ALJ Chpt 94

frameless|right|300px|link=A Long Journey
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==Chapter 94 - A Long Journey==
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6 March 2788
New Earth (Terran Hegemony)
Major General Lauren Hayes had made a very rare trip off Terra, with Jerome Blake's blessing to evaluate potential targets of Operation Silver Shield. That only took her two days to accomplish but she took the time to look up someone from her past, someone she had feuded with but also highly respected. She knocked on the door of the nice little house in the city of Meredith. The door opened and there stood an aged woman who said "General Lauren Hayes, what pray tell brings you off Terra itself. Don't tell me that fool Blake is getting adventurous." Admiral (Ret) Joan Brandt said
"May I come in so that we speak, Admiral?" Major General Lauren Hayes asked
"Yes, come in. This cannot be good." Admiral (Ret) Joan Brandt as she opened the door wider so that her guest could enter easily. "Please, have a seat."
Once seated Major General Lauren Hayes brought Admiral (Ret) Joan Brandt up to speed on everything that was happening, both around the Inner Sphere but also what she was doing to assist General Samuel Mitchell. When she had explained everything she knew it brought a laugh from the retired Admiral.
"Mitchell, Armored Division commander. Managed to collect almost two Divisions worth of troops at the last minute to join Aleks. He pulled the wool over everyone's eyes and made it to his destination. Sold one of your precious Monolith Jumpships to fund this mega company. You were pissed off something bad when I took them away, what has changed?" Admiral (Ret) Joan Brandt asked
"I was mad, for quite awhile, and once they surfaced, I sort of kept tabs on him. Mainly to see if he failed miserably. Then I started to hear how he had started a pension fund to take over for the SLDF pension that had been ended. Looking after the troops that had gone with him, making sure the SLDF's promises to those troops were honored. That broke the ice and then it started to look like First Prince Davion was pulling a company store attempt on them as they sold off Jumpships slowly, but Mitchell found a way to survive and buying up companies and licenses, billions of dollars worth. 
Now the Federated Suns has deployed the 322nd Armored Division to Imbrial, directly in the path of the DCMS. There are no regular AFFS troops remotely close to his position. I think, or suspect that if the 322nd is destroyed, that the AFFS can absorb the rest of the troops that joined Mitchell and possibly nationalize all the companies too. Davion just did that to Boeing Interstellar Galax operation after all. I don't like the thought of all those SLDF veterans just being denied what is due to them, but I also suspect that Mitchell has a backup plan to counter just that sort of catastrophe. I am going to steal his initial planning, but I need a safe conduit to get them to where they need to go. So here I am, hat in hand." Major General Lauren Hayes said
"Noble of you. I need to know what you are planning, your just going to have to trust me there if I am going to be able to help you." Admiral (Ret) Joan Brandt replied
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For an hour Major General Lauren Hayes explained in detail what she had planned and how she envisioned getting her help to their destination safely or as safe as she could make it. Admiral (Ret) Joan Brandt asked questions all during her speaking, her mind just as sharp as it was during her prime.
"Uninhabited systems, that is the only way to make it happen. I am sure most of the ships out there still link into the existing HPG for updated navigational information. There is a failsafe buried in the code, it will remove uninhabited systems from navigational computers on all non SLDF transponder coded ships. It will probably add one to two months to their trip but no one will find them. I assume you have some folks you can trust where they can enable the failsafe. Code is ShelteredPassageQ896FV90LLPBW. I would be surprised if Blake is playing around with the actual code any. We used it against Amaris." Admiral (Ret) Joan Brandt said
"Thank you, Admiral, I doubt this would be a success without your help." Major General Hayes replied "I have another item though, some oddities I have discovered."
"What sort of oddities?" Admiral (Ret) Joan Brandt asked
"During the Periphery Uprising, before it ended, there are quite a few units that were both disbanded but also quite a few that were just lost. I do not see how that is possible, the SLDF didn't just lose entire units." Major General Hayes said
"Operation Long Ball. In 2765 we captured quite a few rebel ships. SLIC examined the navigation logs. Those logs indicated three targets deep and I mean deep in the Periphery. Aleks put together several strike teams in 2766 to go take them out, it was going to be a multi year operation. We do not know what happened to them, the Amaris thing exploded after they had been gone about six months and that had our full attention. We never heard from them again. I wanted to send ships after them once we had retaken Terra, but by then Aleks had much bigger things on his plate and then I no way to do anything about it. Each task force had an escort of a warship flotilla plus ample transports, I can see of no way that all those ships and troops could just vanish. The odds of all the ships suffering breakdowns to prevent a single ship from returning is beyond calculation. Some of the worst damaged commands were disbanded to bring the units of each task force up to the best strength we could. Wait here a second." Admiral (Ret) Joan Brandt said as she got up and left the sitting room.
After five minutes she returned and handed her a page obviously torn from a small notebook. Major General Hayes looked the page over.
Task Force Magistracy
-SLS McEntire, Farragut Class Battleship
-SLS Granite, Potemkin Class Transport 
-280th Mechanized Infantry Division
-173rd Mechanized Infantry Division
-54th Mechanized Infantry Division
-9th Royal CAAN Regiment
-14 Star Lord Jumpships
Task Force Concordant
 
-SLS Arapaho, Avatar Class Heavy Cruiser
-SLS Diamond, Potemkin Class Transport
-359th Battlemech Division
-31st Infantry Division
-509th Battle Regiment
-242nd Hussar Regiment
-10 Star Lord Jumpships
Task Force Alliance
-SLS Gremlin, Avatar Class Heavy Cruiser
-SLS Emerald Dale, Potemkin Class Cruiser
-318th Battlemech Division
-272nd Mechanized Infantry Division
-126th Mechanized Infantry Division
-277th Dragoon Regiment
-15 Star Lord Jumpships
"That is what each Task Force had when they departed on their missions. I was really pissed at losing the SLS McEntire, but they had the furthest to travel and SLIC had managed to break one of the captured and had information that their target had a warship guard assigned, so Aleks wanted to make sure they had some serious firepower with them. IIRC not all the units were at full strength but I am sure they were at 60% and above. That is all I know and now you know." Admiral (Ret) Joan Brandt said
"It at least clears up a big question I had after spending a few years reading a ton of files the SLDF had left behind. I have to be going, I have a few more stops to make before returning to Terra." Major General Lauren Hayes said
"Your welcome, Lauren. Try and keep a leash on Blake and do not let him do anything stupid. The Hegemony is dead and the Houses will chew you up piecemeal if you try to stand up to them. Bunker down and ride out the storm, it was what we are planning to do." Admiral (Ret) Joan Brandt said to a departing Major General Lauren Hayes who just gave her a thumbs up as she climbed into her waiting car.
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