TLR Chpt 8

frameless|right|300px|link=The Lucky Regiment
<<Next Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
==Chapter 8 - The Lucky Regiment3.1==
----
Comstar First Circuit
Hilton Head Island, North America Terra, ComStar SpaceSeptember 24th, 3026
The waiting area outside Primus Julian Tieplo's office 
 
Emilio Rachan was sat on an uncomfortably hard armchair outside the Primus's office. The grey chair was in his humble view purposely uncomfortable to remind visitors that Comstar was not an opulent organization, and that their duty to all humanity and not fiscal reward was their motivation. The blessed work of Blake required true believers and not soft corporate types like those found amongst the Lyrans, that said he felt Comstar could invest more on the chair front.
 
He heard the approach of soft footsteps on the marble floor of the large waiting area, the robed acolyte who managed the diary of the Primus was walking towards him. The young woman was respectful, he liked to think his reputation as a troubleshooter preceded him. Her walking his way coincided with the quiet departure of several other Precentors from what he assumed was the previous appointment. He put his briefing papers back in the sealable folder, feeling as ready as he could be for any difficult questions, sometimes the Primus wanted a full briefing and sometimes he simply sent Rachan off on a job with barely a a word.
 
She stopped and bowed her head gently. "The Primus will see you now."
 
He nodded and rose to his feet, returning the gesture of respect with a slight bow of his own head.
 
Several guards stood by the grand door that marked the entrance to the office of the Primus, the heart of the communications company that linked humanity across the Inner Sphere. As he walked through he heard the doors close softly. The Primus, Julian Tieplo, rose from behind his large oak desk.
 
"Ah, Emilio, May the peace of Blake be with you."
 
"And his wisdom with you, Primus." Despite years of faithful service he knew it was not his place to respond in a less formal manner.
 
"A refreshment?" A jug filled with some sort of fresh juice stood next to several glasses on the desk. 
 
"I am fine for now, Primus." 
 
"To the work of Blake then, that's what I like about you, Emilio, straight to the point."
 
"I have just received the report from the site visit to Artru, the good news is that we were given full access by new the local ruler. Unfortunately that is the only good news." 
 
"Hmm, I trust you have arranged some sort of discount in return?" There was moment of awkwardness as he realised he hadn't felt House Arano were important enough to warrant it.
 
"I was hoping for your blessing on that, I didn't want to be seen as usurping the position of the local team by forcing it through."
 
"Understandable, I'll encourage them to show the order's gratitude." The Primus leant over and noted something on already open book on his desk, Emilio knew the Primus liked to give the impression of being a gentle old man. Then he walked slowly over to a large electronic map of the old Star League and peripheral worlds. It was a reminder to the Precentor of how far Humanity had fallen, and how much work was left to the successors of the blessed Jerome Blake. "It's curious, despite many searches we seldom find much down there. I always thought it was the intensity of the fighting." Emilio suspected the lack of much cooperation from the Concordat explained much of that. "So very sad. Now tell me Emilio, what did the Federated Suns recover?"
 
"We think it was close to a regimental depot in size, there was a bit of a bias towards Battlemechs over armored vehicles. It looks like the infantry equipment went to Lady Arano whilst the Federated Suns took almost all the Battlemechs and armored vehicles along with the more complex support equipment." The complex trade involved was in the associated report but not really relevant to the question of lost technology. "We have compiled a list of the known vehicles, the First Prince was good enough to show most of them off in a parade on New Avalon."
 
"The vanity of princes never ceases to amaze. However in the greater scheme of things an extra regiment does not shift the balance of power materially." The Primus shifted his gaze to stare at the map, before pressing a button on the wall to see the map shift from the days just before Amaris to the present day. "They'll be ground to dust soon enough by the pointless fighting of these vandals." That was the real Primus coming through, a man patiently watching the Inner Sphere grind itself down until Comstar could step in and reunite humanity.
 
"Indeed, but there was an R&D facility there, nothing now remains and the systems have been thoroughly purged. Despite the purge, I believe we have to assume House Davion have hard copies of whatever data was stored there." The Primus momentarily looked slightly alarmed, before the usual serene demeanor returned,
 
"I assume you know what was being worked on?"
 
