LUU Chpt 8

==Let Us Unite - Chapter VIII -==
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===Family Farewells===
Date: December 30th 2766 - 0800 Pacific Standard Time 
Location: Mare Island Navy Shipyard Museum (AKA MINSY), Vallejo CaliforniaTerra, Terran Hegemony
 
"A bit closer please," Hanni Schmitt whispered, her ribs still causing pain when she breathed too deeply. "It needs my biometrics."
 
Nodding, her son and Charles moved her closer to a panel set into the side of a display case of the museum, her hand resting long enough for the panel to accept it before she lifted her head to focus her eye on the scanner, her voice barely picked up by the microphones as she gave the proper authorization codes. 
 
Then, a display with a Submarine shifted, the water it had been resting in draining away into a storage area far away, revealing a set of stairs that led underneath the Battlemech-grade glass.
 
"I got you," Mitchell picked up his mother and allowed her to rest as he set her on the stretcher they had brought. 
 
"Let's move it, people!" Hazen took charge. "We've got a job to do, and a very limited time to do it in. Amaris probably knows by now that he didn't get all of us, and he's going to be tracking us down. That leaves us with a very small window of opportunity to get off of Terra."
 
"I've got to stay with the wounded," Yanez looked at the Colonel and Hinks, a frown on his face as he sighed. "Southorn, Schmitt, Jewels, you're going to help me get them down there."
 
"Right," Mitchell grabbed one end of the stretcher while Jewels grabbed the other end and they began carefully walking down the staircase, Black Watch members with weapons raised covering the rear and the way down in case they had been compromised.
 
"Clear!" Jack and Capell echoed as they cleared the first room. 
 
"We've got a metric fuck ton of dust down here," Capell coughed. "I think the base is empty."
 
"Language," Alexandra glared as she covered Colleen's ears. 
 
"Right," Capell smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, ma'am."
 
The group made their way inside, the concrete foundations having been hollowed out and reinforced by DOME years if not decades ago, there was computer equipment, replacement 'Mechs, and even a spare Pueblo class dropship stashed away here for a rainy day. 
 
"I'll start putting together our identities," McFadden stated. "Capell, you and some of the others can start putting together whatever we'll need to make our disguise work."
 
"I'll need some extra hands with me," Yanez wheeled the Colonel towards the medical section. "We've got some treatments that should get them on their feet long enough to get us off-world if I remember these large-scale facilities."
 
"What do you need?" Jewels asked.
 
"Someone to help me keep them still," the medic sighed. "Some of these treatments are going to hurt like hell. And if we're not careful they'll be hurt worse than before."
 
"I'll help put together the identities," Hazen joined Capell. "I take it someone's going to try and get access to the accounts?"
 
"Yup," Southorn headed towards a nearby terminal. "No idea how much cash we'll need, so I'll pull the account numbers for each of the nations we've stashed away for rainy days."
 
"We'll also have to figure out how to take that with us," Suarez jerked a thumb over at the mobile HPG that was mounted on a nearby trailer. "I don't want us to end up in the dark insofar as the location of the Camerons is concerned."
 
"That shouldn't be too hard," Hazen glanced at the 12-ton device. "Claim it's specialized scientific equipment for charting planetary movements or some shit. If that doesn't work, we bribe the dropship captains until we get to a JumpShip."
 
"I'll start pulling a truck around," Suarez gestured for her husband to come help. "I figure we'll try to leave in three hours."
 
"We'll leave whenever Yanez is finished," McFadden shook her head. "I don't want to rush any medical procedures."
 
"Then it's back to hurry up and wait," Southorn chuckled. "Always seems to come back to that."
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===Rally Point===
Date: January 2, 2767
Location: Star System 10.14526 Classified system known as Hotel
 
"Why are we here?" Austin Little, the Captain of the Spicer asked as he walked onto the bridge. "This system isn't on any of my charts."
 
"For good reason," MacIntosh replied. "In case of a situation like what happened a few days ago, the Camerons secured what we call 'Boltholes'. Places known only to the Black Watch to secure the Cameron Dynasty if anything were to happen. As it is, this isn't the Bolthole we'll be permanently using, this is just a stopover while we effect repairs to your ship and the Blue Quest."
 
"Then where are we going?" Captain Little crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "Because we just abandoned Terra to a bunch of Periphery Scum."
 
"We've got two jumps," MacIntosh sighed. "I'm not willing to give more details than that because of potential leaks, but suffice it to say that your orders are pretty much to ensure that the Camerons are secured as well as possible. The Hegemony has to be secured by the SLDF or any local militia troops. Our job is to ensure that there's still hope for the Hegemony to be reborn."
 
"Fine," Little uncrossed his arms. "Tell me about these 'Boltholes'. Will there be repair facilities of any sort?"
 
"There should be enough for us to get the Warships we have in decent shape, yes," MacIntosh replied. "But most of the systems will be automated. When we constructed these, we had to ensure that no one was able to talk about what they'd done."
"No, they weren't killed to ensure secrecy," he waved off their concerns. "We stashed them away on a secure world and let them live out their days in luxury." 
 
