ANME-5

=Chapter 5 Ancient Memories=
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==Beyond Silver Shield==
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===Act 1===
Lara found answers, hell, everyone got the answer, regardless of where they were stationed, or with what unit. The Terran Hegemony, the last state of the Star League, the only one not to vote to dissolve the League, saw the Star League's defense force pull up stakes and run away.
They knew it was coming. They found the signs. The relocation of industrial machinery, hell she’d even found orders for the moving of dependents of SLDF personnel. A mammoth undertaking that had demanded almost four years of preparations. All wrapped in the tightest security she’d ever seen and she only saw it and knew it because of her posting at New Earth and the work they had done on Terra itself before she had been re-assigned.
Kerensky was gone. Who knows where. That part wasn’t on any server she had access to.
The Hegemony government basically collapsed. All that was left was the Ministry of Communications. Now calling itself Comstar. A few divisions stayed behind under General Hayes, and signed on with them to defend Earth itself.
"Hey, Streine, bored yet?" She looked up from her desk, and Mike was standing in the doorway. 
“Mike. I must admit I was starting to wonder if we’d see each other again.” Lara smiled.
"Well…with everyone leaving on Kerensky's coattails, I got released from snot-wiping convicted felons."
“It’s all but over now isn’t it?” Lara sighed. “The Star League, The Hegemony.”
"The Star League was over when they decided not to actually do anything to recover." Mike stated, "We're in the rotting corpse of our ideals and the nation we swore to defend. I have a better idea."
“So we are. Blake’s trying and doing more than Kerensky did.”
"Only because he has to. They're going to dismantle this base and ship everything to Terra, it's what the unit I got assigned to is here for…but not why I'm here."
“You’re talking like you have a better idea.”
"Yep. Since the dream is dead, want to help me find the bastards who killed it and make them pay?" 
"Who do you have?" Lara rolled the sleeve on her uniform jacket back to reveal Theresa’s favor.
"Nixon, Eckhardt, Wangker, Styles. Vien went back to the CapCon but he'll come if I call, and Theresa…and I know where some of our stuff was stashed."
“We’re really going to have to steal our mechs this time aren’t we?”
"Please! Everyone knows the most effective thief uses paper, not lockpicks, to steal the really good stuff, I just need you to drop one of Wangker's custom viruses on a couple file locations before they disconnect the data core here. When it powers up, those locations simply won't exist...to everyone else. Call it 'taking an early retirement' before the company goes bankrupt."
“Just like last time.”
"We won't exist either." Mike told her. "Not that some of us have much official existence to begin with, but if you're in, you'll be de-listed. No birthday, no record, no past."
“Mike, I consider it a miracle no one has come to give me a fatal sunburn, severe lead poisoning, or a case of really bad shellfish to cover up what we did in the war.”
"I imagine, someone would. Maybe even someone tried." He said cryptically, "but…"
“Uh huh. You would wouldn’t you? But the less said the better.”
"I have my alibi, I was just a guard." He said innocently.
“I haven’t changed my mind from last time. Everyone else may have forgotten, gone insane, turned monstrous or traitor. I haven’t. I’m in all the way.” Lara stared Mike in the eyes, baring her soul.
“Then you’ll need this totally innocuous datachip.” Mike handed over the small electronic device.
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===Act 2===
MS Gloria, Merchant Class JumpShip…undisclosed system
"This is your coordinates?" Sheri Trung asked. 
"Yeah. Can you hang around here for a few?"
"It takes a week and a half to re-charge the drive." the ex Free-Stars spacer asserted. "What're you expecting to find?"
Theresa looked at Mike and he answered, "A few things, keepsakes, souvenirs from a past life."
"Uh-huh…like I said, I can wait here for a week and a half, can you get your stuff in that time?"
"We can. This job, I offered you pay…Theresa?"
"What do you want, Miss Trung? More than anything in your life?"
The young-looking Belter's eyes narrowed, "Ganymede." she said it without filtering, without hesitation, and without conscious thought. "I want revenge for Ganymede, fo' the burrows they smashed open and the children who died."
