TOW13

==Chapter 13 - The Other War==
03/28/3060 04:15 Jaguar Genetic Repository, Huntress
The Jaguar Genetic Repository was brightly illuminated and surrounded by a high chain link fence topped with razor wire and warded by bollards. Rolling sounds of artillery cascaded through the city as a convoy of six light vehicles rolled on the darkened streets of Lootera the dull white glow of illumination rounds showed passing glimpses of spray painted over Smoke Jaguar markings. As the lead vehicle came within sight a pair of 12th Armored Grenadiers in SLDF OD uniforms and recently bandaged injuries pointed assault rifles at them while a gun truck aimed its heavy machine gun at the arriving convoy.
Seeing the security force the convoy stopped a short distance from the gate and two small women in MMC insignia on their OD fatigues hopped out. They wore helmets and flak vests but carried no weapons. A grenadier approached them with a flashlight and recognized the one with a Commander's gold edged diamond on her helmet, ‘‘Commander Dias, why aren't you driving clearly marked trucks. There are Smoke Jaguars ten klicks from here. Can't you hear them?’‘
‘‘Sorry Sarge, we didn't want to mark them. Command told us some Smoke Jaguar Elementals got into the city. We wanted them to let us by if they weren't looking close enough.’‘
The Grenadier turned to his companion who lifted the gate and the machine gun returned to its upright position. ‘‘I hadn't heard that but we will maintain vigilance. Hurry up we got wounded inside.’‘
‘‘That's why we are here after all.’‘ Commander Dias turned to return to the passenger seat of the truck smiling as the six vehicles of her convoy entered the complex. Walking wounded assisted in unloading the supplies carried within while her people went to work treated the soldiers injured in the Jaguar's hyper aggressive counter attack. Cots were set up under tents or inside the repository and sterile operating theaters established in one of the larger rooms.
A small squad of soldiers in SLDF OD fatigues waited on the rooftops nearby watching the convoy enter with keen interest. Their leader lifted their left hand and pointed toward the west. The commandos descended the wall with just their hands though there were lengths of rope over their shoulders. Each carried a silenced pistol and knife as they approached the fence unseen by any of the hastily installed sensors or otherwise occupied (by unloading supplies) walking wounded guards.
They sprinted past cots with sleeping soldiers in them within easy reach of their rifles toward their objective. Once inside they holstered or concealed their weapons each wore the name and particular ID of a soldier taken from the missing list. Their features resembled the likely dead troopers but were otherwise average.
As they walked through the massive structure they kept close watch on the happenings within, most of the capable soldiers were in the field fighting off the Jaguar counter-attack and the wounded were located in the first layer of rooms. Deep within the structure there were only a few things of interest, the main repository itself, Huntress' central datacore, and the rooms where the Scientist prisoners were being held in a secured room.
The repository was already damaged but one of them readied a thermobaric demo charge from her backpack in its center while another was extracting blood samples and placing them in a cryocanister. They moved on to the central datacore where they hacked in and siphoned off petabytes of sensitive data into a portable DNA computer before leaving something extra behind. The operative keyed in a command line and the system began overwriting and erasing portions of itself, she whispered ‘‘That Niops tech is working like a charm. Now comes the hard part.’‘
A pair of blue helmeted COMGUARD troopers stood watch on the Jaguar Scientists captured during the initial attack at the beginning of the month. ROM had gotten many of them to talk and they had some interesting tales but some were proving difficult to break. Three SLDF soldiers came walking toward them, they seemed oddly familiar but neither could place them. ‘‘We're here to relieve you.’‘
One of the troopers checked his watch, ‘‘We still have an hour.’‘
The commando reached down and fired the silenced pistol at arms length from the hip, six rounds later the Comguardsmen were dead. ‘‘We could have waited Force Leader. They are on the same side.’‘
‘‘We both know that's not true Lance Corporal. These guardsmen were the best of worse choices. We have an hour to exfil let's move.’‘
The Commandos used the dead men's keys to open the padlock holding the thirty prisoners inside what seemed to be a conference room. The Force Leader stepped forward still brandishing his pistol. ‘‘You have two choices, come with us or die. Decide quickly.’‘
An hour later the complex went into lock-down after a large explosion from within the building. Commander Dias' medics were not permitted to leave their assigned rooms while the walking wounded went room by room in search of their missing prisoners and the culprits behind the sabotage that had caused serious damage to the building. Two blue helmets were dead from gunshot wounds from a Nambu pistol only issued to the DCMS. All DCMS personnel on sight had to surrender their pistols and magazines for inspection but none were found to have been fired recently.
