TLR Chpt 17

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==Chapter 17 - The Lucky RegimentThe Gathering Storm==
Aboard the Invidious, Grayson Carlyle's Jumpship
Sirius System, Free Worlds League
April 7th, 3027 - 19:00 hours local time
"I'm telling you, Lori, something is wrong." Grayson had felt uncomfortable since their departure from the planet, he couldn't identify its source, but he felt on edge. Too many things hadn't felt quite right.
 
"The Duke could have been left out of the loop, he does not come across as particularly professional in a military capacity." That was an understatement, although politically ambitious and economically powerful he lacked the military reputation that many of his rivals had.
 
Grayson chuckled "Well no, but that was why we were hired after all."
 
"Think about it, if you wanted operational surprise you wouldn't tell him anything. On the other hand, The Captain-General couldn't leave the political aspects of Sirius V to us mere mercenaries, so he needed both of you."
 
Grayson thought for a moment "And we are not operating in his neck of the woods for the next operation, so it really would not be necessary to have kept Lord Garth in the loop."
 
"The written orders are both logical and most specific." And most importantly signed, one was probably safe in the event of conflicting orders following the written ones. As usual Lori had a good point.
 
"True, True." He mused.
 
"Alright Lori, we'll stick with the orders to report in from Helm, I think the Captain General would prefer initiative to blind obedience."
 
"Me too, but I still think Lord Garth was behaving oddly." Grayson wasn't sure he had ever encountered someone who hid their dislike of those without titles so poorly.
 
"Maybe part of it is a general dislike of mercenaries, but I think he'd probably be a bit happier with someone like Major Blackadder." Lori laughed playfully at his comment.
 
"That sounds a little like jealousy, Grayson."
 
"No no, I do respect him, he's actually pretty smart, not everyone would think to load up on electronic warfare gear and support equipment if they found a Star League Cache full of flashy mechs. He also speaks like someone with old money, I suspect Lord Grath would prefer that."
 
"Well we won't have to work with the Duke for a few months, so that's something."
"Indeed, and not only is the pay is better for this job, but all the possible target worlds have a breathable atmosphere."
"When do you want to brief the regiment?"
 
"They know we will be assigned another job, I'll put together a briefing for when we reach Helm, they need a couple of days of leave before we mentally prepare for the next operation." He had deliberately refrained from telling the regiment about the future operation as he wanted them 100% focused on the current job. 
 
"That makes sense, if anyone asks I'll say we are expecting orders from Atreus to be issued on Helm."
 
"Perfect." That sense of unease hadn't gone though, so he resolved that they would come in to the Helm system via a pirate jump point.
----
At the primary jump point
Helm, Free Worlds League
April 10th, 3027 - 23:00 hours local time
Colonel Langsdorf looked at the assembled officers of the 12th White Sabres and the 5th Marik Guards. In both cases they represented a significant part of their respective regiments, the rest continuing to garrison the border against the depredations of House Steiner. That was the trouble with dealing with rebellions, they weakened the already stretched outer defences of the League.
 
 "Final run through Ladies and Gentlemen." The faces of the various seated company commanders looked up at him, the concern about the upcoming conflict and harsh rules of engagement etched on their faces.
 
 "Major Singh, summarise Task force Hawk's orders if you please."
 
 The Major was seated at the back so group swivelled to face him. "The two mechanised infantry companies will secure the spaceport, two lances of mechs will provide close support." In theory their landing should be unopposed. "We will transmit the clear signal once the air defence centre is secure, then commence patrolling the surroundings." As that was the supply point it was crucial it remained secure. "The supply and support companies will land later three hours later as will the air defence platoon and other air support elements. Once they are in place we can arrange reconnaissance and air support."
 
 "Thank you. Now Major Edwards, could you summarise Task force Raven's duties." The Colonel looked at next officer.
 
 She stood up and turned to group. "After the all clear is given we will land at the spaceport. Two mechanised infantry companies will then move to the town centre with one lance of mechs in support and detain the Mayor and Councillors. Two further lances of mechs will land with us as the mobile reserve." They would be light on infantry, but the town was not supposed to be militarised.
 
 "I want all of you to bear in mind that our numbers are limited, so try to keep things peaceful." He got nods from the right people. "It's believed it is unlikely the townsfolk have any knowledge of the Grey Death Legion's treason, so keep things calm."
 
 He looked around the room "That leaves Task Force Eagle which I shall lead." He paused. "The command lance will accompany myself, and we shall lead the the 2nd company of the Fifth Marik Guards towards Durandel, and Helmfast. In support we will have the hover tank company, and one infantry company with scouting lances on our flanks." He pointed at the arrow marking the direction of assault from their landing zone, there were some support forces landing with him, but they were not ones he could easily redeploy. "I need to stress, we shall be using the ECM units if we make serious contact, so at that point we will have disruptions to our comms."
 
 He pointed on the map to the spaceport, and then looked at the two other task force leaders. "I'll wait for word of your successes before landing to launch the assault, before that my task force will be available in orbit as an emergency reserve. Remember that during the assault on Durandel and Helmfast we may have poor comms, I will therefore devolve command for all other operations to Major Singh for that phase."
 
 "Once again our intelligence suggests The Grey Death Legion have one tank company, one infantry company and a mixed militia company. There are suggestions there is a light lance of mechs, but the main mech force is definitely offworld." That was the known threat. "However I would expect at least one additional infantry company formed of support personnel and armed light vehicles of varying sorts up to company strength."
 
