FuH Chapter 7

=Chapter 7 - Fighting Uphill=
==Old Comrades​​==
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15th April, 3010
Oriente
Free Worlds League
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The trip to Oriente was uneventful.
The Dragoon's departure from Sian was delayed a bit so that they could join a Capellan supply convoy heading to the same planet. As part of the convoy, the Dragoons got their first glimpse of the Inner Sphere's true naval forces as the convoy escorts included several monitors that were clearly packing capital grade energy weapons, and a large "Jumpship" with fifteen docking collars and armed with arrays of naval lasers and capital missile launchers... purely for defensive purposes of course.
In order to minimize the chances of interception by enemy aerospace forces, the convoy jumped to uninhabited systems chosen by the convoy admiral at seeming random so that no one outside the convoy, not even the Capellan's top military leaders, would know exactly where the convoy was until they reached the Oriente system. This actually shaved a jump off the convoy's voyage as their route was actually straighter than it would have been had they stuck to inhabited systems.
The "Jumpship" and half the monitors stayed at the jump point as the rest of the convoy made their way in system. Halfway en route to Oriente, the convoy was passed by another set of monitors and lesser Dropships heading the other way. They were obviously heading back to the Confederation, being swapped out for fresh units. Twenty monitors and several carrier Dropships still stood guard in Oriente orbit; curiously, they all had obvious rotating grav decks, which in retrospect are a necessity for the health of their crews if the Dropships rarely engaged in gravity generating maneuvers.
As the Dragoon Dropships grounded themselves at Oriente's primary Dropport, Jaime and his command staff took a shuttle directly to Oriente palace to meet with the local Liao commanding officer. He was met at the foot of the boarding ramp by an officer wearing not an CCAF uniform, but a uniform of the Northwind Highlanders, another mercenary group that worked for the Capellans.
"Colonel Wolf, welcome to Fort Duncan." the woman said in friendly greeting. "I'm Colonel Elsa MacDougal, CO of the Second Kearny Highlanders."
The Dragoons had fought several units of the Northwind Highlanders while working for the Federated Suns, but not the Second Kearny Highlanders specifically. If MacDougal harbored any animosity towards the Dragoons because of those battles, she showed no signs of it.
"Hello, Colonel." Jaime greeted in turn. He hesitated a moment and then added, "I mean no offense, Colonel, but I was actually expecting to be met by a regular CCAF officer."
"Ach, don't worry your head about it." MacDougal told him. "I volunteered for this. I just wanted to be the first person on Oriente to meet the famous Wolf's Dragoons."
"Famous are we?" Joshua asked, amused. "Oh, I am Major Joshua Wolf by the way."
"Nice to meetcha." MacDougal replied cheerfully. "And yes, of course you're famous. First people to come back from Kerensky's exodus since the Minnesota Tribe? Everyone's dying to know what Kerensky's people have been up to since they left the Inner Sphere. It's not like the Minnesota Tribe told us anything before they disappeared back into the Periphery."
"Uh, who was this Minnesota Tribe?" Jaime asked, thinking that the Dragoons really needed to come up with a good story to tell the Inner Sphere about where the Dragoons had come from. Preferably one that wasn't too close the actual truth.
"Oh, right. 'Minnesota Tribe' is just what we call them because they never told us who they actually are." MacDougal said. "Back in 2825, a small army showed up out of nowhere and raided a bunch of Draconis Combine worlds. They were painted in SLDF colors and bore the insignia of SLDF's 331sr Royal Battlemech Division, which was also the insignia of the North American state of Minnesota, which is why we call them the Minnesota Tribe. Well, the Combine fought them off and the survivors disappeared back into the Periphery, never to be seen again. The Combine also salvaged some interesting technology from the Minnesotans including an improved ER PPC design which created a PPC obsession that they still have to this day."
Jaime and Joshua looked at each other, both realizing who this "Minnesota Tribe" must have been.
"Not friends of yours I take it?" MacDougal asked, noticing the look passing between the Wolf brothers.
"That would be an accurate statement, yes." Jaime said without volunteering any more information.
There was a moment of awkward silence as MacDougal clearly expected Jaime to elaborate. But Jaime did not and MacDougal looked a bit disappointed when she spoke again.
"Okay, I guess you want to keep your mystery origins a mystery." MacDougal said finally. "As I said, I wanted to personally meet you. The Northwind Highlanders used to be SLDF back when there was a Star League, you know. We just chose to stay behind when Kerensky took the rest of the SLDF out of the Inner Sphere."
"Did you now?" Jaime asked, but couldn't quite keep the disapproval out of his voice.
"Ach, don't be like that, Colonel." MacDougal told him. "We understand why Kerensky did what he did, but we couldn't agree with it ourselves. We were SLDF; our whole reason for being was to protect the worlds of the Terran Hegemony. And if we couldn't protect every world, we protected what we could, even if we had to choose sides in the Succession Wars to do it. Because that was our duty. We Northwind Highlanders have kept to the ideals of the Star League as best we could. We have always fought with honor and bravery, and we have never committed an atrocity or war crime no matter how much some of our past 'employers' have demanded that we do so."
"I see." Jaime said with grudging respect. He had always been told that the SLDF units that had stayed behind in the Inner Sphere had sold out to the House Lords for money and power. But MacDougal told a different story and spoke with an honest conviction that told Jaime she truly believed it.
"Speaking of employers," MacDougal continued, "have the Dragoons developed any preferences yet?"
"Preferences?" Jaime asked, puzzled by the change in topic. "I am not sure what you mean?"
"Ach, right, you're still new to the mercenary business in the Inner Sphere." MaDougal said knowingly. "Tis the nature of the beast, Colonel. Large merc units like ours eventually wind up siding with one House or another. Theoretically, we only work for anyone willing to pay us, but the truth is that shit happens. Missions go bad. Sometimes we lose an important battle. We win a big victory that the other side takes personally. An employer tries to screw us over. Battles are fought less than honorably. But however it happens, the end result is a lot of personal grudges and feuds that inevitably leads to us mercenaries only working for one Great House because that one House is the only one willing to employ us. Or in rarer cases, we have a feud with a specific Great House and will take jobs from everyone else as long as those jobs are aimed at the specific House we're feuding with."
"I see." Jaime said, wondering if that would happen to the Dragoons. "And no, we have not developed any preferences yet. If anything, our contract includes a clause that forbids us from being used against our immediate former employer precisely to avoid things like what you just mentioned."
"Ah, wise of you, Colonel." MacDougal said. "But I suspect that sooner or later, someone is going to do something to get on your bad side. Or you'll do something to get on theirs."
Jaime thought about Wayne Waco, then dismissed him from his thoughts. The Waco Rangers weren't a Successor State and were hardly a threat to the Dragoons.
"Well, I think we've kept her highness waiting long enough." MacDougal decided. "Come on, Colonel. Follow me and I'll introduce you to your actual client."
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