GblaRCS Chpt 11

==Guided by the light of a (Red) Cameron Star - Chapter 11 -==
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"Superstition has always been a part of a sailor's life whether they crew a wooden sailing vessel or a starship. Some ships are seen as being lucky, or unlucky, and a rare few as both depending upon the situation. In the case of the SLS Saratoga she was thought to be beset by weird timing and coincidences that saw her frequently being a pivot point around which major events occured. Starting during the Amaris War, a poor decision by her then captain, who was leading a squadron of warships as part of a fleet going up against the Keid SDS system, resulted in the entire squadron being caught out of position and destroyed, except the Saratoga herself which was only crippled. This could be seen as entirely negative, but, and only because so many drones went chasing after Saratoga's squadron, the rest of the 16th Fleet was able to quickly smash through the rest of them to win the wider battle. It was the damage she took at Keid, only partially repaired before Kerensky's Exodus, that saw Saratoga eventually mothballed in one of the Clan Boneyards where years later she was 'borrowed' for Operation Switchback during which the fortuitous timing of her jumpdrive failure may have saved Clan Wolverine from utter destruction.In one of the stranger examples of synchronicity involving Saratoga, for a while after the battle of Keid she was nicknamed 'The Cockroach' because, despite the fierce pounding she took at the hands of multiple M3 and M5 drones, she just wouldn't die. Half a century later her crew adopted the Mexican folk song 'La Cucaracha' as the ship's song, and for completely unrelated reasons.To quote one of her crew, serving upon Saratoga wasn't a job, it was a ****** adventure."Admiral Bud Robertson III, Tales of the Hegemony Navy - Niops Press, 3025
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===Unpleasant rendezvousing===
(FLASHBACK) - Zenith Jump-point - Isfahan (Draconis Combine) – 2825
A parched desert world on the edge of the periphery, Isfahan had once enjoyed a rising population and a growing economy but in the last few years it had fallen so far that it did not even appear on some star-charts anymore. Like many systems in a similar situation this was because of war, although strangely the fighting had never actually reached as far as there. Isfahan was a destitute and failing colony because five-hundred light years away the Free Worlds League had unleashed thermonuclear fire on a factory complex in order to keep it out of the hands of the Capellan Confederation.
The lack of a cheap and reliable source of fresh water for both human consumption and supporting agriculture had held back the development of many worlds within the Inner Sphere, and indeed had once prevented some planets being colonized at all. All that had changed however with the invention of the Jamerson-Ulikov Water Purifier in 2622, simply connect one or more of the large industrial-sized units to a power-source, fusion reactors being commonly tasked for the purpose, and they would happily convert seawater to fresh water in vast quantities at a low operating cost.
An extremely high-tech machine, one that was complicated and difficult to manufacture, the J-U system also required frequent filter replacement and a steady supply of replacement parts for its mechanical pumps. Fortunately, the advanced manufacturing technology of the Terran Hegemony was more than up to the job, and long production runs kept the system affordable to everyone, thus within a century of its invention the Jamerson-Ulikov was seen everywhere.
This all changed in 2811, when the Free Worlds League tried and failed to conquer Brownsville, a former world of the Terran Hegemony. Not wanting to risk it falling to the Capellan Confederation instead, that state having also attempted to absorb it recently, the League cratered the industrial heartland of Brownsville and went home.
Unfortunately for Isfahan, and many other worlds that relied upon the Jamerson-Ulikov Water Purifier, the things were primarily made on Brownsville which meant that replacement filters and spare parts were no longer available, at least not affordably.
It's worth noting that several worlds within the Free Worlds League itself were utterly screwed by this unpleasant turn of events. Though clearly not as screwed as the poor unfortunate people living on Brownsville, not that sympathy for them was as great as it might have been if the planet had not, unusually for a Terran Hegemony planet, sided with Amaris against Kerensky.
Whether or not what happened to Brownsville was extreme karma in the form of thermonuclear fire was of little concern to the people of Isfahan. They now found themselves not only dealing with a severe economic downturn, because of the fighting going on elsewhere messing with interstellar commerce, but now they couldn't get enough water to irrigate their crops as well. Most people left if they could, and if it wasn't for the trickle of gold that could be extracted from the desert sands so would have everyone else.