"Automated drones, apparently the research backfired and the security systems went haywire. Early indications are that the technology is less valuable than the material recovered, the assessment is that the automated technology is beyond our capacity and that of the Federated Suns to replicate." 
 
"A useful demonstration of the danger of knowledge in the wrong hands. One to publish I think." It would be far from the first time that Comstar had highlighted the dangers of tampering with technologies they did not understand.
 
"That can be arranged, I'm told the first teams in recorded some grisly sights."
 
"That leaves the usual question of whether House Davion has recovered any of 'our' devices or parts to them." Emilio Rachan, like most in his order knew well that the monopoly on HPG parts relied upon ruthless enforcement of agreements for the great houses not to try to replicate HPG technology. Interdiction was the threatened punishment, but sabotage and assassination was the likely first step.
 
"Standard Regimental depots had a mobile transmitter, and this facility had the destroyed remains of a fixed transmitter. There is very convincing evidence that the fixed transmission unit was destroyed when the facility was evacuated in the run up the dark days of Amaris." Emilio paused, now cautious. "We found a few spare parts to the fixed transmitter, but no evidence of a mobile one."
 
"So House Davion has ostensibly stuck to its side of the bargain." 
 
"I can't prove otherwise, but I don't trust them." 
 
The Primus chuckled gently. "Very wise, Hanse Davion in particular is not be trusted, but his seeming compliance leaves us with few options." 
 
"Primus I suggest greater efforts to infiltrate the NAIS."
 
"We shall, but I fear whatever studies he makes of our devices will have been done somewhere more discrete, and he may utilize it to eavesdrop. Our codes are supposed to be unbreakable, but few systems truly are." It would be detectable if the unit transmitted, but in listen only mode it would be capable of listening to nearby traffic without revealing any trace of its presence. "I fear the Federated Suns continues to make headway in other fields as well, they are ahead of their peers."
 
The Primus gently walked towards the huge window that filled the large room with natural light. He stared out the window, looking at the majestic HPG arrays that formed the heart of the vast system that united humanity. "Tell me, what progress have we made tracking down other caches?"
 
"A dig in the Free Worlds League found some HPG parts, we paid the usual bounty to the landowner." Emilio paused, "We have found some leads on the Helm storehouse."
 
The Primus looked amused, few took seriously the search for the fabled vast storehouse once owned by the SLDF. "We've unencrypted requisition and transfer orders relating to facilities on the planet."
 
"That a depot existed was always known, Minoru Kurita had enough information to make his own search." Emilio had seen the intercepted transmission logs associated with the expedition. Conventional wisdom was that the facility had most likely been destroyed in the bombardment or damaged to an extent that the weather or water was steadily degrading it. "What do we know now that is different?"
 
"The requisition orders were for data storage devices, uncommon for a purely military depot."
 
"Memory cores?" Emilio nodded
 
"A bulk shipment, and a full library package." The Primus paused, his face blank as he hopefully pondered the implications, or possibly not given his patron's advanced age.
 
"Why would they put one of those in a military depot?"
 
"The Acolyte who found the records wasn't sure, it was listed on a cargo manifest, but no reason given. In theory it could have been shipped onwards from Helm, or at least that may have been the intention. The dates make it likely it remained on Helm." The obvious question was could they afford to take the risk that the library had survived the ferocious nuclear bombardment unleashed by the Combine on the defenceless world.
 
The Primus looked pensive, "Many Hegemony worlds had them, but they were terribly fragile." Emilio had spent much time studying one of the remaining archaic sets held by Comstar, studying its blessed secrets whilst simultaneously being horrified by the idea of one being defiled by the savages that populated the Inner Sphere. "The trouble is we just don't how many are still out there." The records of how many were created had not survived, and in truth all it took to make a copy was time and a high capacity core. The accessibility devices were beautiful, but the cores interfaced with any decent computer.
 
"It's long been our task, Primus."
 
"It certainly has, and if one power in the Inner Sphere were to obtain one it would be destabilizing." That was the polite way of describing the danger, it might take a century, but in time that power would no longer need Comstar. "Emilio, you are to take all necessary steps to find and eliminate this threat, we" The Primus paused, looking almost serene. "We owe it to the people of the Inner Sphere to keep them safe from such, such, instability."
----
<<Next Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
8