ALJ Chpt 34

frameless|right|300px|link=A Long Journey
<<Next Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
==Chapter 34 - A Long Journey==
----
24 December 2785
Mackolla (Federated Suns)
The jump core grinder arrived in system for an early Christmas present. The core grinder itself weighed in at 4,590 tons and the additional equipment to soak the Germanium gravel with the chemicals needed for transport via Jumpship an additional 3,570 tons. Now it was just a matter of getting it out to Site 222 and then put to work and earning them some money. Gerald Mitchell was excited at the prospects, so much so that he was almost always researching some sort of new venture to possibly dive into. Even though he knew that he was putting the cart before the horse, but he firmly believed in laying out the best plans for every possible scenario.
He had plans for a possible Shipping and Freight Company which he planned to try and convince his daughter Patricia to retire and run for him. Conversations with Patricia had sparked that interest mainly after talking to her about what was found at Site 222. If they could avoid having to sell off all the Jumpships found there it would give them one hell of a leg up on most of the other Shipping Company's out there. But his biggest interest was in the Conestoga Transport, and he had read everything he could find on it. Not so much for freight hauling but hauling passengers is an entirely different matter, he had always found long voyages a royal pain, but the Conestoga was noted as being able to spin its entire hull to provide gravity to passengers on long trips like a massive grav deck. That selling point alone should make selling a higher ticket price fairly easy. He had out of curiosity ran some numbers and figured if they could modify the ship to carry 8,000 passengers at 500 per passenger that would be 4 Million per jump. He would need some engineers to even see if it was even possible to make that kind of conversion possible, but from what he had read, the Conestoga was used during the colony heyday before carrying 10-20,000 people but not in any sort of luxury by any means. 
To even make this happen it would require a massive investment of cash to purchase the license from Boeing Interstellar, who would probably want a fortune for it even for an obsolete design that had not been manufactured in over 300 years. Then they would have to source the manufacturing equipment, for a design not manufactured in over 300 years. It seemed an insurmountable task. One that he would probably never see come to fruition due to his own age. But he would at least like to possibly lay the groundwork for someone down the road. Hence all of his research into the matter. 
Across town, Lieutenant General Samuel Mitchell could not shake the feeling that they were being setup for failure by the Federated Suns. But it had to be a long-term operation, one that saw his people slowly pushed out by either retirement or combat losses and then having them replaced by regular AFFS troops. Thus, netting the AFFS everything they currently had at no real expense for them, so someone was playing a very long game. He had heard about the "company store" games played by the Houses, but this was the first time he had experienced it and he did not like the way it was playing out. Even though he knew that their "civilian" enterprises would help resist the "company store" effect for a long time, he could not stop the eventual take over by the AFFS as they placed their own troops within his command thus absorbing the command from within.
The more he thought about it, the more he hated the idea of being helpless to stop what was coming, even decades from now. Every good commander in history planned a fallback position if the current plan fell apart, so I need a fallback position. One where the unit and it's people could fall back to and regroup, only to be enacted if the very worst came to pass. But where would they fall back to, that was a very good question, he thought to himself. Not another House, it would just be the same thing. The closest location was the Tortuga Dominion, and that was a pirate haven that would have to be cleared to have any hope of a safe fall back position. But what if we just keep Morgan's Holdfast safe as a bolt hole, that could work, the 11th Hussars already have a settlement there that they protected. But can we hold it, and then I have to figure out what troops can go that will not be missed from our current mission. Colonel Waiters already said the other pirates did not try to take them on when they were there in strength, so what can I put there to make sure the pirates cannot win, if they make the attempt. I cannot put the entire 11th Hussar Regiment there. 
He had a total of 218 Mechwarriors, what I pull two companies worth, that will leave both commands short of full strength, but not so much that we cannot adjust and handle it. Colonel Waiters mentioned that there were very few Aerospace fighters among the pirates, I have 96 Aerospace pilots, and the fighters to equip them, I could pull a group with a Titan and that still leaves me a decent Aerospace force. Currently a Group was assigned to each Bastion, located at each Jump Point, and another two assigned to the other Titans. He remembered that there was an Infantry Battalion already on Morgan's Holdfast which was not very many in his opinion, but that was their critical weakness. Not enough to properly setup a good guard rotation but he could not spare the extra Infantry right now. But he could lavishly equip them with some of the finest equipment the SLDF manufactured as a force multiplier. With no prying eyes, he could safely use the Royal Battlemechs to equip them, the Goblin (SLDF) and top-notch Aerospace fighters. The one thing he has a plenty was armor; he could easily spare a full Regiment with artillery support. 
They would not be strong enough to exert control over the planetary approaches but if he temporarily assigned one of his Engineer Battalions, they could assist in building a full-fledged airfield, space port and even fortifications to make sure they could hold out until helped arrived, three jumps, using SLDF hot loading they could be there in two weeks max from an alert. Only problem was, even their Mobile HQ equipped with HPGs only had a range of 50Ly, not nearly enough range to call for help. This was a problem that he did not have the answer for but one that had to be overcome before any of his plans to create a safe haven could even begin.
-----
25 December 2785
Cephei (Unclaimed)
Major Patricia Flores treated herself to a Christmas present by reviewing all the recovered navigation records from the stored ships. It was quickly obvious that both the New Syrtis Carrier and Athena Cruiser had been visited by SLIC as they were wiped clean. It was the same for the Aquilla Transports, wiped clean. She loaded up one taken from a Conestoga Transports and pulled herself upright as the display began plotting movements across the large star map. She picked the furthest navigational location and saw that the ship had made six trips to that with an average travel time of 8 months each way. But why?, she silently asked herself. The star map did not indicate anything there at all, but she knew how to get there again. Almost 800LY from where she currently sat.
Her curiosity now aroused, she popped in the navigational tapes for the second Conestoga Transport and waited as the data began being displayed on her star map. This one had not visited the location of the first Conestoga, but it had made six trips to another just as remote location. Her quick calculations said this location was roughly 550LY from the unknown location visited by the first Conestoga but well over 1200LY from where she sat. Nothing she could find indicated what the hell was at either location, but they were important enough to be visited by both ships six different times. It was common knowledge for those in the SLDF that the Rim Worlds and Periphery Rebels had unknown and untold hidden outposts in the Deep Periphery, what if these were just that. What might still be out there, just waiting to be found. Would it be worth investigating, worth a 2-3 year-round trip. Could she convince Lieutenant General Mitchell to even take the risk of finding out what was out there.
----
<<Next Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
34