None of this really mattered in practical terms to the captain or crew of the Saratoga when it jumped into the system, following the planned series of jumps the vessel had been assigned. Part search-pattern, and partly an attempt at misdirection, the sequence had started at Porthos, a periphery world near Santander and then took a route calling in at other inhabited systems just coreward of the Combine border including Labbezanga, Durham and Cable. Eventually the deliberately circuitous route would lead to Isfahan itself, a world that was, at least nominally, within the Inner Sphere and ruled by House Kurita, even if it was hardly Luthien.
The Draconis Combine were undoubtedly looking for Yukon and if they could be lured into looking into a sector of space that was close enough to where they had been raiding, but far enough away that they wouldn't start poking around the Theta Carinae Cluster any time soon, that was ideal. There was just enough interstellar traffic on the edge of the Inner Sphere that they should get noticed by someone, but just in case they were deliberately lax when it came to sending transmissions that could be picked up by anyone listening.
The various rumors of the 'Canada Tribe' that had reached the Switchback Fleet were vague, but they did seem consistent in a couple of areas. These being firstly that the Tribe ran without their IFF system turned on and secondly that they had painted over the names and markings on their ships, including the destroyer their two dropships and aerospace fighters operated from.
If someone had gotten close enough to Yukon that they knew she was a destroyer then it was likely known that she was a Riga II class vessel, although the stories didn't mention that fact. If this was the case that meant that only one vessel available to Franklin Hallis could be sent out to both look for Yukon and perhaps attract unwelcome attention away from her.
Saratoga was being shadowed in interstellar space by the Lola III class destroyer, the Protecteur. Having belonged to the 295th she could not be sent out alone to look for Yukon herself, the Switchback Fleet not having fielded any of that class so Yukon would likely assume she was hostile if they met. In the event Saratoga ran into something she couldn't handle she could immediately jump again, using her L-F battery to rejoin Protecteur. Between the two of them the destroyers could wipe the floor with most anything the Draconis Combine Admiralty had in service, with a Riga II making up for what it lacked in main-battery firepower with her large aerospace fighter complement and the Lola III being armed and armored practically to cruiser standards.
Running without IFF as Yukon was, and with her own external markings also painted over, Saratoga did not deploy her jump-sail on arrival at Isfahan and began to recharge her drive from her fusion powerplant instead. Unfortunately, the engineering limitations of the jump-core meant that you couldn't safely charge it any faster than you could with the sail, and so it was just as long and tedious procedure as ever, trickling power into the Kearny-Fuchida drive for days.
Saving her Lithium-Fusion batteries in case she needed a quick getaway Saratoga scanned for any other vessels or radio sources in the system but other than detecting stray radio signals from Kerman, the largest city on Isfahan, and a few smaller towns, everything came up blank. The day before she left, the next system they planned to visit was Richmond a little deeper into space ruled by the Dragon, Saratoga would make herself very 'noisy' to make absolutely sure she was detected, there being nothing as pointless as a distraction that went unnoticed.
It was so quiet in the Isfahan system that they might as well still be skulking around the periphery. At least Richmond had both a military garrison worthy of the name and an active and a far more active Hyperspace Pulse Generator station that could quickly spread the word of the 'Canada Tribe' being around.
After four days of tedium aboard Saratoga, a period brightened only by a multi-lap race around the main grav-deck that was won by an engineering technician, much to the chagrin of the marines aboard who had bet heavily on their own man, everything suddenly became much less dull as an emergence wave was detected indicating another JumpShip was about to arrive.
Calling all hands to action stations and dashing to the bridge Captain Jaime Merino prepared to scramble his aerospace fighter squadrons and ordered nuclear ordinance to be prepared if necessary. Khan Hallis had been clear in his instructions, if you meet the clans and have to blast your way out of there to preserve your ship and crew then do so without hesitation.
When a Tramp class armed-merchantman appeared instead of a warship Merino relaxed a little, though now the Khan's other instructions would come into play, be mysterious, evasive and ideally utterly confusing. Exactly how this should be undertaken was left to the captain's discretion, in fact they were vague enough to feature the phrase 'just play it by ear', but the overall goal was clear, throw people off the trail and muddy the waters. Obfuscation was the aim of the game as the clans might know exactly who and what Yukon and her crew was but the Great Powers of the Inner Sphere should be kept well and truly in the dark.
It was too late to keep totally under the radar, the raiding undertaken by Yukon had seen to that, but if they played their cards right they could at least keep the Inner Sphere thoroughly baffled and perplexed, which was almost as good.
