Resurgence - Truth Comes to Life

== In The Nick of Time ==
The squealing sound that is apparently coming from the HPG caught Grand Knight Dirac off-guard but, he pays no attention, his mission is to keep the mercenaries from taking it and the spaceport.  He has no idea what was so special about a dead piece of equipment.  Taking the lead, his Brother Mechwarrior in the Orion turns a corner into a wave of weapons fire, letting loose with a Gauss Slug and his pulse lasers while a mess of laser and autocannon fire slams into his mech from the East; before back pedaling a couple steps to take cover behind a building.
“Listen up, Command Lance.  We are going to surprise them, Thunderbolt, Catapult, go one street North, I want you to pop that corner and send a couple waves of LRMs into them.  Once they return fire, you take cover, then we will engage again when their weapons are cycling.  We will just alternate until that volume of fire decreases.”
With multiple confirmations the two heavy mechs push a street out to take position.  Once Dirac’s HUD shows the two mechs were in position on his radar, he moves to give the order.  However, as he opens his mouth a shouting voice hit every single combatant’s comms in the city battle.
“All personnel that can hear this – Brotherhood of Randis, Citizen’s Militia, Barick’s Blitzers, stand down!  This is Duke Bernard Marsin, Periphery March Lord, I say again, stand down!  False orders have been given by both sides and the HPGs just activated through a stroke of luck.  All forces stand down.”
“There are currently pirates attacking the city to the South, all Mercenaries under my command are to aid the Brotherhood of Randis and Citizen’s Militia in wiping them out.  Once complete, return to your LZ, Blitzers!” Marsin cut off with that message to all the combatants. A second later another voice followed.
“All forces in battle over Undredal, this is Prime Minister Gardiner, this is a direct HPG uplink with the March Capital, these are false orders as stated by the Duke, all forces follow his orders then return to your LZ’s!” then the channels went quiet.
“What the hell, Grand Knight, your orders?” asks his lancemate Brother in the Orion.
“Follow the orders, but you three wait here, I will see if these Blitzers will adhere to them.”  Dirac says, raising his Battlemaster’s hands, as he slowly emerges from around the corner.  His mech’s hands are high enough to show he is not attacking but low enough he can quickly aim his arm weapons. Just ahead of him is a Jagermech and a Rifleman, both are aiming directly at his Battlemaster yet, not firing.
They just stand there for a moment, the pilots inside looking at each other, it makes the Grand Knight get a bit twitchy should he need to lower that Gauss Rifle to engage quickly.  Then both mercenary mechs raise their arms up, to show the universal sign for not engaging. 
“Grand Knight?  This is Barick of the Blitzers.” came a female voice over the open channels, so all the units could hear.
“Send it for Grand Knight Dirac.”
“Well, this was a clusterfuck.” She said.
“You are correct, Barick, let’s salvage what we can and cut down these pirates, shall we?”
With that, the Grand Knight’s Command Lance joins the mercenaries, moving South to support the rest of the Brotherhood mechs and Citizen’s Militia who are already moving and engaging in combat with the pirates.
---
Awkward would probably be the best way of phrasing the aftermath.  Barick’s Blitzers had begun loading up on their dropship at the LZ, however, Captain Barick herself had been invited to the spaceport and was meeting with Prime Minister Gardiner and Grand Knight Dirac.  Once the pirates had been destroyed to the last man, the Citizen’s Militia secured the city’s perimeter.  With them in place, the Brotherhood of Randis mechs returned to the Enlightened. Both Leopard Pocket Warships landed in the spaceport while the remaining five aerospace fighters patrolled around the city and nearby wilderness.
“I am at a loss of where to begin,” admits Duke Marsin.
“Then, I shall chime in.” states Dirac, “By luck or our Lord’s actions, the HPGs activated in time to stop the slaughter. For entire units to act on false orders, shows that there is treachery afoot and it runs deep within our nations. I am glad that we could stop the fighting before it got worse.”
“I second that,” adds Barick, “Your Brotherhood is known for being tough as hell, we wouldn’t have lasted long.”
With her compliment, the Grand Knight nodded to her, then he continued, “The question is now, Duke, has the fighting elsewhere ceased?”  Barick, the Prime Minister, and Dirac look to the hologram of the Duke from their seated positions around the large table.
“It should be over, while your forces were wiping out the pirates, both the Prime Minister and myself were able to talk to a number of commands off world.  Oddly, it seems that every unit that acted aggressively under the false orders was to seek out the world’s HPG and take it.  I won’t make this long, keeping this circuit going is chafing at other world leaders that want to use their HPGs.  Captain Barick, I am not bringing you back to your prior posting yet.  I want your unit to assist in any way it can, this is your new posting.  Prime Minister, Grand Knight, I will be reaching out to you soon, farewell.”
