AWF Chpt 72

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=Chapter 72=
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===Talk of mysteries and aliens===
Monhegan
Federated Suns
March, 3030
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Hap looked up as Fiona walked into the Leopard Dropship's warrior lounge. She walked around the couch and held up a holo disk. "Alright I just checked all decks. Everything is generally ready for landing, but we got another hour or so before we hit Monhegan's atmosphere. Which gives us time for a holo."
Crow made a space for her on the couch, "What did you have in mind? I thought I saw Mags give Anastasia the newest season of Brave Sister Sniper before we left."
Fiona shook her head, "I've seen enough of Yolanda crying, flashing her breasts, or stabbing men in the back to get her way for a while. Honestly, the last season Yolanda had become a one trick pony."
"Yeah ever since Jaunita Torres-Bashier got that boob job the writers have gotten a little lazy."
"I wouldn't call it lazy." Fiona said. "Which is why I have something more educational in mind."
Anastasia looked up from her book of logic puzzles, as Crow grimaced, "Tell me it's not another documentary."
"It's a documentary on the Tripitz Affair." Fiona answered. "It good for you, it'll improve your mind, and I'm going to bet it's chocked full of a lot of interesting and compelling theories."
"Oh man, not another conspiracy theory show." Crow groaned, "Did Rolph recommend this?"
"Nope." Fiona said as she put the disk into the holo.
"Was it our Capellan spooky? There is no end to the madness she'll believe." Crow said
"Tatyana had access to a lot Capellan intelligence. She probably does know a few things that you and I think is unbelievable." Fiona said.
"I get that, but sometimes she says things and I think 'that's impossible' like the Capellans having the technology to replace other Inner Sphere lords with clones."
"While that seems unlikely." Anastasia said, "After you see or discover a large quantity of things that others consider 'impossible or unlikely' you may be prone to believe things that really are fantastic."
"Thank you, Anastasia." Crow said. "See Anastasia gets it"
Hap glanced at Anastasia, "Really?"
"Oh yes. Mother and I had to watch daddy. He had a lot of strange pet theories and tended to believe a lot of conspiracy theories, particularly regarding the Kerensky's lost military forces, SLDF, and lostech. The problem with father was he tended to routinely do things other told him were impossible, so if we told him something was 'impossible' he would remind us of things he had done that had been 'impossible'. "
"What was your Dad's take on the Tripitz?" Fiona asked as she setup the holo.
"Daddy wanted to see the remains of it. Even as a burned-out hulk he wanted to look at the comms system. He believed the SLDF had Hyper Pulse Generators on some warships. He thought if he could see even the broken pieces of it would help his work. But the Tripitz was lost, so he was out of luck."
"Lost? I thought the Taurians towed it to some floating space station repair facility where they've been trying to fix it." Crow said.
"No, it was crippled and left to crash into a planet in the New Vandenberg System." Fiona said.
"Daddy always thought somehow the Capellans ended up with it." Anastasia said.
"Hap you got a theory?" Crow asked.
"I'm not actually sure what the Tripitz affair is, so no." Hap said.
"Well, after this you'll definitely have one." Fiona said as she hit play.
"What makes you think I'll have a theory after watching the holo?" Hap asked
"The entire episode is so mysterious it spawns conspiracies." Anastasia spread a blanket over them.
"What if I just choose to not believe in it?" Hap teased.
"Still a conspiracy theory." Crow said.
The holo started and the Mechwarriors settled into watch the documentary. It was part of a series of documentaries called Searching For, which was in the title of every episode. The next episode was entitled "Searching For the Minnesota Tribe." The documentary was narrated by the actor who played the Science Office from the old ComStar Explorers Corps show Hap had watched as a kid.
The documentary told the story of how a Star League era WarShip, the Tripitz, was discovered in Taurian space. The Tripitz appeared to be an abandoned derelict ship, but still intact. The documentary explained a warship was an armed jumpship that could push through space defenses and carry dropships. With its hardened jump drive and superior armament a warship could spear head decisive attacks anywhere in the Inner Sphere and could virtually hold at risk all but the most heavily fortified planets. Any nation with a warship would have a decisive military advantage.
Such a prize was worth any cost. This enticed the Taurians, and according to the documentary, the Capellans to mount immediate salvage operations. When the Taurian's attempted to access the warship mysterious white aerofighters appeared from nowhere and destroyed the vessel. All the Taurians could do was helplessly watch as the ship was ruined.
As Hap watched the holo he realized he had heard bits and pieces of this legend before. He knew of the White Wings, the legendary phantom aerospace fighters that were painted all white and had no house livery or unit markings. The documentary had several theories of the identity of the White Wings.
The documentaries theories of the White Wings starting with the most practical and going to the most outlandish. It started with an obvious Federated Suns bias and general implications of Taurian incompetence that would allow pirates to destroy the warship, or an unskilled salvage crew destroying the warship and inventing the story. The more unproveable theories included lost star league era colonies, Kerensky's lost forces, and even an unknown race of aliens.
As the credits started to roll Fiona glanced over at Hap, "So now what are you thinking about the Tripitz and the mysterious White Wings?"