"Receiving an IFF signal from the Tramp, Sir." the tactical officer reported, looking a little surprised at what was coming up on his display screen. "Ship is identified as the Papsukkal and has a modified SLCOMNET registry code that flags it as belonging to ComStar."
"ComStar? What are they doing out here I wonder?" Merino asked rhetorically.
"HPG installation or maintenance maybe?" the ship's navigator suggested.
Merino considered that theory for a moment "You could be right." he reasoned. From what they had learned since arriving in the Inner Sphere SLCOMNET, under its rebranding as 'ComStar' was considered a neutral power with everyone accepting their sovereignty and control of the Hyperspace Pulse Generator network. They had all even agreed and signed a treaty along those lines, Jerome Blake's Communications Protocol of 2787, one of scarce few cases where all the Successor States had reached an accord on something. Since ComStar was neutral, and everyone needed them, they could likely go wherever they liked unmolested. If you messed with them they could simply cut you off from their services, which would give your rivals a major advantage over you until you apologized and/or made restitution.
Everyone knew how a Hyperspace Pulse Generator worked in theory but that wasn't much help if you needed to manufacture, repair or even just run one yourself. SLCOMNET had been careful to keep the precise details of their equipment a secret, hence you either accepted ComStar's monopoly or you did without easy interstellar communication.
"Are we ready to jump if necessary?" Merino checked.
"Aye, Sir." both the navigator and helmsman reported immediately.
"Receiving a hail from the ComStar vessel" the communications officer reported. "They're close enough that you shouldn't notice much comms lag if you want to respond."
"Alright then, let's see what Jerome Blake's minions have to say for themselves. At least we can be sure word of the 'Canada Tribe' will spread far and wide after an encounter with these people" he reasoned then paused for a while. "I'm going to mess with them" he decided, "anyone that laughs loud enough for them to hear once the channel is open gets put out of the airlock" he threatened. "Put them on loudspeaker" he ordered, activating the microphone on his own headset.
<<"I repeat. This is the Papsukkal to the unidentified warship. Are you receiving us?">>
"We are receiving your transmission, Papsukkal, please state your business" Merino replied.
<<"Thank you for responding to our hail. We represent ComStar and have been looking for you for some time.">> the JumpShip signaled back in return. <<"Several of our ships are involved in the search, I consider us blessed to have been the one to find you.">>
Merino frowned, why in the name of the First Lord was ComStar out looking for Yukon, he wondered? "If this is about that unpaid phone-bill I already told your collections department that the cheque is in the post and that I refuse in principle to do wire-transfers until you improve your end-point encryption." he replied deadpan, most of the bridge crew grinning in response.
A lengthy pause at the other end was eventually broken by a very fake laugh. <<"Very droll">> the ComStar vessel responded, the tone of voice indicating they thought it was anything but. To be fair Merino doubted he was the first person to yank their chains in a similar fashion, or the thousandth. <<"If we can be serious for a moment may I safely assume that I am speaking with the commanding officer of the vessel generally referred to as belonging to the Canada Tribe?">>
Merino smiled. Yep all Riga II destroyers look alike alright, he thought to himself with satisfaction before being struck by inspiration. "Canada Tribe? No, you must be looking for one of our sister-ships." he replied. "We're the Mexico Tribe." he announced. "Buenos dias" he added politely.
Another lengthy pause at the other end of the line presumably indicated that the ComStar personnel knew they were being messed with, although they certainly misunderstood exactly how. <<"Given that we can logically dismiss the notion that there is more than one Riga II class destroyer/carrier preying upon the Draconis Combine in this region of space, can we please dispense with the blindingly obvious masquerade?">> came a request that sounded pretty heartfelt.
"Nonsense? Mascarada? What are you accusing us of gringo?" Merino replied, putting on an exaggerated fake Mexican accent that he was certain his grandfather originally from Oaxaca would have beaten him with a stick for.
"You know who we are" the Comstar vessel persisted, "but since you are not transmitting your IFF codes, and the markings and insignia on your hull have been erased we cannot say the same" they observed. "This would be a far more civilized and productive exchange if you identified yourselves, even if only by using your regular nom de guerre for now."
Merino took a breath to steady himself mentally for his response, he had to do it without laughing or it just wouldn't be as funny, or as bamboozling and annoying as he was aiming for, as he continued with the accent. "Identity markings? Insignia?" he responded with evident distaste at the very idea of such in his tone. "You mean like badges?" he asked. "We ain't got no badges. WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING BADGES!" he practically bellowed the last line.
