TLR Chpt 4

frameless|right|300px|link=The Lucky Regiment
<<Next Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
==Chapter 4 - The Lucky Regiment1.4==
----
Six weeks earlier, April 23rd 3026The command room of the Argo
Kamea looked around the metallic room, the group were not looking as enthusiastic as they should about the prospect of recovering a Star League Cache. Her better half looked happy enough but the crucial support of Darius and Edmund was looking shaky.
 
"Guys, if they have a company of Star League era mechs there it would shift the balance of power." For that matter another company of any sort of mech would make a big difference to their fortunes. 
 
Darius spoke first "It would, but you would need the Argo's facilities fully repaired to properly maintain them, we only have two leopards on hand, and don't have the ability to excavate or empty a facility." He paused, "My view is that we'll get spotted and then either Espinosa or the Taurians will come in and clear it out. I agree the data looks genuine and the ships systems recognized the data package's codes, but accessing the site risks making our enemies stronger."
 
"Edmund, surely you can see that this could change the balance of power?" The young mercenary was sitting with his face partially in the shadows, the result of ongoing repair work to the ancient lighting system. He leant forwards revealing a concerned face, so she tried a different approach. "Look I know we don't have the dropships with us now, but I can bring in another Union dropship and my allies on Smithon have at least five of various types they should be able to spare. We could blow up what we don't take." She saw a collective look of horror at the possible destruction of Lostech, she quickly resolved to keep that type of idea to herself in future.
 
"Darius is right, the moment we start planning in earnest other parties will find out and start competing to access this site. It's just the way life is, and our biggest successes have come when we didn't have to tell anyone our plans." Her shoulders sagged, he had a point, Espinosa had plenty of spies and informants amongst her followers, and if the Taurians got wind of it they would happily claim and empty the site.
 
"How much do you trust my judgement, Kamea?" It had to be said quite a lot, he had saved her life, been responsible for her biggest battlefield successes, and not to mention finding a reliable source of good quality munitions at remarkably good prices. His only failing had been not recovering the body of Victoria, but she could understand why he would have wanted to bury her himself. Despite all the evil she had done he still seemed to have cared for her in way she really didn't deserve, frankly why anyone would have fancied that vicious peroxide blonde was beyond her.
 
"Quite a lot, most of the time." She looked at him hesitantly, wondering what sort of solution a mercenary Captain with two elderly DropShips could possibly have.
 
"Alright, so we don't have the resources to actually do the job properly, or fully utilize anything we find. Nor do we have the operational security to pull it off safely, but I reckon I know someone who does…"
----
New Avalon, Federated Suns - The First Prince's officeMay 7th, 3026
"Explain to me to again Quintus why I should be happy to risk several battalions of mechs and potentially start a war with the Taurians over the claims of a SLDF depot." Lady Alexandria watched nervously as her head of state grilled the head of the MIIO. Both of their credibilities were now on the line, she hadn't really expected a casual bit of nepotism to lead to something like this.
 
"The asset cloned the restricted files on an old support ship that specifically mention supply runs to the location, furthermore Lady Kamea possesses an actual emergency access device to the remote facility. We know from the ship logs that it contained an R&D facility, that alone is pretty compelling." Quintus paused carefully and looked and his notebook. "The access device physically matches existing ones we own, and the ship had navigational records that show multiple trips to the facility. We are as comfortable as we can be that both facility and access device are real, though I admit the SLDF facility isn't showing up in any House Davion military records or recovered ones from the remains of any other Star League facility or records."
 
"Regrettably there was not much trust in those days, so I accept the SLDF would have kept the facility secret, there were plenty of others found in our territory over the years my family had no knowledge of, and this one was outside of our borders." Hanse looked thoughtful "My concern is more around the question of whether anything of value is left inside, or if it was destroyed during the uprising." Which Lady Alexandria thought was a fair concern, almost every known ruin or old facility had been searched for salvage on multiple occasions, and the Amaris era revolts and fighting had been intense.
 
"The ship's secure records imply that for some reason it was sealed off just before Amaris started his coup, and as a result the SLDF never got to deal with the problem." Quintus looked calm, but she doubted he felt it. "The Argo got parked on a lifeless moon during the following fighting to be used a support base, and then left there at the end of the campaign as they needed the skilled crew for Jump capable warships. Pirates used it as a base, but couldn't access the secure systems."
 
"I've studied the period. Kerensky emptied most of the SLDF depots, he had to, the losses he took were horrendous. Meanwhile our records have been combed multiple times to try to track down anything of value, and I believe the Taurians would have done the same." 
 
"I agree, Hanse, but the facility was a secret R&D site as well as an emergency depot on a world with only a few mining settlements even in happier times. The miners were from the Hegemony and the rare metals mined there were too valuable for local use. The leaders of the periphery uprising most likely never knew about it, let alone the local miners."
 