"I think I'm leaning toward the more practical theories that the Taurian salvage team made a mistake or periphery pirates came through and they invented most of this story to cover it up." Hap said.
"Have you ever fought the Taurians?" Fiona asked, "They're not incompetent, they're actually quite fierce, and if you trespass in their space they'll-"
"Show up with a combined arms corps and tell you, 'hippity hoppity get the hell off our property'." Crow interrupted. Fiona looked like she was about to correct Crow but just nodded.
"A rag tag band of aerospace pirates is unlikely to be operating unopposed in Taurian space?" Hap said.
"Probably." Fiona shrugged, "Maybe the salvage team screwed up, but I doubt it. I've always preferred the lost colony theory. I assumed they had used the Tripitz to get out to their colony, and had the thing in orbit or mouth balled on a moon, or something, but somehow they lost control of it, and when it was found they realized they would be discovered so they chose to destroy it then disappeared."
"So why didn't the Taurians find the colony? It seems evident they had star league tech." Hap said. "I'd think the Concordant would want to talk to these people."
"That's what makes the whole thing so damn interesting." Fiona said, "Every answer just leads to more questions. What's your take, Anastasia?"
"Daddy also favored the lost or hidden colony theory, so I suppose I did too. Although he didn't discount the idea of non-humans."
"The documentary said the Taurians claimed the White Wings had star league era aerospace fighters." Crow said. "Wouldn't space aliens have alien aerospace fighters?"
Anastasia shrugged, "There are a couple explanations for that."
Fiona rubbed her hands together gleefully. "This is why I love conspiracy theories, when you think you've come to the end, it just goes deeper."
Anastasia nodded, "The explanation was that the aliens didn't want to reveal themselves so they used conventional human aerospace fighters, or there is a federation of aliens that included humans and they were tasked to interact with other humans."
Crow raised a curious eyebrow, "Why wouldn't the aliens want to reveal themselves?"
"Humanity writ large is on our Fourth Succession War." Anastasia said. "After centuries of non-stop death, destruction, and mayhem, would you want to deal with the lot of us? Daddy generally felt most intelligent life would probably be hesitant to interact with us, unless they wanted a fight."
Crow nodded, "That makes sense. I'm starting to like the alien theory now. I like the idea of a federation of aliens that aren't looking for trouble."
"Really?" Fiona said, "You don't believe in Land Air Mechs even though you've seen one, but the idea that space aliens exist, because you haven't seen them, is all the proof you need?"
"I didn't see a LAM. I saw a mech run out of sight behind some hills and then an aerospace fighter flew out of the same general area. It doesn't make it a LAM. Besides, the idea that space aliens would refuse to deal with the majority of humanity seems more likely than them not existing at all."
"I'm not going to try to prove a negative even though we've colonized trillions of worlds and never found intelligent life, but don't try to deny you saw you a LAM."
"I told you what I saw. There was a Phoenix Hawk running down the road then there was an aerospace fighter rocketing toward space. Honestly I'm not exactly sure it was an aerospace fighter."
Fiona punched Crow in the shoulder as Hap glanced at Anastasia, "So that's your Dad's theory or theories. What's yours?"
Anastasia took a deep breath, "After everything we've seen and given what Mother said-"
The 1MC cracked to life and Kate said, <("All crew, be advised, we're about five mikes from entering Monhegan's gravity and atmosphere, so if you, or your crap isn't locked in, strapped down, tied up, or secured, you'd better get it that way.")>
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There was a flurry of activity as the four MechWarriors quickly went around the lounge and the berthing area to get their personal effects and other odds and ends put away. They got back to the couch and buckled the harnesses just as the ship started to shake and shift as it changed its flight profile and entered the Monhegan's atmosphere.
In a few minutes the Leopard had touched down. Hawkins came onto the 1MC, <("Welcome to Monehegan. Local time is 1205. Temperatures are a balmy 16 degrees.")>
The mercenaries grabbed their personal effects. They met up with Hawkins and Kate at the crew ramp. Hawkins opened the door and bright light spilled into shuttle nearly blinding everyone.
Crow and Fiona cursed as Hawkins and Kate pulled out aviator sunglasses. "Probably should have warned you how the virtual cockpit and windows protects from the glaring sun." Hawkins said.
The mechwarriors squinted as they walked off the ramp. Anastasia asked, "Hap, have you seen my sunglasses?"
Hap said no as he looked around. The company had setup a field kitchen and had set out long tables and benches in the light of the unseasonably warm spring day. There was a carnival feel, as people moved around getting food, talking, eating and drinking.
"Nice. We made it back in time for fish fry Friday." Crow turned and gave Kate a fist bump.
"You know I was thinking I wanted to rack out, but I could go for some fried fish." Kate said.
"I doubt you'll have time to rack out." Fiona said, "Our garrison duty is over, and we need to pack up." Hap could also see pallets of equipment and cases stacked around the air field. The few company members who weren't participating in the fish fry were operating loaders and getting the containers ready to put on the dropships. It was obvious the mercenary company was preparing to leave the planet.
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