TLR Chpt 14

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==Chapter 14 - The Lucky RegimentSettling in to Helm==
The Grey Death Legion Garrison
Town of Durandel
Helm, Free Worlds League
March 21st, 3027 - 23:00 hours local time
Victoria looked at Edmund, he was slumped in an armchair in one of the guest quarters and attempting to work on something on his laptop in between yawns. They were lucky, most of the unit was sleeping in one of several large hangers in their sleeping bags on camp beds. The two DropShips had been shuttling down the Marauders over the last two days. Stores, vehicles, mechs, all the combat personnel and the support teams had all been disembarked.
 
The training plan was fairly civilized, there would be joint training with the allied partners near the base followed by a build up towards a near battalion level deployment when the combined unit would establish a 'bridgehead' and set up a secure camp at a location they were sure could handle the weight of a DropShip. Of course DropShips in exercises were unusually notional, so more important was that it could be reached by a long convoy of trucks.
 
"Edmund seriously, it's past your bed time and mine."
"I know, but I'm worried."
 
"Why?"
 
"It's this town, we're sitting in low ground surrounded by woods and high ground, with only a couple of LRM turrets to make sure nobody lands in the town itself."
 
"The people of Helm are very hospitable but I genuinely don't think there is anything worth stealing on this world. And if the Lyrans rock up our contract specifies we're supposed to stand aside."
 
"I'm afraid our mechs are worth stealing, and in wouldn't be unreasonable for the Capellans to hire someone to punish Grayson for making fools of them." That was feasible and in keeping with the Capellan policy of periodically going after individuals, Edmund thought he wasn't on their radar but Grayson Carlyle certainly would be.
 
"The Argo is effectively an early warning system." The local spaceport certainly didn't have much ability to do more than direct incoming traffic that had registered its presence. "What else can we do?"
 
"Darius is setting up an early warning spy satellite, it's taking a while though, it's the first time we've got it out of the box."
Victoria smiled, every time she went into a different part of the Argo she found yet another piece of Lostech squirreled away. "Sounds good."
"I'll still be more comfortable once we're in the field, once we go tactical we'll be hard to spot from orbit."
"Make sure you give the team a few nights of good sleep first, everyone's still getting used to being on solid ground again." She smiled at him. "Look at things on the bright side though, you can test the early system warning system on the Marik DropShip when it arrives."
 
"True, and by all accounts being overdue by one day is still ahead of schedule." Victoria laughed, so far her limited experience of the Free World League had put them in the category of organized chaos, particularly Helm.
 
"Alright, Edmund, let's have some us time." She pulled her sluggish man out of his comfy chair and towed him towards the bed room.
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A not particularly tactical campsite.
50km North East of Durandel
March 21st, 3027 - 22:30 hours local time
Darius poked the log fire with stick, and then strategically placed two more logs on. Edmund walked over with another pack of cold beers and handed them out. This area was going to host the exercise headquarters, so whilst it had sentries and quite a few vehicles parked there it wasn't operating in a tactical regime. That would all start in thirty six hours when the jump platoon and the recon lance would announce they had secured a piece of the mysterious Planet X. Within a few hours in would be bused by 'space' truck the company of Marik regulars and and a combined arms company that mixed up Grey Death Legion tanks, some of the newly trained soldiers and a lance belonging to the Marauders. It was about as big a recipe for confusion as the command crew could come up, and a company of the local militia supported by the Grey Death training lance would start to probe the beachhead pretending to be the Capellan garrison.
 
Captain Ramage who was now sat next to Darius and leaning against a fallen tree was pretty sure it would end in chaos. Edmund wasn't so sure, his jump platoon were very good as was his recon lance, and the company commander from the 18th Marik Militia had been surprisingly open to working with outsiders.
 
"So, Darius, this feel like home again?" Ramage was ribbing Darius again, the pair of them were both the fatherly figures to their respective units. The beers by a fire was Darius' suggestion as a way to better bond with Captain Ramage, Darius had a real knack for that sort of thing.
 
"Not exactly, the Aurigan Reach was more developed. Honestly if we can get some shore leave somewhere 'normal' you newcomers will really start feeling like this is your home too."
 
"I jest, but where I grew up wasn't exactly Tharkad, this is pretty close to what I knew and we've been given a decent land plot." Well it was if you liked farming and cold winters, Edmund also felt being on a slightly more prosperous would make a big difference if anyone got a serious illness.
 
Darius chuckled, "I'm not sure where I'd call home now, Edmund has said we're welcome to settle on his plot, but it's not exactly near where the work is."
 
"Where is the work?" Ramage seemed genuinely interested, they weren't an old company either.
 
"Edmund, where's the work?" Darius was sounding pretty mellow as he sat back in a collapsible canvas chair.
"We've got strong relations with the Federated Suns, I think we'll be along their borders long term."
 
"I guess Hanse Davion would feel you're doing god's work here."
"I figure so, and with all those big exercises being planned the current mercenary stints are mostly garrison work."
 