With his last word, the line cut out.  “Well now, we have some cleanup to do.” Says the Prime Minister. 
“What of the pirates?” asks the Grand Knight.
Taking a deep breath in, the Prime Minister thinks to himself for a second, “Our combined forces crushed them twenty years ago. They were crippled, brought down to only being able to raid on occasion.  During the battle here, it was only chop shop mechs out there.  When they don’t come back, I think that sends the message they cannot rebuild.” He looked back and forth between the two other leaders after finishing the statement.
Both nodded slightly at the Prime Minister, rolling it around in their own minds for a minute.  “Well we are here for a little while longer, and the Duke did not order us to do anything specific.  The Blitzers will aid you if you want to engage the Tortuga Dominion.”  Barick added. 
“Thank you for that Captain Barick.  For now, let’s focus on healing wounds and repairing what we can.  Let us take the evening to consolidate.  We have dead to account for on all sides and we just need to get through the night and begin anew tomorrow.  I would recommend you keep the Blitzers at the LZ for now, the people will not be so quick to forgive.  Grand Knight, if you can provide the Citizen’s Militia with any support through the evening, it would be greatly appreciated.” Says the Prime Minister.
“Certainly, Prime Minister.  The Brotherhood will help distribute food and secure shelter for your people.” Dirac responds kindly. 
With that, Captain Barick returned to her LZ, Grand Knight Dirac returned to the Enlightened to issues orders to his Company Commanders, and the Prime Minister saw to his people.
---
The days pass by as the Brotherhood and Citizen’s Militia help to repair some of the extensive damage to the city of Undredal. While the artillery was devastating to the attacking mercenaries and pirates, it caused a lot of collateral damage, which the Prime Minister authorized considering evacuations had taken place. It was well understood by the people that had the Brotherhood not arrived and opened the floodgates, it was possible that the city was mere hours or minutes from being taken and torn apart. 
No time was wasted as people returned to their homes and businesses to begin cleanup and restore the economy and normal living.  On the day it rained, children were doing cannon balls into the flooded footprint of a heavy mech.  Dirac’s aerospace fighters found the one that was shot down.  Luckily the pilot was alive, even though the fighter was all but scrap.
Unfortunately, two Brother Mechwarriors and three tank crews had perished in the fighting alongside a couple dozen infantry troopers. Large funeral pyres were erected outside of the city and their remains burned as the Grand Knight led a ceremony, celebrating the sacrifice of the Brotherhood’s fallen comrades.  A number of Filtveltians attended as well, to see off their rescuers.
A similar situation took place where the Blitzers were allowed to enter the city and recover their fallen, under guard of the Citizen’s Militia.  Some citizens were understanding of the chaos that caused this violence and others absolutely resented the mercenaries, blaming them for the false orders they received and not pushing harder to question them. 
After recovering their mechs and fallen, they returned to their LZ, burning their dead and beginning some repairs in their dropships.  In violation of their orders to stay put, some of the more regretful Blitzers approached the town and offered to take on labor jobs as penance for their attack. These efforts did go a long way toward mending the good will of the people. A couple fights broke out but a few bruises later, the remorseful mercenaries were left alone to help where they could.
Even though the entire populace of Undredal was busy with rebuilding, every time the HPG realigned, they all took notice.  It was more than twenty years since that massive hunk of dead technology moved, it still shocked so many.  Filtvelt was only just learning that the Draconis Combine had been pushed out and Prince Julian Davion once again resided on New Avalon.
Daily updates were scheduled with the three commanding personnel, some days with the Duke via the HPG.  Today was no different.  However, they are now meeting in the HPG, which was being cleaned madly by crews and many of the old workers had been employed to service it.  At the top of the HPG structure, there is a conference room designed for meetings with people off world. 
Duke Marsin shown as a hologram, sitting on one side of the table with Captain Barick, Prime Minister Gardiner, and Grand Knight Dirac on the other three sides of the square table.  The Duke had uncovered a mess of information in regards to the fighting. On each planet where fighting took place, a planetary official was missing.  Rank and position varied, just people missing.  Their living quarters entirely empty.  So far, the Prime Minister had already confirmed the same detail on Filtvelt.
When the topic of the HPG’s function under the software update by “Discordant Mantle” arose, the Duke had been able to figure out two things.  The first was that not all the HPGs were functional.  Only a number of worlds at the edge of the Periphery March had regained functionality.  It is almost as if only a cluster of worlds had regained the capability.  Even with such a limited number, every single world that had a newly functioning HPG was seeing the start of an economic boom as prices, sales, and trading are going ballistic between arbitrage and access to new businesses and markets.  The Second situation is that something was happening Coreward in the Federated Suns, some sort of fighting that he had not determined yet and was shifting units in that direction.
