TLR Chpt 9

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==Chapter 9 - The Lucky Regiment3.2==
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The Palace - Mechbays
New Avalon, Federated Suns
October 1st, 3026 - 16:00 hrs local time
Victoria ran her hand over the surface of the foot of her K2 mech, as she looked up at the familiar sight she traced the scars of battle with her eyes up the legs and onto the torso. Edmund had to his credit done a fine job repairing the mech, unfortunately it had then been heavily damaged once more. 'Borrowing' a car and returning it broken was poor form.
 
The 'mech had arrived yesterday, and presumably limped into the repair bay as the right leg looked to be in a bad way. It was part of Hanse Davion's way of saying sorry for the interrogations, the other part had been relative freedom in the palace and a promise of freedom with conditions once her brother's nearly complete court martial was finished. Hanse had managed to arrange the exchange of letters with her brother, a brother who was surprised and relieved she was still alive and one who she knew she would not see again. In her heart she knew she should be facing a trial as well, exile was a punishment that few in the Reach would argue was sufficient.
 
The sixty-five ton Catapult K2 was a definite rarity, she'd seen all the the passing technicians stop and stare at it. This model barely saw use outside the Draconis Combine, and like many designs was out of production. With its long ranged PPCs it made a fearsome sniper, though its armour and heat capacity made it no match for the theoretically comparable Marauder. She looked again at the legs, they looked to have been restored to their original state rather than replaced, which was impressive given that had been done aboard the Argo. When she had ejected the mech could barely stand, yet she recognized some of the old scratches to the metal on the feet so the parts were mostly the same.
 
She'd been promised a full repair with a few upgrades, in theory it would be better than it had been for generations. The trouble was, excited though she had been when told her mech was being returned, she wasn't sure she ever wanted to sit in that particular cockpit again. Even touching the mech's foot brought back memories of the terrible things she had done in it.
 
"Lady Espinosa"
 
She recognized the crisp authoritative voice of Ardan Sortek, she turned to see him approaching, like her he was still wearing his cooling vest. "Colonel Sortek." She felt the instinct to salute, the man had a traditional air of authority about him that made people fall into line, it was fascinating to watch. Edmund had started to develop it, but here was the real thing.
 
"A rare breed the K2, even the combine only have a few left." She felt she was letting him down by not being enthusiastic enough about the return of her 'mech, she hoped she looked the part, but she suspected he could see through pretence.
 
"It was the Queen of the battlefield in the periphery." Well that was until Edmund crippled its legs, it turned out a Riflemen backed up by mobile LRM launchers could dominate a sheltered spaceport in a valley. Once they lost the high ground her remaining force had been slowly ground down.
 
"You did well out there today, Lady Espinosa, plenty of units would take on someone with your skills." There it was she thought, her invite to join the OpFor alongside him had been a way to later offer her a new life. Service in a good regiment with her mech, probably one of the 'house' regiments, she would be out of trouble and her mech and skills would not be wasted. It wouldn't be a bad life and she had been promised the use of the apartment for as long as needed with the offer of somewhere more private to move onto later. Nobles looked after each other, there was probably some inherent biological logic to it.
 
"Do you think they would want me or the mech?" Ardan looked slightly puzzled, generally the best paid and most sought after pilots had their own 'mech and were good pilots.
 
"One of these is a key asset, heavy mechs dominate most battlefields, your Catapult might be a struggle to maintain for a small formation, but the bigger units still have some similar chassis operational."
 
"It's not that." She paused, wary of appearing weak. "When I look at my 'mech I see the things I did with it, I think I can handle the piloting, I just don't like ghosts." Ardan looked up at the mech with a thoughtful expression, she doubted there was anything in his past he felt ashamed of. Ardan at times reminded her of Kamea's father, always the one person you knew was doing the right thing, or at least trying to.
 
"I confess when I talked with Hanse about buying it back for you we didn't see it that way, I suppose we should have. I'm sorry."
 
She spoke softly, unable to hide her emotions, torn between shame at her seeming ingratitude and sorrow at her guilt. "It's because you have a clean conscience." She wanted to say its why everyone looks up to you, but knew it would come across badly. "I find it hard to look at a 'mech now and see it as a symbol of duty and family." She was pretty certain Edmund still did, despite being a mercenary his actions had probably made life better for almost everyone in the Reach and the Federated Suns. And then to remind her of his outlook on life, despite all she'd done he had still treated her like the person he wanted her to be and not what she had become.
 
Ardan looked back up at the cockpit, his expression distant. For a while he was silent, she feared she had overstepped the mark with her honesty. She had lost her father and her brother faced an imminent reckoning for his crimes, whilst some relatives remained in the Reach she was now a stateless exile. There wasn't an easy way to express that, and her emotional state still tended to fluctuate.
 
"You need an anchor, a regiment will give you that for a time." He chuckled to himself "And it's old fashioned advice, but starting a new family can give you the rest." Her grandmother would probably have said the same. "I hope one day you'll see somewhere in the Federated Suns as your home." She could tell he meant it, Ardan Sortek's outlook was agreeably straightforwards, and there was no ambiguity about which state was best.
 
She looked at the 'mech wondering if she could face piloting it day in and day out and whether a desire for a completely fresh start was cowardice or respect for her mistakes. "It occurs to me Lady Espinosa that there may be a solution to your dilemma, and for the record a dilemma I respect."
 