When the SLDF finally got around to analyzing the Jaguar datacores they found the complete Census records wiped out no one could be certain how many Jaguars had gone missing during the Annihilation as even the records on Strana Mechty were wiped out and unrecoverable. It is as if they had never existed except for material stored in the Clan's Central Repository that was on a separate system.
A year later on Gambilon a Condor Dropship unloaded their secret cargo of personnel and materiel looted by MIM's covert operations teams in Clanspace. Seven intact protomechs, their pilots, dozens of Scientists and Technicians as well as Elementals, and a variety of weapons that went 'missing' were loaded into a single research facility along with Iron Wombs and most of the Jaguar's digital blood-heritages. They were greeted by a dour woman wearing a lab coat and opal handled laser pistol, ‘‘I am Dr Selaj and you all now belong to me. Welcome to the Rim Jaguars. Do enjoy your stay.’‘
04/28/3060 CFMDS Mastodon, Mongoose Ghost Fleet, Circe IV
The Mastodon's Wardroom was crowded with the officers from each group who were using their two hours of gee time to solidify their next moves in the space that was rapidly becoming their home. Small murals were painted on the wall and tiny nick-knacks had been added since they took control of the ship. MedTechs Sera and Zack joined them from the infirmary which was now overstuffed with recently installed equipment salvaged from the Jaguar habitat. A Type 96 Tug's infirmary was well appointed and over-sized for their current crew so there was space in the morgue for the specimens.
Zack the Chief MedTech (equivalent to a PA, MDs are of the Scientist Caste) switched the camera to POV and looked at the head scientist a pale man with multiple tattoos and a single round to the head that had over-penetrated but still killed him. ‘‘We have identified this man as a Jaguar Trueborn of the Furst Bloodhouse based on his DNA. However, with the loss of Huntress and destruction of the Jaguar Census records we cannot positively ID him. What we can tell is that he washed out early from Warrior training.’‘
Faye addressed the man, ‘‘How can you tell?’‘
‘‘Several reasons, his bone and muscle density were low. Not just because of time in zero gee but because he never underwent strenuous physical training that occurs past Creche. We can also tell this by his clean X-rays and the lack of scarring. I have seen your Warriors' scars plenty to tell that this would be unusual if he had lasted longer.’‘
‘‘So he was a wimp and retrained as a Scientist?’‘
‘‘Aff. We might have gotten more data from the Elemental but with the destruction of his body by Joseph's lasers in space that is not possible. These tattoos do not seem to inform me of anything else. I will take pictures in case we find another with similar patters. Perhaps they are affiliation marks.’‘
''
Nina took her turn, ‘‘Anything from what was left of the Techs.’‘
‘‘Neg, except that they were freeborn. Again with the destruction of the Census I cannot tell you more.’‘
‘‘Damn.’‘ She looked over to the Jaguar, ‘‘Faye seems like there was rot at the core of your Clan.’‘
‘‘Aff, unfortunately we might never know the extent and the conspirators have already scattered beyond our grasp.’‘
Claude spoke to Zack, ‘‘What about those Marines?’‘
‘‘I was just about to get to them Star Commander.’‘ He panned over to another table where a pale hairless man with long muscular arms and feet complete with extended toes. ‘‘These guys are retreads with some very advanced genetic engineering in their DNA. We also analyzed their blood well what was left of it after your people got through with them. They have increased radiation tolerance,’‘ he pointed the camera to get a close look at the unusual limbs, ‘‘these physiological adaptations in addition to a modified version of the EPAS1 gene common among Belter and Sherpa populations and several other traits primarily found in Diamond Shark Elementals.’‘
Claude looked to Nina, ‘‘So that confirms our suspicions the Jaguars were not working alone. This is a multi-clan threat now,’‘ he shook his head, ‘‘but no one will believe us.’‘
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