"Any questions?"
"Yes, sir." His heart sank slightly, it was Major Swarovski, the officer in charge of the two mech companies from the Marik Guards, the second company was their heaviest formation. "Is there any update on the rules of engagement." Langsdorf wasn't happy with them either, but unlike the Major he had the decency to accept orders when they were given. The Major by comparison had insisted on being given written orders and having his protests formally logged.
 
Langsdorf was certain the Major knew there was no update, he simply wanted to make to clear to his fellow officers where he stood on the matter. "The orders remain that we are to consider all persons in Durandel and Helmfast as hostile and treat them as traitors. The orders from the General were quite specific, No prisoners." The room was deathly silent, there wasn't really a good way to phrase those sort of orders.
 
He looked around, he didn't see any sign of further questions and there was an uncomfortable silence. "Right, Task force leaders are to brief their officers on their respective Task Forces, the Task Force Eagle meeting will reconvene here in thirty minutes. Dismissed." He watched them disperse, silently cursing the Guards office who had publicly undermined him.
----
The Archon's palace
Tharkad, Lyran Commonwealth
April 11th, 3027 - 09:00 hours local time
"Simon, you look distracted." He was startled for a moment, he realized he hadn't been paying attention to the daily briefing they were listening to. He felt embarrassed, but at least it was almost over.
 
"Forgive me."
 
The Archon looked around at the briefing group. "Let's wind things up, we've got a busy day." The Archon was never that patient at the best of times for the morning 'wrap' as they called it, she disguised it well though.
 
"Simon, you stay." So Simon Johnson the head of the Lyran Intelligence apparatus remained seated as the aides and analysts left the room. Moments after the last of them left and the door closed she fixed him in place with a stare. "Is there another plot?"
 
"I don't know" he said somewhat helplessly. "Well probably somewhere there is." As long as Lestrade still drew breath there would be always be trouble.
 
"You don't normally look this nervous, you might as well come clean." She was chuckling, she knew him too well for him to hide his emotions from her.
 
"I received a message late last night from the station chief on Solaris that an MIIO courier is inbound via Solaris, I have no information on the message only that they arrived two days ago."
 
"It is den a of spies from what you have told me." It certainly was, all the great houses took advantage of the regular meeting of wealthy visitors from across the Inner Sphere to exchange secrets, meanwhile the senior nobles of the major realms furthered their own petty schemes there.
 
"Indeed, but the odd thing is that the courier entered our system early this morning, and their journey appears to have started in the Free Worlds League."
"I'm no spy master, but I know my JumpShips and that sounds like a record run from Solaris to Tharkad." The Archon smiled. "That is a regular route, but even so the courier must have been authorized to commandeer every JumpShip on the way." The jumps were instantaneous, which in theory meant that if you had JumpShips charged and ready to go at each waypoint you could travel vast distances in days, something that happened on very few routes, and at great expense.
 
"I think it's safe to assume you will have some angry letters coming your way." The Archon laughed very gently, but he could see she was now nervous, and it wasn't the letters from angry aristocrats that was eating at mind. "And I suspect something of a bill."
 
Simon spoke again. "The speed indicates severe political ramifications, yet the command system at Solaris only felt comfortable encrypting a reference to it in a routine priority message, we very nearly had the courier arrive before the Comstar message." He paused for moment to let that sink in. " I have to conclude that they felt the message was simply not secure via Comstar, yet they felt we needed to know that it involved the Free World League and that speed was essential." There were message categories not suited to Comstar transmission, yet it was an odd combination in this case.
 
"That sounds like a possible invasion warning, and at the very least some form of serious threat." The Archon sat her back in her chair and looked down at her desk, almost as though praying. Simon knew her habits well enough not to interrupt her.
 
After her reverie was over she spoke again. "Do you think it involves, Melissa?"
 
"It's one of my concerns, along with some form of threat to you or of course a mis-understanding of regarding Operation Thor." Though arguably Operation Thor was a long term build up towards a new phase in the successions wars, so misunderstanding was perhaps the wrong term.
 
"Very well, Melissa and young Redburn were due to travel to New Avalon this evening, we'll postpone that trip until we know what's happening." Simon nodded in some relief, he'd always felt the plan to use a civilian ship carried many risks. Melissa would be unhappy, but a large military escort could still be arranged for her and Colonel Sortek's party.
 
"Ardan Sortek is still in town, I suggest you brief him one of their couriers is en route, if this turns out to be primarily Federated Suns business he may be able to deal with it with only minimal help from us. That said I can only assume they came our direction for a very good reason." That was what was bothering Simon the most, generally spies reported up their own line of communication first, despite the ever deepening alliance he would not have expected his own operatives to make a surprise visit to New Avalon.
 
"I will do so, we would be regarded poorly as allies not to inform him." He was thoughtful for a moment. "The military danger remains very uncertain, I'm wary the range of possible outcomes is substantial." Nondi Steiner and some of the others weren't particularly easy to deal with at times, and she in particular was hardly going to be thrilled by the prospect of taking action on the basis of vague concerns.
 
"Well, Simon, the benefit of Operation Thor is that we are already bringing the military to a very high level of readiness. If House Marik has decided on multiple spoiling attacks, for once we have the JumpShip capacity to deliver a widespread and very rapid counterattack." Simon felt that if he was in shoes of the Captain-General he would have already been launching those spoiling attacks and large raids along the whole frontier, that of course assumed one ruled a stable political entity. "I'll have a chat with Nondi, it won't be the first time she has been given a very vague warning that leads to nothing."
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