LUU Chpt 10

==Let Us Unite - Chapter X -==
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===Urgency of Departure===
Date: January 5th, 2767
Location: Zenith Point, Sol 
"Look, we've mainly got civilians fleeing from the Rim Worlds armies on the other two dropships," Joanna Savage, the captain of the Euphrates explained. "And I'm ex-SLDF myself, so if you've got a place to get to, then please. By all means give me the coordinates and I'll head there myself."
 
"We head towards Bryant," Colonel Schmitt spoke softly. "It is one jump from here, and if we need to, we are within one jump from several locations that I have the coordinates to."
 
"Let me discuss it with the Dropship captains," Savage replied. "If they want different passage, I'm going to let them go now."
 
"Just make it quick," Hazen cautioned. "I don't think any of us want to stick around for much longer."
 
The call disconnected as Capell began to go over the personnel records that they still had access to for now, the other major eventually pulling up a service record for one Joanna Savage.
 
"Well, She's not SLIC, but she served with distinction for twenty years, retired and bought a Jumpship with her husband," Capell summarized. "She's solid, and her entire family is on the Jumpship, I think we can trust her, for now."
 
 Shortly after he was done reviewing her profile, Savage had reconnected via comms.
 
"The Euphrates and the dropships attached to her are yours to command, Colonel," Savage stated. "What are your orders?"
 
"We go to Bryant," Hazen said bluntly as the Colonel slowly drifted back into a restful sleep. "Then, if everything goes well, we have to transmit a message. If things do not go well, we will instead give you emergency coordinates to jump to."
 
"Understood," Savage nodded. "Our L-F battery is at full charge, and we're bringing in the sails now."
 
"Then whenever you're ready, captain." Hazen replied.
 
The comms cut out as Savage began to bark orders to the family members that were manning the various stations on the Euphrates, her son beginning to lay in the coordinates for the Bryant nadir point.
 
"Coordinates are programed in, permission to execute jump?"
 
"Execute," Savage ordered, the young man hitting the switches that would initiate the jump.
 
Then space and time began to fold as the miracle of the Kearny-Fuchida drives began to bend the laws of physics to their will, the gap between systems shrinking as the Euphrates disappeared from the Sol system, the empty space filling with dust as a rough outline of the Jumpship and her Dropships appeared in Bryant, the ship sending out a burst of radiation as it appeared at the nadir points.
 
But no one had possession of sensors that moved beyond light speed, and it took time to adjust their sensors for new developments even with the advanced technology of the modern era.
 
And so they waited, first fifteen minutes went by, then thirty, and finally at forty-five minutes, their sensors finally pieced together what the system of Bryant looked like.
 
"We have Warships in system!" Joanna's husband reported. "Sending standard Star League handshake protocols, wait one."
 
The comms signal went out, and and returned another fifteen minutes later, a Rim Worlds Republic warship demanding the Euphrates surrender or be destroyed.
 
"We've got Rim Worlds Naval vessels here," Joanna's husband Adam finally stated. "We need to leave."
 
"Get me a channel to the Messenger, they've got the coordinates for us to jump into."
 
"On it!" the man's hands flew over the controls. "Contacting now."
 
"Messenger is not responding to hails for vocal comms," he reported, we've got coordinates and instructions to hold for another fifteen minutes before jumping..."
 
"Fuck," Joanna muttered underneath her breath. "How far out is that warship?"
 
"Rim World's Corvette is closing in, estimated arrival is thirty mikes if they're moving at 1g."
 
"And sustained burn of 1.5 will put them arriving in twenty," Captain Savage sighed. "I hope you know what you're doing, Messenger."
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"HPG pulse will last for another fifteen minutes!" Capell reported. "If we want Bolthole to know that we're still here we can't jump yet."
 
"Euphrates has the Jump coords," Hazen reported. "They're holding for now."
 
"As soon as the Pulse is finished I want you to give them the go ahead," Schmitt ordered. "We cannot be captured."
 
"Prepping nuke just in case," McFadden reported as she opened a small suitcase with a tactical nuclear warhead embedded. "I'll need a second code to arm once we're ready."
 
