WCGW Chpt 6

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==Chapter 6 - What Could Go Wrong==
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25 December 3039
Breed (Federated Commonwealth)
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They had decided to use Christmas Day for their next and last use of the Battlemaster's command computer. They wanted to maximize their time and do as many cross references as they could for any useful information. Once Corporal Davis had Drive 1 and 2 hooked up, he surrendered his seat to Captain Mitchell. It took a few minutes for Captain Mitchell to get a grasp on navigating the computer itself with helpful tips from Corporal Davis. He started with the first highlighted unit on his list, the 199th Striker Regiment. After ten minutes of surfing among different files, he found that they had been assigned to support a DOME operation in the system Salvende and were not heard from again. He made some notes and moved to the next unit listed, the 178th Light Horse Regiment stationed on Bennerhoft. After 20 minutes, he found a note directing him to the 45th Dragoon Regiment. Searching that unit, he located an after-action report that stated the 45th Dragoon had entered the Bannerhoft system where they found the remains of the 178th Light Horse's Jumpships at the Nadir Jump Point. After 2 days in orbit of Bannerhoft, the 45th Dragoon Regiment had not been able to communicate with anyone from the 178th Light Horse Regiment. The arrival of several Pinto Corvettes had forced them to abandon the search and depart the system. 
Captain Mitchell made more notes next to the 178th Light Horse Regiment before moving on to the 149th Mechanized Infantry Division stationed on Gaeri. It took almost an hour before he found another foot note to see the 252nd Mechanized Infantry Division. Once again, he began a new search which led him to an after-action report. The 252nd Mechanized Infantry Division had arrived at Gaeri and quickly located several destroyed SLDF warships and several destroyed Jumpships. Orbits around the planet failed to get a response from the surface, but several Aerospace recon flights indicated nuclear detonations on the primary space port along with strikes on the 149th Mechanized Infantry Division's main base. The commander of the 252nd Mechanized Infantry Division had made the decision to proceed with his recall orders. More notes were made.
The next unit was the 200th Royal Light Horse Regiment stationed on Wohka. For 30 minutes he searched among the various reports filed by the commander of the 200th. "HOT DAMN!!" Captain Mitchell said suddenly. This startled both Master Sergeant Caldwell and Corporal Davis. "I think we have hit the jackpot boys. Listen to this report."
"17 March 2765. The commander of the 200th Royal Light Horse reports that SLDF engineers with DOME support have completed building their base located in the Heavens Mountain. Initial housing and maintenance facilities more than enough for the entire Regiment and supporting Battalions. Excavations have been completed to provide for an additional Regiment if needed. Base is on internal power with its own secure water source from deep aquifer. Fuel tanks are full, with enough to last 5 years at full capacity. 
He goes on to describe the populations mood to the SLDF presence on Wohka, which he reports as getting better after initial deployment. He asks about his request for equipment replacement per his previous approved request. That leads me to the reply and an arrival date."
"Well, we now have a firm location of one command on this list. Heaven Mountain. That at least narrows our search some if we ever get there. But where the hell is Wohka." Captain Mitchell said more to himself than anyone else. He was making furious notes and then stopped. "Davis, get your printer hooked up, let's print everything we have on the 200th Royal Light Horse Regiment. I mean everything."
"Need to evict you from the seat, Sir. Give me a few minutes and I will start printing everything out. So, this lead looks promising?" Corporal Davis replied as he began setting everything up.
"Damn sure does. At least we have some extra time so we can do this right. You still think there is no hope on this computer displaying Drive Three?" Captain Mitchell said
"No way. I do not know what is on that drive, but this computer damn sure does not like it. From the amount of data on the drive, it has got to be graphic intensive." Corporal Davis said as he sat down and started the printing process.
"Well, shit. You have any thoughts Top?" Captain Mitchell asked
"Corporal Davis is the expert on the computer stuff, Sir. I don't fool with computers. I swap them out, maybe use them to run diagnostics, but this is way beyond my abilities." Master Sergeant Caldwell replied
It took 2 hours to print out all the archived information on the 200th Royal Light Horse Regiment. Corporal Davis had even printed out the base supply requisitions on file. "That's it, Sir, that is everything I can find related to the 200th."
"Good enough. You start storing that stuff while I finish up the list." Captain Mitchell replied while taking the seat. He consulted his list and pulled up the 228th Striker Regiment. He surfed the information for 30 minutes but found nothing nearly as tangible as what they found previously. Not even a after action report anywhere. With time to kill still, he started randomly pulling up units from his list. He spent four hours scanning reports, any after action reports he found until he started looking at the 125th Independent Aero Wing. "HOLY SHIT!!! THIS ONE MIGHT EVEN BE BETTER THAN THE 200th. Listen to this."
"16 November 2765. System attacked by 4 Pinto Corvettes and 2 Liberty Jumpships carrying 6 Leopard CV Dropships, and 2 Achilles Assault Dropships. SLS Fogerty and SLS Forest Ridge, both Lola III Destroyers engaged hostile WarShips and Dropships, managing to destroy all before being destroyed themselves. The 125th Aerospace took 53% losses and requests immediate reinforcement to help protect the Germanium mining operations in the systems out belt. Reports several of the mining stations suffered damage and requests replacement mining equipment from Inner End, 26Ly away."
"Guys, that gives us a very narrow search pattern. Any Germanium deposit will make us filthy rich. Hell, find it and then just sell it to a mining operation. I say if do this, we make this our first stop." Captain Mitchell said
"Uh Sir, you might be forgetting something very damned important. We are all ground pounders. As far as I know, not a one of us or anyone around here has any Zero G training. Outer Belt does not indicate ground operations but Zero G operations." Master Sergeant Caldwell said
"We have all traveled in Zero G. It cannot be that much different. Besides, we can practice on the trip out. We will have months of travel time." Captain Mitchell replied
"You say so Sir. Which brings up the next question. How the hell are we going to get out there? And who the hell is crazy enough to take us into the Periphery?" Master Sergeant Caldwell said, throwing more water on Captain Mitchells ideas
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