"Right," Daksha, the captain of the SLS Tripitz finally spoke up. "We need to get some work crews over to the Blue Quest, otherwise she'll end up stranded here, they managed to repair her enough to jump once, but aside from that…" he trailed off.
 
"We picked up enough survivors from the other ships that we should be able to have rotating crews until she's up and running," Little leaned back against the nearby bulkhead. "Terra's fallen, hasn't it?" he finally asked after a moment of silence.
 
"If it hasn't yet, it's going to," MacIntosh replied. "We were outnumbered by a significant margin down there. And I wouldn't count on anything beyond insurgency forces surviving for much longer than into January."
 
"Then we better get to work," Daksha turned and began giving orders. "We've got a lot to do."
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===Hazardous Passage to the Jump Point===
Date: December 31, 1100 Pacific Standard Time
Location: San Francisco Spaceport, California, Terra, Terran Hegemony
 
"Mr. Jackson, please enjoy your trip," the spaceport was eerily quiet for how many people there were in and around it as Jack moved through the line, his bag passing through the scanners without sending any warnings. 
 
"Thank you," Jack smiled and shook the attendant's hand. "I hope that the rings of Saturn are as beautiful as they say."
 
His small talk done, he moved through the spaceport, locking eyes with several of the other Black Watch members as they all moved through different areas before boarding the same dropship at different times, with Suarez and her family masquerading as scientists with the HPG as cargo. Then, as they all boarded and were ready to leave, the ship began boosting off, the fusion torches creating a second sun as the passenger aerodyne began moving down the runway, eventually breaching orbit and heading towards Titan at 1g. 
 
"And now we wait," Jack muttered to himself as he leaned his head back to try and get some sleep on the trip. 
 
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Unfortunately, the dropship was stopped halfway through the journey to Titan, as a Rim Worlds Navy Vessel pulled up beside them.
<<"Civilian vessel Pony Express, please match course so we may perform an inspection, failure to do so will result in immediate weapons fire.">> the Rim Worlds Warship broadcast as it matched speed with the much smaller dropship. 
 
"This is the Pony Express, we're lining up our approach now," the civilian pilot replied as a docking collar extended to the ship, docking with it as an airlock cycled and a handful of soldiers boarded and began searching the ship and its cargo.
 
"Is there anything specific you're looking for?" a flight attendant asked, hoping to speed the soldiers up so they could get moving again.
 
"Just making sure that there are no stragglers hiding among you lot," the soldier replied, a couple of the boarders began checking the passports and IDs of the passengers, a few of the nobles from First class were pulled out and brought onto the Warship before the squad leader was told to come back to the RWR ship. 
 
"That's everything that we needed," the soldier smiled at the attendant. "Thanks for asking though, dollface." 
 
The soldiers then left the way they came, although first class was a good deal emptier as the Pony Express was allowed to go back to her route. 
 
"Nobles?" Alexandra asked her husband as the ship began to move again. 
 
"The ones most capable of resisting Amaris," Mitchell explained. "They likely have 'Mechs and some small amount of hired troops or Mercs. But won't act if family is being held hostage. It's one of the oldest methods for keeping people in line, but it works. Unless the family is fanatical enough to not care, anyway," he trailed off.
 
"I just hope that there's a Jumpship willing to let us board," Alexandra whispered. "I'm worried about Colleen, I don't want her to grow up in this hell."
 
"No one does, but we'll have to endure for a little while." Mitchell kissed her on the cheek. "Now try to get some rest, Titan isn't as closely monitored, and we're going to be really busy when we land."
 
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===Grim Scenes===
After days aboard the dropship, the Pony Express finally came in for a landing at one of the domed cities of Titan, the runway running into a depressurized bay where it waited for the doors to close and the area to be pressurized before allowing the passengers to disembark. 
 
As the Black Watch members filtered into the spaceport, they stopped and joined the crowd around a tri-vid screen, a video with a news anchor showing smoke behind her and tears dripping down her face. 
 
Lost for words, she simply sat there, gesturing at the words on the banner as she openly wept. 
Behind the woman were piles of bodies surrounded by the 'Mechs and tanks bearing the shark of the Rim Worlds Republic, a Firestarter prominently on display as it moved to the next stack of bodies and its flamers ignited the pile, then a few seconds later, turned and began setting the town behind it on fire as well, the screams of people inside of the buildings could be faintly heard before someone shut the Tri-Vid off, waving for people to disperse. 
 
"Some of those bodies," Hazen leaned in to whisper in McFadden's ear. "They were wearing SLDF uniforms."
 
"It gets worse," McFadden replied. "Some of them were wearing RWR uniforms."
 
"Seems like not everyone was happy to follow unlawful orders," Capell agreed. "This is only the beginning of this sort of shit. I really hope that General Kerensky manages to get here quickly, otherwise this is going to end in progressively more death and bloodshed."
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Chapter 8