WCGW Chpt 141

<<Previous Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
==Chapter 141 - What Could Go Wrong==
-----
9th October, 3043
Inner End (Federated Commonwealth)
----
The SaRI Express, Invader Class Jumpship materialized at the Nadir Jump Point and made contact with Customs to take charge of the prisoners. Colonel David Mitchell was able to make a brief contact with Command Sergeant Major Pullman and learned that they had rowdy 180 new personnel waiting on the surface. With an AFFC Jumpship waiting to take them aboard, he could not hold a longer conversation except to prepare for possible movement. They all boarded a shuttle for the flight to the waiting AFFC Jumpship, the Seeker Dropship they had arrived on would be remaining at Inner End aboard SaRI Express.
-----
14th October, 3043
New Avalon (Federated Commonwealth, FedSuns State Capital World)
----
They arrived at a known pirate point only a day's travel from the surface and were shuttled down to the surface without any delay.
-----
15th October, 3043
----
The weary group finally landed and waiting cars whisked them to their meeting. Undergoing a security shake down they were led into First Prince Hanse Davions office. "The First Prince will be along shortly, help yourself to refreshments." Prince's Champion Ardan Sortek said
Colonel Mitchell, Rear Admiral Vickery and Lieutenant Colonel Edwin Davion attacked the small buffet laid out for them while Professor Hiram Igram just poured some lemonade and sipped at it. Roughly half an hour passed before the door opened and First Prince Hanse Davion walked in with Quintus Allard right behind him. Everyone jumped to their feet and were quickly waved back down. "Please, you have had a long trip, sit. This is more of a fact gathering meeting. Anyone need anything else? No, then Colonel Mitchell, how about you bring us up to speed on the operation." First Prince hanse Davion said as he sat down and started building himself a sandwich.
"Highness, both pirate bases have been secured. Wokha and Thazi are both under our control. We have captured four Merchant and one Invader Jumpships. Three Overlord, one Leopard CV, two Jumbo, one Mule and three Union Class Dropships. The Olympus Recharge Station is secure. On Wokha, we secured a former SLDF base, fully operational. But the contents we are not going to put up for sell. Instead, we are going to incorporate them into SaRI. The captured pirate equipment I have given to the Arcadians. We also recovered a database from the former SLDF base that I have brought a copy of. We also located a Pentagon Assault Dropship and modified Snowden Mining Station.
On Thazi, we also secured three former SLDF bases, the main base is trashed. One smaller base if fully functional but held very little, the other base contained a mixed Regiment worth of equipment. This we do plan on selling. We also found a downed Colossus Dropship which will take some serious work to recover. I have ordered my people to strip the weapons and mech bays from it. It is my intention to use Thazi as our forward operating base while we are conducting operations in the Wastes. The Colossus is also up for sell, once we remove the mentioned items." Colonel Mitchell said
"If you are going to base from Thazi, what about the base on Wokha?" First Prince Hanse Davion asked
"You can purchase it if you like, Highness." Colonel Mitchell said
"Before we dive any deeper into this, let us get some things out of the way. First, is Wokha the place I have been looking for? Is it secure from prying eyes? Can it be defended properly? Second, have we all put our disagreements to rest and work together without further problems?" First Prince Hanse Davion asked
Rear Admiral Robert Vickery spoke up "Wokha is a known location to multiple pirate bands. This means we have to patrol both Jump Points at all times. Though so far we have not had any difficulty in quickly securing any arrivals before they can attempt to flee. I am confident that we can keep the system secure. Your message was very clear, Highness."
"But does it have what we need?" First Prince Hanse Davion asked
"Without specialists, I cannot answer that question Highness." Rear Admiral Vickery replied
"Highness, if I knew what your needing, maybe I can answer your question." Colonel Mitchell replied, and he caught the looks being shared between the upper ranks gathered at the table. Did I ask the wrong thing, he thought.
"Son, if what we are about to discuss ever gets out, I promise you that I will personally lead the Davion Guards after your head and that of your people no matter where you are. Is that clear?" First Prince Hanse Davion said
Shiiit, he thought before answering "Crystal clear, Sir." Colonel Mitchell replied
"The only reason I am even going to tell all of you is that your planning to base right next door, so keeping you in the dark is just stupid. This is so close hold that very and I mean very few people know about it. The Federated Commonwealth has a warship cache, which is obvious since you already know about the two Vigilant Class Corvettes we sent with you. We also have one and only one shipyard capable of repairing those ships fully. Which my predecessors kept carefully stored waiting for the perfect place to rebuild it. Where the cache are located currently lacks any sort of resources, which means everything needs to be brought to it. A trail of Jumpships is hard to keep hidden. Does Wokha have the resources available to make that happen?" First Prince Hanse Davion said
"There is minimal manufacturing located on the planet itself, though questioning of prisoners indicated that the leader was starting to search surrounding systems in an attempt to recover any industrial equipment they could restore. There are active mining operations on Wokha and there used to be mining operations on Thazi. As the Admiral said, we would need specialists to survey the system itself for the resources you need." Colonel Mitchell replied
"You will have the specialists before you depart. Now, exactly what did you recover on Wokha and Thazi?" First Prince Hanse Davion asked
"Enough equipment to expand to a multi-regiment sized force. A full Regiment of Battlemechs and Aero Wing, along with Infantry equipment and engineering equipment. Plus five Lee Class Combined Arms Dropships. I have a full list of everything which you can look over. The Wokha find is not for sell, but the Thazi equipment is." Colonel Mitchell replied
"Never heard of a Lee Dropship. Care to give me a quick overview?" First Prince Hanse Davion said
"Twice the size of an Overlord, carried six Aerospace fighters and forty Battlemechs. There are two versions, the second carries forty Heavy Tanks, twenty-seven infantry platoons and twenty-eight light tanks. I also have the complete engineering specs we copied off both versions in my possession." Colonel Mitchell replied
"Just like the Titan Fighter Carrier Dropship you found earlier, not going to part with them are you?" First Prince Hanse Davion asked
"No Highness, we are going to keep them." Colonel Mitchell replied
"You all will be staying here for a few days while we gather the specialists you need. Get your needs listed and we will talk again tomorrow. If your expanding, your going to need people." First Prince Hanse Davion said
"Highness, I am going to need a bunch of people, but mostly. My unit is about to be or should I say already is beyond my ability to control it. I need someone with experience in controlling a multi regiment force. I only bring this up because that could be a problem to solve. I already have a list of everything I really need." Colonel Mitchell replied
"That took some guts. Not many would admit they are getting in over their head. It might not be as hard as you think, Colonel Mitchell. Now, I have another meeting to attend, so if you all will excuse me.", First Prince Hanse Davion said
----
<<Previous Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
141