The helmsman corpsed and had to stick his fist in his mouth to stop himself from breaking out into convulsive laughter.
Merino would have happily given a year off his life to see and hear the reaction over there on the ComStar JumpShip. After yet another lengthy pause it seemed that whoever was in charge had decided to push on regardless with their original plan. <<"Since only the Star League Navy ever fielded the Riga II, and the only ones that we know of that survived the Amaris War left with General Aleksandr Kerensky, we assume you are affiliated with his people.">> the ComStar vessel signaled. <<"Rest assured that ComStar considers Kerensky as a friend and ally, since it was he that arranged for other SLDF forces under Major-General Lauren Hayes to assist our founder Jerome Blake to take control of Terra, protecting it for the good of all mankind. Is it possible to make contact with him through you?">>
"Kerensky? Sounds Russian. You should try the Russia Tribe. Last I heard they were heading for Kazanka to pick up some vodka" Merino advised. "I prefer tequila myself." he added.
They were still pointedly ignoring the obvious sarcasm and continued to ask questions about things they were curious about. <<"We've noticed that you have only attacked government-owned ships and facilities in the Draconis Combine, is there a reason for this?">>
"We haven't attacked anyone in the Draconis Combine." Merino denied the accusation, honestly though they were naturally certain he was lying. "That was the Canada Tribe." he told them sincerely. "We asked them about it though and they told us it was 'Because of the Kentares Massacre, Eh' and said something about the Dracs decapitating innocent civilians with swords which seems more brutal that just nuking them" he continued, before pausing a moment. "Then they repeated themselves in French" he added, trying to sound earnest and barely succeeding. "At least I think it was French. Apart from English yo solo hablo español."
The ComStar people must have decided there was a grain of truth to be extracted from that. <<"Were you originally from the Federated Suns?">> they asked. <<"The Davions are a mix of English and French nobility, and Canada is a mix of English and French people, is that it?">>
"Ay, chihuahua! For the last time we are not the Canada Tribe, we're the Mexican Tribe, pendejo!" Merino replied, almost wishing they could see his smirk.
<<"Persisting in this infantile pretense does neither of us any favors.">> the man from ComStar on the other end of the line stated firmly, starting to sound very annoyed. <<"We came as civilized men and women in good faith offering to render assistance, if that proved necessary, or perhaps even shelter and succour, but you seem undeserving of our magnanimity. Would you have preferred to encounter a warship in service of Kurita who would have dealt with you in a far less measured and reasonable manner?">>
That was interesting, Merino thought to himself. Despite their earlier description of Yukon 'preying upon' the Combine they seemed all to willing to ignore that just so long as they could get their hooks into the Canada Tribe, generous offers of aid coming ahead of vague threats. Presumably they wanted intelligence, or perhaps to get their hands on a valuable warship, or most likely both. Captain Merino doubted they would really be all that happy to see the return of Aleksandr Kerensky, ComStar had developed a power-base on Terra amidst the vacuum left by the SLDF's exodus, and people with power don't generally like to give it up.
ComStar naturally had no idea that Kerensky Senior now rested in his tomb aboard the warship McKenna's Pride orbiting Strana Mechty, having died of a heart attack two decades earlier. He had died relatively young by the standards of a man born in the Terran Hegemony, being only a hundred years old at his death, although at least he did better than Jerome Blake who passed at a mere eighty. From what undercover teams of Wolverines conducting covert intelligence-gathering operations had learned of contemporary Inner Sphere politics, it seemed that Blake's replacement, Conrad Toyama, was making waves as he sought to expand ComStar's influence more overtly with several diplomatic initiatives to the Successor States. Toyama, unlike Blake, was not a technician and bureaucrat that knew he only reached the heady heights of power he did because Amaris killed everyone in SLCOMNET more senior than him, and this seemingly resulted in a very different style of leadership. It was certainly one that was outwardly more proactive, and perhaps clandestinely too.
"If you were civilized you wouldn't accuse us of lying about not being the Canada Tribe" Merino retorted. "Rest assured we will warn the rest of the United Tribes of your insult to our honor, carbon. If you were more than a lowly telephone repairman, I would demand satisfaction and run you through with my blade, but as a descendant of the great Zorro himself I would not sully one of my rapiers with your peon blood" he declared snootily. "Or one of my Tomahawks or Gothas either."