Theresa smiled. She reached into her jacket and pulled out a flask. She took a swig then handed it to Sheri.
“I can help with that. Drink and we seal a pact. I aid you in your quest for revenge, you aid me in mine.” Theresa smiled.
"Take all the time you need, Mister Mike." Sheri said after drinking, "I can wait."
Theresa collected the flask and then set it on the navigation board. “You too Gloria.”
After a moment Theresa smiled then collected the flask.
“She’s different.” Sheri noted.
“Very.” Mike nodded.
"New digs?" Styles asked.
"We'll make good use of them." Mike said, "The ship will wait for us, for now, we need to check out our base of operations. It has been…cleansed from the record."
“I don’t want to know. If I don’t know, I can’t reveal where our base is if I get captured and interrogated.” Lara asserted.
“I think you might have waited a bit too long to get her out of her desk job boss.” Johnny said.
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===Act 3===
"What was this?" Nixon asked, "I mean, this is a lot of base to just…lose."
"Staging base. I had our equipment transferred here, then transferred the garrison to other commands, that was..what, boss how long ago?" Lara answered.
"About a month before Exodus left." Mike agreed, "Which helped me maintain my alibi as a prison guard, and yours as a Logistics officer…but before all that, this was a research facility-one of a dozen or so that Skobel used for equipment development for SLIC's special operations before New Vandenberg."
“A nice couch, some throw pillows, a fresh coat of paint, and curtains. I’m thinking pastels.” Styles surveyed the area.
"We'll talk about that. For now, let's get moving to the south landing area and make sure we have a dropship that works." Nixon said, "we'll also want to go over our 'mechs and make sure they're not…screwed up from being stored and shifted as cargo, right?"
“Yup. Hop to.” Makie nodded.
The 'mech hangers were on the way.
"Boss, there are too many." Tumbled out of Lara's mouth first.
"Yeah, we're going to be picking up a few here and there." Mike said cryptically. "Don't worry, we should have enough dropships to handle it as the unit gets bigger."
“We’re not exactly on the logistical system anymore. So we’re going to need spares too.” Nixon nodded.
"What do you see over there?" Mike pointed.
"Uh, looks like a machine and…fabrication shop?"
"We'll need to find people to work it, but yeah. And there's a storage depot on the lower level, if we did it all correctly, we should have plenty of spares."
“Finding people will be easy enough. Plenty of others like us out there who’re disillusioned with how things turned out after the war.”
"We're going to be on the lookout for the right people." Mike asserted, "You’ll know when we find them."
“Yes we will.” Theresa nodded.
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===Act 4===
Didn't you have a Major in the logistics section, Hayes?" Jerome Blake asked.
"Not according to records. I think the last one we had was…Smythe? Stren? An 'S' name, anyway-she left with Kerensky." General Lauren Hayes dismissed, "Why are you concerned?"
"No reason, after all." Good, maybe the whole bunch left with Kerensky. Jerome Blake had dispersed the 177th independent action team, the 'Murderhobos', to keep them from being a problem. Verifying that they weren't anywhere near HIS operations was a relief. 
"Start demoblizing the 'merc' units for now, I've made my point to the House Lords, they're willing to back off on Terra."
"For now, what happens when they change their minds?"
"Well, that's why we're not scrapping gear, isn't it? We'll make arrangements to keep the veterans available and ready for call-back if we need it, but for the moment, we need to focus on rebuilding the infrastructure so we have something to defend." He sighed, "If I'd had more time, we could've held the Hegemony…if Kerensky hadn't taken so much, we'd have more time, if he hadn't left when he did, we'd have more time…but we've got to deal with things as they are."
“Yes, sir.” Hayes nodded.
"Lauren, get some of your navy people out to the Metis Congress and the belts, let them know we're not…going to continue what Amaris started, or what Richard started with Ganymede."
“Gladly. I just hope we have credibility with them.”
