ALJ Chpt 45

frameless|right|300px|link=A Long Journey
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==Chapter 45 - A Long Journey==
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18 May 2786
Mackolla (Federated Suns)
It took a week of working with a local travel agency to work out the perfect routing to build a semi command circuit to Taurus in the Taurian Concordant. This would cut the 190 day trip to just over 47 days total to Taurus itself. His main concern was his passport was Federated Suns issued, but at least he had gotten an entry visa for business purposes via HPG. His biggest issue would be securing a meeting with someone who could actually authorize an approval of what they wanted. Though he had cut many a deal with Federated Suns manufacturers during the war on behalf of the SLDF, this was a totally different animal and he doubted his ability to accomplish the task assigned to him.
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19 May 2786
"Sir, we are getting bombarded by enlistment requests. You said we are not allowed to recruit or enlist, but it is getting somewhat annoying. The last group we turned away yesterday said they wanted to join the SLDF, not the AFFS." Master Sergeant Kevin O'Malley said
"Did you explain to them that the SLDF no longer exists?" Lieutenant General Samuel Mitchell asked
"Of course we have. They usually point to our uniforms and patches and respond with a that is not an AFFS uniform or a AFFS unit patch. Even your unit camouflage is SLDF standard. It is kind of hard to explain away." Master Sergeant O'Malley replied
"Well, we cannot do any training here on Mackolla, but we do need to staff up the troops over at Morgan's Holdfast. You were a Drill Instructor way back for the SLDF, you feel like setting one up on Holdfast?" Lieutenant General Mitchell said
"Yes, sir, there are roughly 20 of us former Drill Instructors in the command. We can damn sure get them thru basic training and make them proper soldiers, but none of us were actual instructors for advanced training, not that we cannot do that also. But my opinion is we should find some long in the tooth troops to teach the specialties." Master Sergeant O'Malley replied
"Advice noted. How many are we looking at, best guess?" Lieutenant General Mitchell asked
"Since we have been here? Couple thousand at least. We ain't broke out no skull caps though on any of them." Master Sergeant O'Malley replied referring to the small cap used to identify MechWarrior and Aerospace pilots.
"Well, then we better break them out. We identify those with the ability but everyone goes thru the basic training course. We have all the training manuals the SLDF used, so you have a leg up. Colin snagged quite a library, plus we have the Chameleon training Battlemechs, can probably find some Aerospace fighters to use. Tanks are easy, we just use some APC's for that. Minimum age is 16, with parental permission, in writing. Eighteen is an adult so that is open season. Use the SLDF model for guidance, be on the lookout for those with leadership potential. Make sure they understand that training is not on Mackolla but off world. We will run a pony express mail out to Morgan's Holdfast, we damn sure do not need any parents getting worries and contacting the AFFS." Lieutenant General Mitchell said
"Yes, sir, I will start making my list of Drill Instructors and get them gathered up. We will then get some sort of enlistment papers made up and start getting the recruits lined up. I figure in a week, I will be ready to take a group over to Morgan's Holdfast and start setting up firing ranges, quarters, obstacle courses and everything else we need. The engineers are there, so it should go pretty quick." Master Sergeant O'Malley replied
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