Two of the six aerospace fighter squadrons in his flight bays actually were Rapiers, which to Merino made it all even funnier. They were the Wolverine-upgraded model of the RPR-100b with Improved Pulse Lasers and LRM launchers which had seen good service during both Operation Klondike and the Secession.
<<"This is farcical. You are quite clearly dissembling at best, outright spinning an egregious falsehood at worst by purporting to not be the so-called Canada Tribe. To feign offense at being called out upon your lies is rank hypocrisy on your part. There is only one Riga II class destroyer in the entire Inner Sphere and you are aboard it.">> the speaker aboard the ComStar JumpShip stated indignantly. <<"We know you are the Canada Tribe, you know it, if they were here everyone in the entire galaxy would know it.">>
"Ha! That is where you are wrong again telefonista estúpido." Merino retorted. "The United Tribes have a shipyard building great masses of Riga IIs at our base in the Lambda Orionis Nebula." he announced, simply naming just about the most distant and hard-to-search place he could think of in case they actually believed him and went looking.
Presumably someone over there was checking where the hell that actually was because the next response took a couple of minutes to arrive. <<"More lies. It would take over a year to get there from here.">> the ComStar vessel dismissed Merino's claim.
"For you primitivos perhaps, but only a third of that for us thanks to our twin lithium-fusion-batteries that allow us to travel an incredible ninety light-years a week. Moving more swiftly than my forebear's mighty steed Tornado as we thunder across the stars" he declared. "Why, on a good day even the great Speedy Gonzales himself would eat our dust." he added, barely managing not to join in himself as his navigator involuntarily burst out laughing until he could choke it back down.
They obviously overheard the laughter on the other ship. <<"ComStar will not be mocked nor made a fool of.">> came a seething response to the clowning. <<"From your unseemly and unprofessional attitude we can only assume you are deserters from the Star League Navy and have been raiding and acting like pirates because that is all you are!">>
Captain Merino smirked. "That is foul slander, and now, after you have accused us of being faithless deserters, we cannot ever be amigos you uncouth hijo de puta" he replied, feigning hurt feelings. "We are not now, have never been, and never will be traitors to the cause. We remain eternally loyal to the United Tribes, the great Pancho Villa and the memory of the martyred President Francisco Madero" he declared haughtily. "Down with Huerta, Amaris and Jerome Blake. Viva la revolución!"
Merino gestured to his bridge crew to join in and was rewarded with an enthusiastically echoed "Viva la revolución!" from all of them except the Executive Officer who was facepalming because of the absurdity of it all when Merino made his gesture.
<<"How dare you insult the memory of Jerome Blake by linking him to Stefan Amaris. Blake's foresight and vision is all that stands between us and a new Dark Age!">> came a clearly incensed response from the ComStar JumpShip. <<"He is the Blessed Founder and Joshua Hoshiko was his prophet.">>
Having no idea who Joshua Hoshiko was, Captain Merino made a mental note to check later. It turned out the man was Minister of Communications and Director of SLCOMNET when the HPG was invented centuries before. Apparently these ComStar people had already come up with their own prophets to venerate, perhaps before too long they might even turn into a full-fledged pseudo religion with saints and arcane rituals too, Merino had pondered for a while before dismissing that notion as extremely far-fetched. "Only the Holy Catholic Church is worthy of such devotion. You should confess your idolatrous pagan blasphemy to a sanctified priest and make penance for your sins" he told them. "Just make sure that the priest is not one of those heretics from the New Avalon Catholic Church or you would risk extending your time in purgatory, or even face eternal damnation." he warned them helpfully.
<<"We are done with you, at least for now. Be advised that unless you behave in a more rational and sincere manner during your next encounter with ComStar then your bridges with us will be burnt for all time and you will have to face the tender mercies of the Draconis Combine alone.">>
"The Mexican Tribe is never alone. Our hermanos in the United Tribes will always be there to support us." Merino replied pompously.
<<"For the love of Blake will you stop pretending to not be the Canada…">> the ComStar ship was cut off abruptly as the communications officer on Saratoga pulled the plug.
"We are detecting an inbound JumpShip, Sir." the operations officer reported to Captain Merino. "Looks like too much mass to be another civilian JumpShip" he added, looking at his display. "Too much to be a Drac Samarkand as well" he continued to update the bridge. "Could be a Narukami class destroyer" he suggested, a best guess given the lack of information.