"We'll need to build it if we don't-I won't have a ****** atrocity in my backyard, and we don't want a civil war. Talk Peace with the Belters, get them to at least not align against us."
“Yes sir.”
Going to need a special government branch to deal with the outer system…why didn't Kerensky at least try to get them back on side?
He looked out the windows of the HPG center, as the General went off to do General things. At least I don't have to think about what to do with DeChevalier's pet psychopaths.
He sipped lukewarm coffee, then turned to examine the morning's reports on the network's status.
So far the Communications Protocol of 2787 was working. The House Lords were starting to look at each other as enemies rather than Terra.
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===Act 5===
"...abandoned our nation, for what?? To wander in the darkness with no goal? No end, just keep moving around until we run out of air, food, water?"
“Yeah. How many perfectly habitable systems do we need to go by before we get where we’re supposed to be going?”
"There is no 'where we're supposed to be going'. The Old man's got us running into nowhere, and the excuse doesn't make sense…"
“Then we should turn back.”
"We shouldn't have left in the first place." 
The mutineers took a vote, while their disgraced former Captain looked on.
"What do we do with him?"
The former XO of the Prinz Eugen cleared his throat, "It's not a mutiny." he said, "it's not a mutiny, because we're going to return to our duty station and take up our lawful post. We're leaving a Mutiny. Make it clear to your sections and divisions."
"What about the CO?"
"Yes, well, he's going to stand trial, under the law, and face legal consequences for barratry and incitement to desert, along with conduct unbecoming an officer of the Star League Defense Force. Put him in a cell for now."
“Yes, sir.”
"Make sure his guards understand he's no longer fit to command, and post a suicide watch. We're the ****** STAR LEAGUE NAVY, not a bunch of pirates in stolen gear."
The Nav officer waited for the rest of the division heads to leave. "What's our route?"
"We'll go back, back along the anti-spinward, stop off at Kowloon for refuel, then back to the Hegemony. It's the only state that didn't vote to dissolve, so it's Star League territory."
"Aye sir…what about anyone else?"
He hesitated, "I don't know." he said, "I don't know which ships still have actual officers and which ones are just bandits following a personality cult."
“We’ll have to trust that others will see to themselves. We can’t help all of them. Hell if we try to help any of them, we’re outnumbered hundreds to one.” The Engineering Chief grumbled.
The XO nodded, remembering how many died in retaking the ship from Kerensky's watchers, including women and children caught in the crossfire.
"Yeah."
He wouldn't live long enough to really suffer those regrets. They didn't even have the drive fully charged when Kerensky sent a punitive expedition to retake the ship.
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Kerensky’s office
McKenna Class Battleship, SLS McKenna’s Pride
It was starting already. He knew it would. He just hoped it would take them longer, past the point of no return.
He knew next time would be worse. Or they’d be smarter. All it would take is a ship deciding not to jump to the agreed upon coordinates. It was only a matter of time.
“Congratulations, you're the senior surviving mutineer, Lt. Commander McShane." Kerensky said to the man standing in bindings in front of his desk.
"You got that backwards sir. So ****** you, sir." The second shift engineering chief of the Prinz Eugen hadn't managed to get killed resisting arrest, though he got pretty close. 
"You've been found guilty, you will be executed by spacing."
"Better than the stink of serving a bandit and deserter. Let's get on with it."
“You don’t understand. None of you do. And I don’t have the luxury of the time to explain it to you.”
"We all swore an oath, but you decided it was toilet paper, and you've got your lackeys and your cocksuckers to support you, but I'll still die with my honor intact, you sack of shit. MY word actually means something."
“At least your death will be more merciful than what is coming for us now…”
When they held the trial for the crews, McShane's mouth was bound, and when he was sent out the airlock, it was after a subtle lethal injection, because Aleksandr Kerensky was not a monster.
At least, he didn't think he was.
I’ll need to address the fleet about this. I’ll have to make it one hell of a speech.
Kerensky returned to his office. He would need to think about what he was going to say carefully.
