CHS-6

==Chapter 6 – Chappy's Howling Siegers==
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Makeshift camp of the Chappy’s Howling Siegers
In front of the SLDF Warehouse
20 miles from town of Drango
Helm, Free Worlds League
March 7th, 2785
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Major Keller could hear faint sounds like voices underwater, as his senses started to focus back to reality the first thing, he noticed was the blindfold, the second was the handcuffs. Damn, he thought, I am a prisoner to these mercenary scums, F me.
“Major, the prisoner is awake”, the guard announced into his hand radio. “Roger, I will be there in just a second.”
A few moments later Major Chapman walked into the makeshift brig he looked at the guard’s name tag. “Thanks Sergeant Kalmar, I would like to talk to the militia’s commander in private.”
“Yes ,Sir”
Major Chapman opened the cell went over to Major Keller and took the blindfold off. “Major Keller, we have a lot to talk about.” Keller was shocked and confused at the same time, he recognized this mercenary, but where and how. He just could not put his finger on it. 
Chapman could see the look of confusion on Keller’s face, “You look like a man in a confused state of mind. I am Major Chapman commander of the Chappy’s Howling Siegers former member of the SLDF. My father is Admiral Chapman I believe that he was a delegate a few years ago here on this planet. I was a Lieutenant and part of his staff at that time, you were a Lieutenant also and aid to the governor.”
Confusion was lifted as Major Keller realized that was how he had a recognized Major Chapman’s face. “What in the hell are you doing here….Major Chapman?”
“Looking for something, a warehouse that belongs to me.”, Chapman told him.
Major Keller looked at Chapman with disgust. “If there was a warehouse it does not belong to you.”
“Wrong answer, Major Keller, as a former member of the SLDF and current employer of COMSTAR which by order of General Kerensky became the owners of all SLDF assets still left here, makes it mine.”
“Bull crap, merc scum, that warehouse belongs to Helm.”, he spat out.
“Listen to me, Major Keller, we are setting charges to the door right now I would rather you open it, since you changed the code. If I don’t do this and figure out what is inside, COMSTAR will send someone else, and I doubt they will be friendlier.”
“Go to hell merc, I don’t care what your pedigree is.”, Keller said.
Major Chapman took out his hand radio, “Ok, blow it.”
With that a big explosion happen spitting up dirt pushing it inside the tent that they were in. Major Chapman looked at the militia commander, “Sorry the hard way it is then.” and then he walked out with Major Keller yelling at him.
As Matthew walked toward the big hole in the metal doors, he issued orders to start taking inventory of everything, to his commanders which were the only ones allowed into the warehouse, The less people that knew what was or was not in there the better., Matthew thought.
The warehouse ended up being huge with several levels of storage and each level was several kilometers wide. There were some prototypes of 'mechs and some kind of body armor, that Matthew had never seen. Cache of weapons and supplies that would rival any base on Terra, there were hundreds of mechs mothball that he did recognize. There were also software updates and a vast bay labeled memory core..
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Makeshift camp of the Chappy’s Howling Siegers
In front of the SLDF Warehouse
March 15th, 2785
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After almost a week of going through the warehouse and learning what was in there Matthew had a decision to make and this was a decision that he could not make alone. With that in mind he called his inner circle to discuss it. Captain Pople, Captain Bruce, and Captain Tournier all sat around the small card table pretending to play cards but the news that Major Chapman just gave them stunned them. “Are you sure that is wise Chappy?” Captain Bruce adjusting his sling from his broken collar bone he received in the last battle.
“Well, Ethan, I just cannot see another way. None of us like COMSTAR but we have a mission to fulfill.”
This time Captain Pople spoke up, “Can’t we just take all the stuff with us? Why re-hide it.”
Matthew turned to Haleigh, “I trust the chief and you guys with my life. I trust the rest of the unit in combat, but for a secret like this? Also, since we don’t have a dropship that is ours trying to load all that equipment up without COMSTAR finding out will be impossible. We would need 6 or 7 empty dropships to get all this off planet too.”
Matthew looked at his longtime friends and fellow warriors, “So we put as much equipment starting with the prototypes into the lower level, seal it off. Then we delete any reference to that level in the database. Then we will take our cut from what is left and call COMSTAR with the location and new inventory sheet. The memory core will be hidden elsewhere, no one needs to have that until later.
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Sergeant Kalmar was standing outside of the commander’s tent. He had no idea why he was charged to report. He racked his brain until it hurt for the life of him and he could not remember violating any rules.
“Come in, Sergeant”, Major Chapman yelled from inside the tent.
The Sergeant marched in was about to give a crisp salute and report when Major Chapman got up from his desk rolled around and said, “You are not in trouble, nor is this a reporting visit I asked you here to see if I can trust you with something very important. Come have a seat over here,” As Chapman motioned to a makeshift couch.
After talking with the sergeant for a few hours, Major Chapman retrieved a small security briefcase that had a timer on it, and the unit’s symbol on it, to the sergeant it looked like it was counting down, to what he did not know.
“Sergeant, I know this is an unusual request, in this briefcase are documents that I don’t want anyone including our unit to have access for an exceptionally long time. Once the countdown is to zero it will unlock, the only thing I can say is that I want you to be custodian of this, well you and your children. This will not be unlocked till around 3000 AD so your descendants will have access to it, when you and your family pass it to the next generation for protection the only thing. They need to know is that when it is the right time to decide on who in power truly deserves the information inside, they will need to do it. Do you understand your orders, Sergeant? Will you and your future generations take on this task?”
Sergeant Kalmar licked his lips, “Yes, Sir, we will. I am honored that you entrust this to me and my family.”