"Why would the SLDF have left it alone?" 
 
"The fighting was messy and very dirty, entire Star League units were lost including a number of headquarters. The Taurians kept fairly good records and are quite public with them, we think they eliminated the entire local chain of command that knew about the facility, and Amaris did the same soon after back on Earth."
 
"Assuming we accept that, what do you expect to find?"
 
"A security company of Battlemechs, plus vehicles and then whatever was stockpiled for emergency use. The stockpile could just be spare parts and ammunition or complete Battlemechs, we simply don't know. In many ways the R&D facility is more important, we hope to find some intact memory cores along with written materials on whatever projects they were working on." 
 
"Ardan what are the operational requirements to pull this off?"
 
"The equivalent of at least two battalions of Battlemechs or comparable combined arms formations to secure the site and a light combined arms force for general security afterwards. We'll need need a skilled engineering unit with heavy equipment suited to the terrain, and a substantial salvage force. The team are still working on the cargo estimates, but we would want to be able to extract at least a couple of battalions worth of Battlemechs, whatever vehicles are in storage plus anything portable in the facility. Best case scenario in my view is that this was a forward depot allowing the rapid deployment of part of a regiment, anything much larger and Kerensky would known of it and emptied it." Hanse looked happy with the response.
 
"We don't need a war with the Taurians right now Ardan. Thus your route needs to avoid their territory, I suggest concurrent buildups elsewhere on the Capellan border to keep them occupied." Ardan noted that in his little leather bound notebook. "If the cache is intact we want it stripped bare, take extra engineers and salvage personnel as well as making sure you have sufficient transport capacity." That probably meant more jump ships, but that in turn meant the armed drop ships should be more than a match for any Taurian effort to intercept it. She felt a degree of nervousness as the attention turned to her, the First Prince wasn't going to forgive her if this went wrong.
 
"Lady Alexandria, once again we come back to the reliability of the asset, there are grounds for concern given his expulsion from the Academy and the questionable support for the punishment from several retired generals at his appeal. I would understand a degree of bitterness on his part."
 
"Sir, I don't think he will forgive those involved, and as his Godmother I won't either. That said his munitions are coming from us and the Canopians, I upped our subsidy to him to something fairly substantial recently and he deliberately recruited most of the crew from the Federated Suns as well as keeping new pilots to a mix of locals and those 'vetted' by us. I think he definitely views himself as one of us, but I don't think he would have liked the discipline of a regular unit."
 
"Do we have any of Quintus' personnel on board?"
 
"A few, but bear in mind they are all known to him. His platoon of jump infantry are vetted ex-regulars, and are each receiving a supplemental salary from us. He has been careful to edge out the Capellans in the unit, but he does have some key personnel from the Combine and Free Worlds League."
 
"Bad blood with House Liao?"
 
"On the family side definitely, and his Regiment ended up in severe financial difficulty in recent years after a bad contract with them.One reason we were paying Major Blackadder was to ensure that if the company went bust we could get an early shot at buying out the remaining assets from the creditors." Periphery companies of all sorts went under fairly often, they tended to be small and the contracts were often risky and hard to find. The mechs of a small mercenary company despite being usually in mixed condition were still well worth bidding for to use in militias and second line formations.
 
"That is very mercenary of you." Hanse smiled. "Needs must sadly, I assume their finances are stable now?"
 
"It appears so, Kamea Arano paid off most of their debts, and their salvage gains have been substantial. They also now have several heavy 'mechs so they are a more effective unit than they were." Assuming they survived, the 'mechs they now had would make them suitable for action against the Capellans, something her godson was probably itching to see.
 
"Quintus are you comfortable with his reliability?"
 
"Reasonably confident, his intel has been solid and his combat performance impressive, he's also been ensuring his crew should be friendly to the Federated Suns." There was a smile from the spymaster. "We owe him for securing us Espinosa's daughter, that was something of a coup, and may spare us a war. It poses some issues though." He looked decidedly less comfortable now. "She could easily end up heir to the throne and yet we have her in custody." Quintus looked around with a degree of concern in his face. "We've done worse over the years, but I think we should tread carefully on this one."
 
"I have one significant concern around the asset, he wasn't treated particularly well by the Military Academy. Now it might make him a more credible mercenary now, but to retain his long term loyalty I believe we do need to find a way to clear that record, the expulsion was simply unwarranted relative to the offense." She wasn't sure her godson cared any more, he seemed to have earned a fearsome enough reputation on the battlefield that the scandal probably now enhanced his reputation.Indeed if word got out that he had been more than friends with Victoria Espinosa they would be making straight to holovid movies about him. He was by all accounts something of a celebrity in those parts, benefiting from both actual success in the field and Kamea's propaganda efforts.
 
"Treat her well, we'll come up with a suitable course of action regarding her shortly."
----
<<Next Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
4