She looked expectantly at him. "Your mech can be leased to us as a training mech, it'll live here and be used for our training programs. We'll look after it and you can decide later what to do with it." That could work, she could become a lady of leisure or even find some sort of paid job, whatever those were. "I also understand there is a company out there looking for skilled pilots, reputable and has some high end mechs."
 
The Kell Hounds she wondered briefly, before realizing the obvious unit. "I'm not sure how welcome I'd be, there are a lot of crew and mechwarriors from the Reach, I can't say I'd blame them for sticking a knife in whilst I sleep." That Edmund's letters to her were not private was sadly not a surprise, what she initially taken for an awkward writing style was his acceptance that there was no privacy. As a result she had to infer much regarding his intentions from carefully worded sections.
 
"I have good news on that front." She raised her eyebrows signalling a degree of skepticism. "Most of the local crew members want to work locally, as do the local mechwarriors." She nodded, that actually made a bit of sense. "One of the lances has been bought out by Lady Arano, they'll stay behind with some of the locally sourced mechs." That also made sense, the sort of light mechs that did fine out in the periphery were apparently a bit underpowered in the Inner Sphere.
 
"Won't Edmund be short on 'mechs though?"
 
"You remember he took a large share of the spoils of Artru?" She nodded, also aware that since Edmund's unit was in some respects a Federated Suns formation that Hanse Davion hadn't been as generous as it first appeared. "We shipped back part of his share, the left behind lance is being replaced by a higher grade one, mechwarriors included."
 
She looked around at her surroundings and noted once again the irony that her situation and Edmund's had almost perfectly reversed, she was now the landless mechwarrior and he by all accounts not only had been discreetly granted some modest estates but more importantly had control of Battlemechs and Mechwarriors, arguably the most valuable currency of all.
 
"I take it he's on contract to House Davion now?"
 
"Yes and no, they are on route to Lyran space to bulk up an OpFor for a couple of their top units. We've found putting regular formations up against a Lostech equipped unit has led tactical innovations and raised standards at all levels. As they are our allies we offered them the service of the Marauders for three months of field training. After that Edmund has some flexibility." Victoria nodded slowly, since being released from her captivity she had spent most of time trying to better understand the new political and military ecosystem she was in. Mercenaries were as often used in training programs as on the battlefield, and their rates for training were far lower. "We've already sent out fresh crewmen and a resupply run will meet them at Solaris with the new mechs and pilots."
 
"Why Solaris?" She was uncomfortably aware of the 'saying that what happens on Solaris stays on Solaris', she didn't like admitting it to others, but she still had strong feelings towards Edmund and who knew what he naughtiness he would get up to there. As her anger at being handed to over the MIIO faded she had become increasingly aware that Edmund had consistently taken courses of action that had given her the optimal chance of survival. Whether aiming for the legs of her mech or risking his relation with his employer he had traded higher risks on his side for lower risks on hers. She wasn't sure it qualified as romantic, but it showed in his own weird way that he still cared about her.
 
"Your friend presumably plans to trade some of his salvage, Solaris has a very deep market and Lostech prices particularly well there." She knew a bit about the world, it was on the edge of Lyran space, but by tradition all the houses and mercenary companies had some ability to trade, hire and test mechs in the arenas there. It was also party central, with bars and a nightlife that catered to all tastes and budgets. "I suspect he's looking to taking on a few hires, but I have to say he won't find many team players there, at least not amongst the Mechwarrior community." Ardan probably took them for granted, but she reckoned he would be more likely looking to find good technicians, something that had always been a challenge in the Reach.
 
Part of her wanted to go join him, whilst the logical part said she had something called Stockholm syndrome. "Do you think there would be space for me?" She swiftly decided the rational part of her mind would lead to a stagnant life and probably a reputation for collecting cats.
 
"It looks like he plans to have more pilots than mechs, you know how it is, the meat is easier to replace than the metal." She did, most peripheral units operated that way, it meant an ill, injured or deceased pilot was not a problem. "Of course you would find it harder starting there than almost anywhere else as you would have a lot more to prove."
 
She frowned, she knew was a good pilot, and most of that had come from training hard and of course a good tutor. It was true that the Inner Sphere academies were better funded, but she had combat experience and frankly life at the relative bottom as a junior mechwarrior for a few years would be a lot simpler. "They say that when you have faith in yourself, others will start to as well. Will the First Prince be willing to release me though?" It wasn't quite house arrest, but she did need his sign-off to go off world.
 
"He feels there is a deep obligation to you, and there is considerable discomfort that you were held as a prisoner. He has indicated to me that amongst many career options he would sponsor your application to a suitable mercenary regiment. He wondered if you might find it easier starting again in the Lyran Commonwealth, but that should not be seen in any way as an instruction."
 
A completely fresh start might be easier, she could lay off bleaching her hair and even pick a discrete new surname and pick an awesome call sign like Dangermouse. Or she could restore some semblance of respectability to her family name, though unfortunately that would involve a career change to something like medicine, Comstar or the church. She looked around at the other Battlemechs, the sight felt natural. Who was she kidding, she still loved piloting a Battlemech so the only real option was to see if Edmund was still hiring and hope he hadn't found a new girlfriend.
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