"Good thing the Mexican Tribe keeps a couple of Santa Ana's under their sombreros, and we remembered the Alamo's… if not fondly" Merino said wryly. "We'll try to jump out, if we can't we'll make a fight of it" he said with determination. "WOLVERINES!"
"WOLVERINES!" the bridge crew echoed.
"Jumpship emerging from hyperspace. Vessel is identified as… holy shit it's a Riga II, no IFF."
"Madre de dios. It's the Yukon'.'" Merino said quietly to himself disbelievingly, wishing he still wore the crucifix his mother gave him. What were the chances of them appearing right now?
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===Number of Compadres Grows, Frustration Builds===
"Receiving an encoded tight-beam transmission from vessel identifying itself as Yukon, signal confirmed as using Clan Wolverine recognition codes and encryption." the communications officer reported. "Text only" he continued, reading the data appearing on his display before grinning. "They've been routinely checking the rally point at Theta Carinae and found Khan Hallis there waiting for them the last time they poked their noses into the cluster" he continued. "They volunteered to go collect us before the fleet set off back to Camelot. Thought they owed us one for playing decoy. General Hallis gave them our intended mission route. Star Captain Francis on Yukon sends his complements, Sir."
"Not as inexplicably an unlikely coincidence as them just happening to decide to visit Isfahan when we did then." Captain Merino said with a sigh of relief that he hadn't just witnessed a near-miracle of probability. "Send their captain my complements in return and tell them it's great to see them return to the fold." he instructed. This was turning into one hell of a day.
"Hey, they rescued the kits. Managed to get them the hell out of Dodge before Nicky K could get his filthy hands on them." the comms officer told the bridge crew, grinning.
"The kits?" Merino queried.
"Sibling Company Gamma" The comms officer explained. "They transferred them to the Khan's flagship."
"In that case tell Star Captain Francis the drinks are on us" Merino replied, smiling.
"Hope he likes tequila." the navigator joked.
The Comms officer received a new transmission. "They're asking about our ComStar companions." he reported.
"Send them a compressed digital audio file of our conversation with the telephone company" Merino instructed him. "They'll love it, he said confidently just as a thought occurred to him. "You know, if we were surprised by Yukon turning up can you imagine how Blake's fan club is feeling right now?" he asked rhetorically. "At least we knew we really weren't the ship that's been sticking it to the Dracs." he added, chuckling as he wondered if Francis on Yukon could manage a Canadian accent, or maybe a different one?
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Over on the ComStar vessel the Precentor in charge was still trying to get to grips with the fact that there was more than one unmarked Riga II class destroyer operating in this part of space, which meant that the one he had been talking to might not, in fact, be the 'Canada Tribe'. Unless they both were, or, in the worst case scenario, perhaps even neither of them were.
Was the 'Mexico Tribe' really a thing? He had been one-hundred-percent certain they were just messing with him, but then he had also been equally certain that there was only a single Riga II out here. What about the 'Russia Tribe'? Was that an actual thing too? Surely not?
How many of them were there anyway?
As his subordinates looked to him to make a decision as to what they should do next, he was temporarily at a loss how to proceed until the second Riga II suddenly started transmitting unencrypted on an open wide-band channel, not directly to the ComStar ship but they could overhear it readily enough.
>>"G'Day, how are you mezcal-swilling tamale-munchers doing? Australia Tribe here."<< The newcomer asked in perhaps the worst antipodean accent this side of Altair.
<)"Ah, Australia, good to see you amigo!"(> the first Riga II responded, Mexican accent very much in force. <)"Out looking for beer? Or senoritas?"(>
>>"Nah Mate, trying to find New Zealand. The drongo was supposed to meet us at Alpheratz but he never showed up. You seen any sign of him?"<<
<("Nada.")>
>>"Bugger. No worries, guess I'll have to keep looking. Who's that bloke with you?"<<
<("ComStar. They're out here looking for Canada. Don't help them, they're odioso."(>
>>"Crikey! You don't say? I ran into Canada a fortnight back. Traded him some vegemite for some maple syrup and heaps of poutine."<<
<("Is verdad?")>
>>"Fair dinkum. Say, you got any time this arvo to help me look for the Kiwi? He might be heading for Valentina. Give it a fair go and there's a few tinnies in it for you. Sending you jump-coordinates."<<
<("Bueno.")>
<<"Bonzer. Let's go!">>
<("Vamonos!")> the first Riga II gave its final response as the two warships engaged their Kearny-Fuchida drives and jumped out leaving the ComStar Tramp behind on its own.