After McFadden said that, the bridge fell silent as the minutes crawled by, the HPG pulse continuing while the Euphrates entered the coordinates for the next jump and held their breath, the Lithium Fusion battery dumping its contents into the K-F drive to prime it for the jump.
 
"Oh God have mercy," Adam wept as he finally tuned into the radio waves and Tri-Vid broadcasts showcasing the horrors occurring on the world below. The few satellites had recorded the Rim Worlds Republic bombarding the Castle Brians from orbit, their troops landing and beginning to do the same things that they had seen on the Terran broadcasts before they had left Titan.
 
The Euphrates recorded all the of the transmissions as they waited, the Corvette drawing closer until simple text was transmitted.
 
"Jump!" it read.
 
"Coordinates are entered, we're clear to jump!" the navigator reported.
 
"They're in weapons range!" the sensors officer yelled.
 
"Jump now!" Savage barked as a naval autocannon round traveled towards the Euphrates.
 
The Jumpship flickered, and then vanished from Bryant as the massive slug traveled through where the Euphrates had just been.
 
"That, was way too close," Joanna exhaled as she held her chest right over her heart. "Get the Messenger on the horn, I've got some yelling to do."
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===Troubles with evacuation efforts===
Date: January 14th, 2767
Location: Hotel
"Godspeed, Tripitz," Daksha said as the Black Lion class Battlecruiser finished loading up the last of the supplies that she would need for the journey to the periphery.
"Sorry about the state the Spicer's in," Captain Little gave a sad smile. "Hopefully she treats you better than she treated me."
 
"We'll make sure the old girls get fixed up," Daksha smiled. "Find Kerensky and get him back to Terra, I don't want to have to wait forever to be able to go home."
 
"Copy that. Spicer, Blue Quest, we'll see you around."
 
The SLS Tripitz vanished as she jumped, the remaining crew members who remained with the Spicer and Blue Quest saluting as she left."
 
"You think they'll succeed?" Daksha asked MacIntosh.
 
"I'm praying that they do," the man crossed himself. "But I'm prepared for them to die in the process. Now, are we ready to jump?"
 
"The Blue Quest still has several compartments that they can't access because they're exposed to vacuum, but she's jump capable," Daksha shrugged. "So we're as ready as we can be."
 
MacIntosh nodded as he wrote down long memorized coordinates on a small sheet of paper.
 
"Enter these, then burn them," MacIntosh instructed. "And after we've arrived, you're to purge the data from the astrogation computers."
 
"Understood," Daksha carried the paper over to his navigator, where he personally entered the coordinates in and then burned the paper in front of him. "Slave the Blue Quest to us," Daksha ordered. "We jump in thirty minutes."
 
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"Jumping in three, two, one......" 
(Hyperspace)
"Jump is successful, wait one, local SDS system is asking for identification."
 
Macintosh sat at the nearby station and transmitted six ten character strings to the M-9's that were stationed there, some of the codes authorizing both the Spicer and Blue Quest to remain in the system, while the others designated the Spicer as a priority protection given the Camerons were onboard.
thumb|M-5 Casper drone destroyer
"ID is sent," MacIntosh relayed. "Move to the second planet in the system, That's where we need to be.
 
"Trio of Caspars are moving into escort formation," the sensors officer reported.
 
"Welcome to Bolthole," MacIntosh stated. "It might not look like much, but it'll be home for a little while."
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===Sanctuary===
Date: January 22th, 2767
Location: Bolthole, Terran Hegemony
 
"Captain Jones, the Blue Quest has priority in the repair bays," Daksha said as they had dropships and small craft begin ferrying any SLDF Army and nonessential personnel down to the city below. "The Spicer's hurt, but we've still got more armor than you do."
 
<<"Copy that,">> Jones replied. <<"We'll get the old girl reskinned after we've offloaded the extra supplies.">>
 
"And Kathryn," Daksha noted the dark bags underneath the other captain's eyes. "Get some rest, I expect there'll still be plenty of work for us to do."
 
<<"I'll do my best, sir,">> Kathryn smiled sadly. <<"But there's so much here, and she's my ship. I'm gonna stick with her until she's full repaired before I take some leave.">>
 
"Just don't burn yourself out," Daksha warned. "We'll be relying on you."
 
