ALJ Chpt 54

frameless|right|300px|link=A Long Journey
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==Chapter 54 - A Long Journey==
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28 August 2786
Morgan's Holdfast (Tortuga Dominion)
Lieutenant General Samuel Mitchell watched the captured being unloaded and then placed sitting along side the space port with hands on their heads. A full Infantry Company was positioned around them ready for anything. Lieutenant Barclay, commander of the Marine's assigned to SLS Broadsword approached and reported.
"Four Hundred Seventy-Nine prisoners, sir. Another twenty-four on the Invader Jumpship." Lieutenant Barclay reported
"Excellent work, Lieutenant. Please pass my congratulations to your Marines. They are a scummy group." Lieutenant General Mitchell observed
"They are that, sir. The Dropships stink to high heavens too, crap and crud everywhere. But you should check out the equipment, maybe take some mech techs with you. I served in a Royal CAAN and might not be a MechWarrior but I know some of those machines are royal only." Lieutenant Barclay said
"Royals huh, I wonder how they managed to lay their hands on those." Lieutenant General Mitchell said
Three hours later several Mech techs emerged from the Dictator Dropship. The lead tech reported in.
"Yeah, they have about a company worth of Royal Battlemechs. I can even tell you which unit they were with, the 1111th Royal Light Horse. The rest of the Battlemechs are from the 147th Dragoons and 25th Striker Regiments, the Lions are hauling a full load of Banshee's of all things, I do not recognize the data plate though. You want the full count of what they have?" 
"Go ahead Chief." Lieutenant General Mitchell said
The Chief Tech looked at his notepad and read off the list.
-7 Locust, LCT-1Vb
-5 Hermes, HER-1Sb
-5 Talon, TLN-5V
-7 Night Hawk, NTK-2Q
-4 Champion CHP-1N
-7 Excalibur, EXC-B2
-1 Shootist, ST-8A
-16 Banshee, BNC-3M
-16 Heavy Hover APC
"Where the heck did they get that many Banshees? They raid a militia storehouse or what. How did you determine where the other Battlemechs came from?" Lieutenant General Mitchell asked
"No clue on the Banshees, but the data plates are all the same and even the serial numbers are in sequence. It was not too hard, someone did a crappy paint job over the unit markings, just took a little elbow grease to reveal them." The Chief Tech replied
"Well, I am not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. They stay here for now. Good work Chief." Lieutenant General Mitchell said
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5 September 2786
Cephei (Unclaimed)
"That folks is clear indications of something of interest down there. Those are markings from Dropship landings and take offs. They are old and grown over, but they show up quite clearly on the orbital scans. Right there next to a mountain range, a favorite place the SLDF just loves to hide stuff inside. Those Dropships were landing on good old soil and blowing craters out when they take off. I count nine distinctive craters. Something is down there worth taking a look at. Take us down." Captain Barclay said
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6 September 2786
Cephei (Unclaimed)
It had taken three hours to walk to the mountain and then another hour to push thru the extremely dense brush that had grown up next to the cliff face closest to the landing areas. Another four hours with a few shovels to locate the door. They had followed what seemed to be ruts left by very heavy vehicles which had led them to the immediate area to search.
"We are going to need some real equipment to gain entry, hell four hours of digging and we only exposed the very top of the door. Time to get back into orbit, the Major is going to be pissed I even brought us down here without permission, but as the old saying goes, better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission." Captain Barclay said
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