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//Return to the Inner Sphere is impossible for us. Our heritage and our convictions are different from those we left behind. The greed of the five Great Houses and the Council Lords is a disease that can only be burned away by the passing of decades, even centuries. And though the fighting may seem to slow, or even cease, it will erupt again as long as there are powerful men to covet one another's wealth. We shall live apart, conserving all the good of the Star League and ridding ourselves of the bad, so that when we return — and return we shall — our shining moral character will be as much our shield as our BattleMechs and fighters.\\
General Order 137
Signed Aleksander Kerensky
Commanding General SLDF
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===Act 6===
Caddo City, New Dallas
…reached ten thousand degrees celsius in under a second. Three hundred thousand civilians died. Lightyears away, Theresa felt a surge, and so did the others. 
"New friends?" Mike asked.
"No." she shook her head, "No new friends to make. It was a tragedy, but not one connected to mine…are you and the others ready?"
"We're ready. Where shall we go, then, if not toward New Dallas?"
"There is work soon." she assured him, "Work that must be done…and new friends to make."
“Humanity is going insane.” Mike nodded.
“Lust for power is nothing new.” Theresa shook her head.
“Without SLIC it’s going to be tougher for us to find preferred targets.” Lara observed.
“We’ll just have to keep our own ears out as best as we can. Make contacts along the way. Maybe even with what is going on, expand our target list.” Johnny added.
“Yeah, we’re good but we’re not nuke proof and those seem to be getting used like they’re in danger of going out of style.” Nixon nodded.
“That’s true. So for right now, we do have some leads on some of Amaris’ former toadies that might have gotten to ground in the rapidly becoming former Rim Worlds Republic territory. We’ll start scouring out there first. Give the House Lords some time to get the need to nuke things out of their systems.” Mike nodded.
“This travel between Star Systems method you humans have devised is a most interesting experience. I can’t wait to experience it again.” Theresa giggled.
"You'll have to wait." Sheri Trung said from the doorway. "I had to come down here, and I'm going to need the machine shop for a while."
“No problem. If we can help in any other way let us know.”
"Yes, you can. Number four seal on the main drive is going bad, I need someone who can run a lifter 'mech and follow instructions or our next jump out may well be the last one we ever get."
“I’ll take care of it.” Lara volunteered.
“Poor Gloria. She was complaining about her advanced age.” Theresa frowned.
"Well, we're also going to be fabricating a few cryogenic liquid helium pumps, and I don't like the look of some of our emergency gear, and I think, if the parts are available, we'll need to do some refresh on the life support and sensor arrays…but right now, we need to start assembling a ninety meter diameter composite ring, one meter thick."
“You heard our ride. If we don’t want to set up a permanent colony here we need to go over the inventory and see what we can make use of and get to work on making what we need to.” Mike ordered.
“I know I still have a lot to learn but if I can, I want to help.” Theresa smiled.
"This would be easier with a shipyard, wouldn't it?" Nixon asked.
"Yes, but you didn't steal a shipyard, or hide one in the paperwork, or whatever it was you did that got you a bunker complex on a dead moon-we're going to need to hope you managed to steal several hundred metric tons of the right material or we'll have to have adventures in building a foundry."
“Too bad we’re out of the system and now too far away from any of the service yards anyway.”
"Yes, it would be easier if you could just order in…now, before my bones give out, can we please get through the inventory?" Nixon realized the woman was sweating and desperately trying to hide her fatigue in one gravity.
Theresa stepped over to Sheri and laid a hand on Sheri’s shoulder.
Sheri could feel a comforting warmth flow through her body. She still didn’t like being on the surface, but somehow she felt braver and her bones hurt a little less from the gravity.
The others broke off into search teams to find the bits and pieces they needed.
“You’re really not human are you?” Sheri said once the two of them were alone.
“Nope, but for now it is the mask I must wear.”
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===Act 7===
"You've had an idea." Mike said, as the sound of industrial grade machinery was turning up two levels.