Alright, they were definitely ****** with him. the Precentor decided, which didn't mean for certain that there weren't really more than two of the sons-of-bitches out there unfortunately.
A horrible realization suddenly struck the ComStar official. He was going to have to report this bizarre encounter to his superior, Precentor Emilio Travis, who was in overall command of the search operation. Worse than that Travis might insist on him personally reporting it upwards to the Precentor ROM Michelle Dupreas, or even Primus Conrad Toyama himself.
If either Dupreas or Toyama were entirely humourless, which seemed a distinct possibility, this could go very, very badly.
Maybe it would have been better if he hadn't made it through Toyama's purge of ComStar back in 2819 when he first took over, the Precentor considered bleakly? Being stuck for a few years in one of those re-education camps didn't seem quite as unappealing right now.
No, wait, there was a way out of this, the Precentor realized as he was struck by an inspired idea. All he needed to do was volunteer to immediately go check out the Lambda Orionis Nebula, just in case the 'Mexican Tribe' mentioning it was a double bluff intended to make ComStar look elsewhere. That would earn him at least two years stay of execution and with luck a big war would break out and nobody would care about a couple of mysterious warships captained by wannabe comedians anymore by the time he got back.
He was wrong about another major conflict breaking out again quite so soon, and the Primus still wanted to talk to him personally about these 'United tribes' when he eventually got back to Terra. Unfortunately, Conrad Toyama wasn't interested in seeing his very pretty and artistic photographs of the Lambda Orionis Nebula either, so that didn't work as an ice-breaker.
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==Chapter Notes==
*;Notes from the Author : Isfahan, and many other worlds where water was fresh water was scarce, relied upon the Jamerson-Ulikov Water Purifier. Unfortunately the Terran Hegemony world that specialised in making such things was Brownsville which was razed by the Free Worlds League in 2811 eventually resulting in a lot of systems being depopulated and abandoned. The First Succession War caused a lot of indirect deaths even on planets that weren't blasted back to the Stone Age by nuclear weapons.In canon ComStar, and Conrad Toyama himself, were obsessed with the appearance of the Minnesota Tribe and sent out a fleet of jumpships to go find them (they suceeded, at least in part, salvaging the Zughoffer Weir and renaming it Blake's Sword). Weirdly, encountering a couple of Riga IIs here should be less perturbing than the battleships the actual Minnesota Tribe were running around with, at least in terms of a potential military threat. As an inexplicable and confusing encounter however, the 'Mexico Tribe' and the 'Australia Tribe' is going to drive ROM analysts up the wall for decades to come!At this point in history ComStar is still in transition from a secular telecommunications concern to the pseudo-religious entity it would become (for example they didn't start making their technicians wear robes instead of jumpsuits as uniforms until after 2837 under Toyama's successor, Raymond Karpov). It was under Toyama that this process began in earnest however, with any opposition to his rule and vision being dealt with harshly and decisively. One of the first things he did after the death of Jerome Blake in 2819 was to organise a purge, later known as The Purification, during which the head of ROM, Michelle Dupreas, rid him of his opponents.I'm running with the notion that the Saratoga which fought at Keid as part of Operation Chieftain was the same ship as the Saratoga that the Wolverines took out of the Clan boneyards for Switchback. The battering she took at Keid being the reason why she had a quirky jumpdrive (since fixed) lines up pretty well in my opinion.Yukon was the last Wolverine vessel to escape Clan Space. On his way out Star Captain Francis rescued Sibling Company Gamma, one of the earliest batches of Wolverines to come out of the Iron Wombs. They also had an interesting encounter with Clan Ghost Bear on Liny, a moon of Arcadia (when he found out that the Wolverines he ran into there were mostly just kids gathering supplies the Ghost Bear officer in charge let them go because slaughtering children wasn't something he was prepared to do, Trial of Annihilation or not).Captain Merino's Mexican ancestry does not mean he speaks much Spanish, but he made up for it with enthusiasm (and yes, both he and I know the "badges? badges?" line is a misquote of the dialogue in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre). Also it's meant to be 'kits' not 'kids', young wolverines are called kits much like young foxes are called cubs.Finallly, have no fear muchachos, the Mexican Tribe Saratoga will ride again! Vaya con dios, amigos!
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Chapter 11