<<"Understood," Kathryn replied. "Blue Quest, out.">>
 
"Just because we have SDS systems doesn't mean that we get to slack off." Daksha looked at his bridge crew. "They failed over Terra, and we're not going to allow a repeat of that here. Do I make myself clear?"
 
"Aye, sir!" the bridge roared.
 
"After the Blue Quest is done with her repairs, we'll rotate out." he looked around, meeting the eyes of every single officer and noncom. "That will be when we get our R&R, until then, we stay vigilant. Not a single Rim World or House Lord ship gets to the planet while I still draw breath."
 
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"It's not much," Sergeant McLeod said as the SLS Abyss slowly settled onto the pad below. "But Bolthole has enough for us to survive, and maybe even thrive."
 
As the Camerons moved off of the dropship, they were greeted by what appeared to be a basic military base, everything was clearly laid out according to the Star League manuals, and the Entrance to the Castle Brian underneath was carefully concealed. Surrounding the walled complex, was ground ripe for growing crops as far as the eye could see, with a few rivers flowing between the obviously marked fields.
 
"Get them to the HQ," MacIntosh ordered. "We'll start up the generators and begin checking on the local inventory. And Sergeant," He paused.
 
"Yes, sir?" McLeod replied.
 
"Don't let the Camerons out of your sight. The last thing we need is for DoME to have accidentally released a predator here that has a taste for a new meat product."
 
"Understood sir," McLeod returned to his post. "I'll ensure that they survive."
 
The Twins and Cameron sisters were then surrounded by the remnants of the Black Watch Marines as the SLDF regulars that were on board the Abyss began offloading 'Mechs, Vehicles, and personnel.
 
The Engineers immediately were loaded up into trucks and headed for the generator complex, the massive Fusion reactors having been loaded and prepared for decades of lying dormant.
 
"I want those generators up and running within the hour," MacIntosh ordered. "And someone get to the HPG complex and make sure that it gets started, I don't want to miss any emergency transmissions from Kerensky or the SLDF."
 
"Do they even know where Bolthole is, sir?" one of the engineers asked.
 
"Kerensky was briefed on its existence," MacIntosh replied. "But the coordinates were never made known to him."
 
"Then how will they know that the Camerons are alive and well?" Someone asked.
 
"There are systems set up to report to HPGs that are in other hidden systems that the fat bastard shouldn't be able to get intel on," MacIntosh replied. "Unless everything goes wrong and the HPG network is completely shattered, we should have confirmation of receipt within a month or so."
 
"Either way, we've got a job to do!" another officer barked. "Stop woolgathering and get your asses in gear, these 'Mechs and vics won't move themselves!"
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===Waiting to hear back===
Time: Twelve hours later
Location: Bolthole HPG complex
 
"Sir, we've got a transmission that was waiting for us when we reactivated the main generators," a technician informed the major.
 
"Well, let's hear it," MacIntosh crossed his arms.
 
"This is Major Elizabeth Hazen, Black Watch survivors have escaped Terra and are shifting to escape protocols. Our coordinates will be sent via text to follow this transmission. Please confirm that Bolthole is secured and we'll arrive with due haste."
 
"Are we able to transmit yet?" MacIntosh asked.
 
"Negative, we're only able to receive while we finish up the update procedures," the Tech shook his head. "This system has ten years of updates to complete. We'll have to complete those before we can move forwards with any transmissions."
 
"How long will that take?" MacIntosh asked.
 
"Five, maybe six hours," the tech shrugged. "We're talking about updates that improve data transmission rates as well as reception quality."
 
"Get it done and then let me know when we're ready to transmit," MacIntosh replied. "I don't want to leave any survivors out there that might be able to make it to Bolthole."
 
"Understood, we'll get it done."
 
"You've done good work here, make sure you're rotating and getting enough rest. There's plenty of work to go around. No need to burn yourselves out."
 
"Once the updates are started we'll rotate keeping a watch on it and checking on the physical components," the lead tech replied. "Make sure you get some rest as well, Major. You're the ranking officer down here, after all."
 
"I'm Black Watch, Lieutenant. I'll sleep when I'm dead, and so far, it looks like we're all too angry for that to happen."
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Chapter 10