Johnny nodded. "Yeah. You want a specific sort of jobs. We all do, I think. Maybe it's her influence, but maybe it's just that every one of us, including that fragile belter hiding in orbit, we all still have some remnant of…call it integrity." Johnny slid a gloved finger along a bit of regimental silver from his original unit. "Not money, call it 'justice' or revenge…I have an idea."
"Okay??"
"We need information, we need to gather intel. I was in the signals section of my last Regiment, at least when I wasn’t driving a ‘mech."
“Not to mention you have a knack for making unconventional friends. Think you could get the HPG up and running again and get us some information?”
“As long as ‘Comstar’ hasn’t changed the codes, yeah I can get information routed to us. The core’s reasonably intact. Give me a couple days and I should have us in business.”
"Get what you can, and let me know what you need." Mike said, "and keep it as low-key as you can make it, we need intel, not unwanted guests."
“On it boss.”
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===Act 8===
They'd been here for more than a year. It didn't feel like a year. It's just that it takes time. Time to get infrastructure in place.
It took even more time, to put things back into storage and have them ready. In that time, they learned things.
The orgies of atrocity left billions of victims, billions of worthy candidates for help, for vengeance, for justice.
It also left a virtual web of possibilities open. Somehow, it has to be prioritized.
"Kentares is too big, too general, and it's going to be settled conventionally-or with nukes, the point is it'll be settled by armies." Nixon said, laying a poker chip on the table.
"Smaller scale then?"
Nixon nodded, and looked at Eckhardt. "It's like Elbar, only bigger, and maybe not really-the atrocity at Elbar was organlegging, this mess at Kentares is just mass murder, it's not industrialized the same way, a primal scream instead of cold-hearted butchery."
"Are we agreed then?" Mike asked the others.
Thoughtful looks were exchanged, as each member of the team laid their poker chip in the pile, everyone except Johnny Wangker, who hesitated.
"What is it?"
"My old unit." He said. "We're sure they weren't there?"
"You parsed the data, the 104th was six systems coreward, Johnny, attacking on a different front."
Johnny tossed his chip in. "Agreed. Kentares is horrible, but it's too big for us."
"So, ideas?"
Eckhardt took her chip out of the pile, then, "Simpler." she said. "Forget world crushing, let's look at smaller tragedies, people who can be avenged."
"You found something in the data?" Mike asked.
"I did. It's small-scale, there are victims, the perpetrators are just strong enough, the odds of their being taken down in the normal course of things are almost nonexistent, it's got all the elements we agreed on when we walked out."
"I'm listening…"
"Ellefsen with the 104th." Eckhardt said, "is still alive."
"Ellefsen…mister 'burn them like Forlough'?"
"Same guy." she nodded. "He's doing atrocities for the Draconis Combine now, smaller scale, and for pay. Putting the boot on Radstadt for House Kurita. It's a trip, but if there's anything we know about Gary Ellefsen, it's that he's got enemies, and he's got victims. The only reason he wasn't in a stockade by the end of our war, was that they damned near held on to everyone, even guys…like him."
"I can't believe they didn't cashier that son of a bitch, didn't he-"
"He did." Nixon confirmed, "but while it was an open secret, the JAG never could get a case together. I suspect the reason he stayed behind had more to do with not wanting to be found 'accidentally' outside an airlock. There's no way his connections would protect him that far out and he had to know that."
"So…we know who we WANT to go after, is anyone actually looking?"
"Want ads from the Galatea Gazette, they admit they can't pay much…" Eckhardt suggested.
"Sheri, are we ready to make a trip that far? Galatea?"
"Fueled, ship's in ship-shape, I can see there's at least a dozen contracts I can take between here, and Galatea that will take us there, most without running into anyone's navy."
"Let's go see if we can meet a customer." Mike said, "We know what job we want, but it remains to be seen if we can find it. All agreed?"
Nods around the table, as they took their poker chips out of the pot on the table.
"We'll be docking up soon, Sheri, be ready to weigh anchor for Galatea when the dropship docks." Mike ordered.
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