At the conclusion of the meeting, the Duke gave them farewells and the line to him cut.  No longer requiring that specific direction, the HPG began turning again for a new alignment.  All three looked up through the skylight to watch the satellite dish move. 
“Sir!” interrupts one of the nearby staffers monitoring communications both under normal frequencies and the HPG. 
“What is it?” asks the Prime Minister, all three leaders looking to the staffer.
“We have a communication from vessels inbound to Filtvelt.”
“Are we under attack again?!” the Prime Minister nearly shouts, his adrenaline spiking.
“No, sir, no.  Hails from… the Calderon Protectorate, Third Calderon Guard.  Put it through, sir?”
“This is one busy damn day, do it.” Says Gardiner.
Illuminating, a screen on the wall nearest the table shows the face of Colonel Aaron Hendrix.  There seems to be some excitement in the background. 
“Colonel Hendrix, it is a surprise to see the Calderon Guard this far from home, how may we be of service?” the Prime Minister asks curiously.
“Well Prime Minister, I was under the impression that she was attacking you, according to Brother Nigel of Randis IV.” Aaron responds, pointing toward Captain Barick with a very confused look on his face. 
“You are correct, we were fighting but, now we have figured everything out, turns out we have traitors among us. False orders were given to a number of our units and fighting was ignited.  I am curious though, it seems like there is some excitement on your bridge?” asks the Prime Minister in return.
“Affirmative, we ran into a couple pirate dropships on a hard burn to the jump point.  Both have been dealt with, however their jumpship departed moments after my jumpship arrived.  Fleeing like the cowards they are, of course.” Hendrix responds with a victorious grin.
“Well done, we did not want to risk any of our forces getting ambushed to pursue when we detected them taking off.” Added in Grand Knight Dirac with a firm nod of his head.
“Beyond that though, Grand Knight, I have come to speak with you.”  Hendrix continued, his grin turning into a more rigid expression of concern.  “The Word of Blake has seized Erod’s Escape and is dealing an unfathomable amount of damage to the Calderon Protectorate.  Our only chances right now are that they have had to spread their forces to engage multiple worlds.  We are grossly outnumbered and I have been sent by Protector Calderon to seek your aid.  Even worse, our allies in the Taurian Concordat are under attack and cannot assist us.”
All three faces showed shock, the Captain’s jaw dropped.  “What do you mean ‘The Word of Blake’?” the Grand Knight asks.
“Yes, the Word of Blake.  Our guess is that they escaped to the deep periphery after the war, we have no idea where but we need help.”
Looking at each other, they went from the high of rebuilding successfully to knowing a hellish nightmare is peeking at the Inner Sphere.  “Prime Minister, if they have struck at the Calderon Protectorate, Randis IV may be in their crosshairs.” Expresses Dirac – leading to the inevitable conclusion that he needs to return home.
“You are right.  You have already done so much to help us rebuild, do not feel like you must stay on our account, thank you for all you have done for Filtvelt.” Gardiner says graciously in response.
“Prime Minister, if you will give us leave, the Blitzers are ready to help as well.” Adds Barick.
“Yes, Captain, that would be acceptable.  Your people have done well for what they can do, given the populace’s cold feelings that still remain.”  Having given his permission to Barick, he turns again to Hendrix, “Do you have any footage that you can share with us in regards to the attack?”
“I will send it now.” Seconds tick by as the three watch Hendrix work with a bridge officer, looking back toward the screen, he then pointed their way, “should be on its way to you now.”
“Packet received, uploading to main viewscreen.” Came a staffer’s voice over the intercom. 
Everyone watches as a second panel comes to life. A huge crack in the old screen extends from the top to the bottom, with a couple black spots on the right side. They didn’t hide the savagery though. The video is pieced together from the dropship that escorted Protector Calderon off Erod’s Escape.  Seeing the MechWarriors that stayed behind, the city burning, and the giant sword emblems on the enemy aerospace craft.
Both Grand Knight Dirac and Captain Barrack rose from their seats and look to each other nodding, then at Colonel Hendrix, “We will begin preparations to depart immediately, we will rendezvous with you at the jump point.  We will be the Guardians of the Periphery.” States Dirac reaching his full height, his age, sternness, and most importantly, firm resolve bringing strength to the group. 
Both say farewell to Gardiner before leaving the room.  He then looks up at Hendrix, visibly relieved.  “Colonel, I will recall the Thumpers, they are a few jumps away but, Filtveltians will meet your forces on Randis IV.  We need to commit to this defense to have any hope of preventing the Blakists from reaching our families and homes.”
“Agreed Prime Minister, thank you.  We will do all we can to hold them back.”  However, in both their minds, they know things are going to get far worse before there is hope of things getting better.
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Chapter 3: Discordant Mantle
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