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Major Keller was still in a cell when the engine noise started, his best guess was a DropShip or two was landing close the site, it was about three weeks since his captor talked to him, he was well feed and water but was isolated. Then Major Chapman rolled into the tent in full battle gear, “Time to go Major Keller, you are free. COMSTAR is here to retrieve the loot from the warehouse and the Siegers are off to our next contract.”
General Lauren Hayes walked down the ramp in her shinning new white uniform of COMSTAR. “What have you got for us, Major?”
“General, I want the rest of our payment in our account before we proceed.”
The General looked into Major Chapman’s eyes and thought for a second, “okay”, she pulled out her comm unit and spoke into it then looked back to the Major, “your money is in the bank merc, let’s hope you delivered, or I will personally see to it that you are downgraded and never see a good contract again. The only reason I am letting you have your money now is because you have served me well in the past.”
Major Chapman’s people checked and confirmed that the money was there, and he gave the order to pack up and load up. “Ma’am, here are the six Warhammers that we pulled from the warehouse and parts related to those Warhammers that will last a year, per the contract the rest is yours.”
As they moved into the warehouse, they walked into a huge level that was completely empty. 
“What the hell is this, Major!”
The major calmly gave her a pad with the log for the warehouse on it, “As you can see ,Ma’am, a unit of SLDF was here a year prior but looks like they only pulled the first level and some other stuff out of another level. There was no detail of what they got or reason why they did not take all of it. My guess is that they did not have any more room, they did blow up the access to the rest of levels fortunately that did not stop us for long. Come General, let me show you the other two levels.” Major Chapman said.
At last, after the tour that consisted of several hundreds of mothball BattleMechs consisting of all classes and makes that the SLDF used, also all the ammo and spare parts for those mechs the General turned to Chapman and bitch slap him. Matthew jumped up and was about to jump the General when her guard stepped in front of her, “What kind of fool do you take me for, Major?!”
After calming himself he replied, “General, I assure you I have no idea what you are talking about.”
The General was getting angrier, “the tech Major the tech, there was supposed to be some advance tech both software and hardware that according to the original inventory I have here, should be here.”
Major Chapman looked at the list and formulated an answer that would hopefully fool the General and get him and his troops out.
“General, there is a chamber that was labeled with this name on level three I did not show you this because it looked empty when we explored it.”
“Damn it show it to me now!”, she shouted at Keller.
The General was mixed with emotions; sadness, anger, disappointment, and proudness which was strange. Fr the SLDF to come here and gather the memory core that contained all the current research was brilliant. After she calm down a bit, she turned to the merc, “Okay, Major, looks like you delivered you end of the bargain see you around.”
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Major Matthew Chapman walked up the ramp of their dropship to talk to his XO about how far along the loading was at because he wanted off this planet fast away from COMSTAR and the general specifically, when Major Keller showed up.
“Major Chapman, Major Chapman! I need to speak to you.”
“Yes, come up here we will go to the conference room on board.” Chapman told him.
After both commanders enter the room Major Chapman shut the door took out a scanner with his finger to his mouth and scanned the room. After the scan he took out another piece of equipment this time a jammer and turned it on. “Ok, Major Keller we can talk now. COMSTAR has been spying on my unit since they got here. What can I do for you, we take off in two hours so make it fast.”
“I know what you did, and even though I am not happy that COMSTAR is getting all that equipment, them not getting the prototype mechs and body armor. Along with the memory core I thank you, but where did you put all that equipment?”
Major Chapman looked at him right into his eyes and said, “I have no idea what you are talking about, what is in there was in there when we blew the door.”
“That is impossible I know exactly what was in there, I did a visual inventory three days before you attacked us.”
“Are there any logs or written records outside the warehouse that would prove this? Major Keller”
“No, Major Chapman, just me.”
Chapman then pulled out his sidearm and aimed it to the militia commander head “I could shoot you so that you will not spread rumors anymore.”
As Major Keller lifted his arms showing submission he said, “Look, I don’t want them to have anything so when that bitch General showed me the invoice and took me to the warehouse I confirmed some of your story all I said was that just before you showed up I had done a visual inspection and it was like this, I was afraid to add anything else to that story since I had no idea what you had told her.”
Major Chapman tried to get a mean look on his face and then said, “I told you I have no idea what you are talking about the only thing we took was the six Warhammers per our contract, but nothing else, I should shoot you for spreading lies and rumors. If you can stop doing this, I promise I won’t shoot you.”
“Yes, Major Chapman I can keep your secret.”
“No, I don’t think you can.” then Major Chapman pulled the trigger and shot the other Major in the head. Captain Bruce broke the door down with his gun drawn and saw the situation, “What happen, Chappy?”
“The secret of the real cache of weapons and memory core must remain a secret. I trust my friends to keep that secret. I trust our sergeant to keep a secret that he has no idea what it is. I respected this man, but I could not trust him he was the only one outside our circle that knows the truth on this planet.”
 
The Major looked at his watch, “We take off is less than an hour.” he then picked up the body “Get the doors for me, I must bury this man.”
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Brig
Major Chapman walk into the brig and told the attending to open the cell. Colonel Booker was about to thrust himself into the Major when the attending leveled his pistol at the Colonel. “Colonel Booker you are free to go we are taking off in 30 minutes go back to the church and continue to pretend to be a priest.”
“The hell, I will cub...Matthew, I have no respect for you nor your silly ban of mercs. What did you do with the Generals equipment?”
Chapman looked straight into his former commander’s eyes, “COMSTAR has it all.” With that Matthew did an about face and walked out to the screams of the Colonel Booker.
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