WCGW Chpt 66

<<Previous Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
==Chapter 66 - What Could Go Wrong==
----
11 December 3041
Joshua (Former Outworld System)
----
General Hubert "Jaws" Dukey hated his name with a passion, always had. His last name alone had been a constant source of teasing as a kid on Multan in the Draconis Combine in 2989, he was 52 years old. A graduate of the Sun Zhang MechWarrior Academy, he had served the Draconis Combine faithfully until 3034 in what is called the Ronin War. As a Battalion Commander in the 12th Sun Zhang Academy Cadre, they had suffered major defeat on Rasalhague and while retreating to Predlitz he had convinced his people that they should vanish after the declaration of being declared Ronin by Kanrei Theodore Kurita. He had lost 8 good pilots to seppuku, but they had successfully taken the the unit's Merchant Class Jumpship. With that ship, he also acquired a Seeker Dropship, and Overlord Mech Carrier Dropship. They had then fled the Draconis Combine.
It had taken a year to arrive in the Wastes, raiding for supplies as they went. In 3036, they had landed on Onverwacht and quickly taken control of a decent sized city of over 100,000 people. In 3037 a small group of locals had been put to work excavating an area in the mountains in an effort to any sort of metal ores. Instead, they discovered a small SLDF compound which contained several operational Battlemechs. This had caused a civil war inside the small unit seeing almost half the command killed before Major Dukey and his loyal troops won.
His call sign came from an ancient movie he had found as a kid. After suffering the loss of most of his teeth and a shattered jaw after an ejection early in his career, he had the dentist and doctors fashion him a Titanium lower jaw and all his teeth were Titanium. 
As commander, he had claimed one of the functional SLDF Battlemechs, a Thunderbolt TDR-5Sb. His own TDR-5S Thunderbolt had been used for spare parts to restore the 'Mech to fully functional. Also recovered were two THG-11Eb Thug in functional condition. This had kicked off a never-ending search for more lost SLDF equipment. Using forced slave labor, they dug everywhere, and over the years had recovered several other downed SLDF Battlemechs. But the crowning jewel had been a damaged Dropship. It carried 8 Battlemechs and 12 Light Vehicles but more important it had a very large cargo capacity. Repairing it had cost them the use of their Seeker Dropship, but it had been deemed worth it. Over the years, they have become quite capable of detecting the signs of downed Battlemechs and even vehicles from long lost battles. They cannot repair 95% of what they recover, but it allows them to salvage enough parts and even weapons to keep what they have operational.
In 3039, they had lost their Overlord Dropship when they had been ambushed by another pirate band that was primarily Aerospace Fighter equipped. Only the smaller Dropship had managed to make it back to the Merchant Jumpship which had then jumped from the system. This forced him to limit his raiding parties to 8 Battlemechs and 12 Light Vehicles, along with 2 platoons of simple infantry. They currently controlled a small base on Joshua, where they traded worn out slaves or troublemakers to other groups and their main base on Onverwacht.
General Jaws Death Seekers
Raiding Party
1 Merchant Jumpship
1 Lion Dropship
1 Thunderbolt TDR-5Sb
2 Thug THG-11Eb
1 Archer ARC-2R
2 Wolverine WVR-6k
2 Firestarter FS9-A
2 Vedette Tanks
2 Heavy Track APC's
8 Trucks Cargo
2 Infantry Platoons (Laser)
Joshua - Base
2 Firestarter FS9-A
2 Inseki II Conv Fighters
2 Platoons Infantry (Rifle)
Onverwacht
2 Thunderbolt TDR-5S
2 Archer ARC-2R
3 Firestarter FS9-A
1 Phoenix Hawk PHX-1K
2 Locust LCT-1V
2 Spider SDR-5V
6 Inseki II Conv Fighters
8 Pegasus Hover Tanks
4 Saracen Hover Tanks
5 Scorpion Tanks
4 LRM Carriers
9 Infantry Platoons (Rifle)
Arriving at a pirate point only three days travel from the surface, their Lion Class Dropship detached and began its trip to the surface to deliver a new batch of worn-out slaves to join the others, but also to meet another pirate group willing to trade supplies for the slaves. This was a normal run for General Jaws and his people, making runs every 3-4 months but only really meeting another pirate band January of each year for trades. They never noticed the Mule Cargo Dropship docked to the long-abandoned station, having picked it clean long ago behind many other such groups.
-----
<<Previous Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
66