for a moment, “Alright Bishop, where’s my surprise?”
The lights turned on and an attractive redheaded woman appearing to be in her mid-30s maybe early 40s stood in the room wearing a half-shirt, slightly longer jacket, and combat pants and boots, with Bishop’s CommPad in her hands.  “Surprise, Prince Davion.”
Ian attempted to open the door while still facing her but it was locked now, “You must be Natasha, Mack warned me about you.”
“Did he now?  He is always trying to ruin my fun.  Did he also happen to tell you that I am his Commanding Officer?”
“He didn’t mention that.  What do you want?”
She waked up very close to him, “I wanted to see the new Ian Davion myself. I knew the old one,” she put her hands on his chest and drew closer, “very well.  He was about as old as you are now when I first met him all those years ago.  He was a great Warrior and died in battle, there is no better life to live, always on the edge, not knowing if there is a tomorrow.  Exciting.”
He wasn’t sure whether it was excitement or terror that he was feel, “I’m afraid I don’t have much experience in that.”
“Then be prepared to learn something.  Boy.” she said
Lights out, I will forward this video from my favorite video game to kick start your imagination, not explicit but probably NSFW.
===Training with the Dragoons===
05/15/3039 - Location: Tetsuhara Proving Grounds
Return
Two days later Bishop and Ian reported to the Tetsuhara Proving Grounds for a Dragoon specific training exercise known as the Gauntlet.  Each of them would take their Heavy mech and duel against a light, medium, then another heavy Battlemech.  A tough test of skill that controlled for luck although it never hurt to have any as all the weapons were at full power.
Ian had never actually been in combat or a live fire exercise and while confident was nervous. Bishop recognized the value in the training having fought DCMS Panthers, Gladiators, and Dragons or CCAF Firebees, Vindicators, and Cataphracts in his career.  Today they had a nice sampling courtesy of the Dragoons excellent salvage teams and the fact that Hanse Davion had the Wolves raid both of the FedSuns enemies as regularly as possible. 
Bishop stood before his prototype mech while Ian stood next to his Marauder both men were wearing their cooling vests over their shorts and boots.  Jaime Wolf stood next to them waiting for their opponents, “Impressive, it looks like a Marauder, but is clearly not one.”
“Aye, Colonel Wolf, its codename is currently Penetrator.  NAIS remade the old Hammerhands jump jet and Independence refitted a MAD-3M for testing at great expense.  The legs required heavy reinforcement, the chicken bones of a regular Marauder would snap eventually under the stress of landing so it needed a complete redesign."
"This unit is part of the first production run, they wanted me to test it anyhow so I appreciate you allowing us to do it here before our actual mission starts.  Your people can forward all the performance data back to them and make the design team very happy.”
“Of course Major.  Ah yes here are your trainers.” A Warhammer, 2 Dragons, a Firebee and Panther, as well as two Vindicators in Dragoon’s colors arrived on the field opposite them.  The Warhammer stepped forward and its pilot disembarked using a chain ladder let down from the cockpit she was wearing very little under her cooling vest.
“Prince Ian, Major Sortek, this is our Chief Cadre Officer and Commander of the Black Widow Battalion, Natasha Kerensky.  Good Morning Natasha”
“Same, Jaime” she told Wolf
“This is Major Bishop Sortek and his Penetrator”
Natasha looked it over whistling, “Ooh Penetrator, I like it. Boys with Toys and all.”
“And this is Prince Ian Davion.”
She winked at Ian, “We are already well acquainted.”
Jaime Wolf looked at her then him, “Excellent, continue on with this morning’s exercise then Tasha.  I have other duties to attend to.”
He embarked on his Blue and Gold Archer heading back to the Enclave to run his planet and group.  Leaving the Davions in the capable hands of The Black Widow.
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