"Not many bonuses there."
 
"No, and we're not the Kell Hounds with family money behind us." His family support had been a decent mech and help finding and supervising a trustworthy estate management team for his land grant. One day he hoped that place would be settled by members of his unit, and compared to Helm the world was a good century ahead technologically.
 
"Apart from the crazy Morgan business that sounds like a sweet gig." Edmund knew the story, the founder had gone a bit loopy, shrunk the regiment and headed off to a monastery leaving his brother to pick up the pieces. A pity really as the brothers had built up a solid reputation as a pair.
 
Edmund looked at the glowing embers in the darkness "It's odd, this place's history reminds me of home."
 
"Kuritans or Capellans?"
 
"Capellans, they knocked out every town with any industry during the First Succession War, we got left out of the rest of the wars. I'd say this place had it even worse though, I guess the Galaxy has worse horrors than the Capellans." Edmund was still a bit horrified by the scale of the bombardment Minoru Kurita had unleashed, the craters had marked an even spread across the landscape to ensure the obliteration of the towns and villages rather than a cost effective pattern to destroy logical strategic targets.
 
"House Kurita has a lot to answer for, we still find wreckage, this place is too poor to even support much of a salvage industry."
 
"Do you get many treasure hunters?"
 
"The local mayor says you get a few wandering around with little sets trying to find buried 'mechs, but apparently the military did proper surveys back in the day and found nothing."
 
"Have you guys had a look?"
 
"We surveyed the area around the camp, more out of concern about stability of the terrain for our vehicles. We certainly found scrap metal to melt down, but that's been it. Grayson knows a fair bit about the history though, he reckons that when the exodus happened they left some engineers and other personnel behind, all under the command of one Major Keeler."
 
"Probably cared about the things he had built here." Edmund was bothered by the comment on engineers, it sort of matched a certain memory stick.
"That's what Grayson thinks, of course the bombardment or the Kuritans would have killed them."
 
"Maybe some of them were the only ones to survive, they could have done what little rebuilding was done and would have known how to build bunkers or fallout shelters." Edmund knew the memory stick had been in the hands of an engineer for a time.
 
"They may not have seen the need though." Darius commented.
 
"No, Edmund is right, in what passes for our fort there were some old relics from that era. A few broken rifles on the wall and the odd military manual in the bookshelf. A handful of survivors could well have held out there till the cannibals arrived."
 
"Gaps in the history books?" The history of his own world had described the food shortages that had followed the bombardments, and how pets had become a rarity in those days.
 
"There certainly are." Ramage chuckled grimly. "Let's just say our doctor looked a bit pale when we unearthed a few skeletons, something about the bite marks on the bones."
 
"Scary, When I was a kid we used to tell ghost stories around the fire and overcook steak."
 
"Don't worry Edmund, you and Victoria still are kids, and I like to think I'm still young at heart." The darkness hid Edmund's blushes as Darius teased him and Ramage laughed. Edmund remained silent, still wondering what an engineer would do with a large military stockpile. The Exodus would have had to prioritise colonising equipment and supplies over combat equipment, ships only have so much space and you can't eat a tank. There could easily have been a lot left on this world.
 
Artru had been built into solid rock, and that had been on a world with no real industry or logistical support. A regiment of engineers with a local industrial base could have built something here, it would need to be near a road and deep enough underground that nobody had detected it. Of course with all the wreckage and rubble it must have been a nightmare for the Marik military search teams, false positives all the time, and that constant feeling that the objective had almost certainly been destroyed in the bombardment.
 
"I assume the Major didn't leave any memoirs?" Edmund felt that was an innocent enough question.
 
"It's thought he and his command perished either in the blasts or the aftermath, those few rifles and scraps of kit are probably it." Ramage sounded weary of the subject, probably not that excited about the thought of living on a giant burial ground. "Anyway, what are your lot going to want to do for R&R?"
 
"How is the nightlife in town?" Edmund was actually thinking a nice weekend of fishing with Victoria would work, but that was a minority hobby not entirely shared by his partner either. The Marauders heading into town and them fishing or at least being on their own, was still pretty tempting though.
 
"It picks up a bit after the harvest season finishes, not amazing though."
 
"Do you think we could get a local band for one of the hangers, a few trucks of food and drinks and maybe invite some of the local youth?"
"If you provide the drink you'll have no trouble organizing a giant barn dance round here, we've done it a couple of times. It's a good night."
"Sounds like something we should ideally do when the rest of the Legion are back." Edmund looked over at his colleague "What do you think Darius?"
 
"It would be a good call, we're asking a lot of the Legion at the moment."
 
"Alright I hereby declare that the Marauders are delighted to sponsor the festivities, shall we schedule it for one month hence, we can always do another if needs be."
 
He could hear a cheerier tone in Ramage's voice "I'll make it happen guys, Grayson would approve." Edmund wasn't wholly sure Grayson was able to relax enough to think about parties, but one never knew 
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