TLR Chpt 7

frameless|right|300px|link=The Lucky Regiment
<<Next Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
==Chapter 7 - The Lucky RegimentBattle of Enkra==
----
48 hours later above EnkraAugust 5th, 3026
The Taurian JumpShip, The Fortunate Son materialized at the nearby pirate jump point, so called as it was far closer to the world than the standard jump but less safe as it shifted based on the movement of the various planetary bodies in the system. 'Pirate' Jump points were perfect for those with hostile intent. It took some serious computational power to track them, enough that the sophisticated Taurian navigation systems had proved essential to plot the jump. The risks were outweighed by the benefits of the travel time shortening to hours rather than days, Lady Arano simply wouldn't have the time to get her followers off world before the landfall of the assembled task force.
Samuel Oostergard was sitting in the comfortable command chair of the Fortress class Dropship the Iberia, the ship had been his command ship for most of the past decade, the perk of the combination of his rank of commodore and his wider family's large industrial business. Keeping the old ship and others running was largely reliant on the spare parts they built, his family was a pillar of the Taurian state, what was good for Oostergard Industries was good for the Concordat.
 
Today was going to see the long awaited revenge of his family against the hated Kamea Arano and her cruel mercenary, a monster who had killed Samuel's beloved son and the beautiful young woman who had been promised as his bride in return for Samuel's help in bringing the Concordat in as a protector. All his work in helping set up the Perdition incident had been undone in a single battle, both his son Erik and the innocent young Victoria were killed at the hands of a small band of ruthless mercenaries. Instead of the story of the unity of two great houses in a happy marriage it was going to be tale of gruesome revenge followed by the happy marriage of his daughter and the younger son of Director Espinosa.
"Have our allies arrived?" He looked around the command area, the crew were intently staring at their consoles. This was when one discovered whether or not there had problems with the jump.
 
"The Coronado is twenty three kilometers to our starboard, still awaiting the Rocinate." He looked at the mostly blank navigational display, it would take time to update the activity in the rest of the system. He didn't expect much, the system had one inhabitable world, Enkra. That world had a few small mines, a couple of large towns and a slowly growing agricultural sector. Lady Arano was using the repair facilities from the mining town to maintain her forces and the agricultural sector to keep them fed. The local militia was small and the towns relied upon exports to the Capellans to pay the bills, the world fitted perfectly in the bracket of 'not worth fighting over'.
 
Kamea Arano however had failed to keep her location secret and that meant the arrival of almost all of the forces of the Directorate and his battalion, the rest of the 3rd Borderers who were eager to join the detachment already raiding the world below. Kamea should have taken the bait and would be chasing them with her unstable collection of allies. Given the superior quality and size of the Taurian mechs he wondered how much damage had already been done.
 
"Commodore, the Rocinate has arrived, we will have a datalink established shortly."
 
"Excellent, notify all commands to prepare to detach and form up on the Iberia." As the only proper 'Navy' man he was taking the lead on the approach phase, and had provided military advisors to help Director Espinosa manage the ground phase. That was the problem area, both battalion sized contingents were going to operate largely separately, and the additional pair of mercenary lances they had managed to hire at short notice were going to function as a mobile reserve sitting in orbit. Joint operations were famously challenging so they had opted to stick with separate command structures.
-----
Soon after down on the surface
 
Kamea watched the fireworks through her binoculars, she was standing outside her mobile HQ, which was a pair of vintage APCs recovered from the cache under SLDF thermal camouflage netting, the ancient command network theoretically linked up with all her forces and except for the periodic crashes it was an impressive system. Edmund meanwhile was using a series of SLDF jamming devices to stop any local transmissions combined with a captured Taurian transmitter relayed through one of Edmund's broadcasting systems. She had been awed by the Assault mechs in the Cache, Edmund had been too, but unlike her he had pushed hard for as much ECM, communications gear and support equipment as he could get. She hadn't fully understood why until now, how Ardan and Edmund could spent so much time arguing and obsessing over them.
 
In theory Edmund was broadcasting a lightly encrypted set of messages on known Concordat and Arano frequencies. A simulated battle was taking place as the 'Taurian' formation attempted to break contact. The Taurian messages were garbled but spoke of a counter-attack by Lady Arano herself in an Atlas, accompanied by several companies of mechs.Meanwhile Arano restoration forces were broadcasting their own messages whilst setting fires and firing off the odd shot and missile that could theoretically be visible to incoming drop ships.
 
And if that failed to attract the attention of the fast approaching dropships there was the obvious nearby military encampment by the reactivated spaceport that was clearly her headquarters. The spaceport had been attached to the largest of the mining facilities, and there were still substantial repair facilities and accommodation blocks. A couple of small scale mining companies still operated there but most of the facilities had long been deactivated, there just hadn't been the demand since the Second Succession war for the local minerals. It was a perfect temporary base, and based on the flight path of the incoming dropships it had been noticed.
 
"Lady Arano"
 
She turned to see a major leaning out of back of the APC, he had been one of the early defectors. He and several others from the household guard's intelligence detachment had at considerable danger left their posts and made their way to the Magistracy of Canopus when word reached Coromodir that she was still alive. She turned and smiled "I'm all ears Major."
 
"They are inbound and landing in one hour, the Argo has made some provisional identifications." She knew the support ship was lurking in orbit keeping a fairly low profile, it could outrun the dropships and with friendly jump ships near the jump point it could flee if needs be.
 
"What are we looking at?"
 
"Lift capacity for a reinforced battalion in smaller dropships and one Fortress class, it looks like a couple of Leopards taking an orbital position." She winced, the big Fortress class dropships carried a Long Tom artillery piece and plenty of other heavy firepower. They were very rare, but she remembered the accounts from her studies about how they could turn the tide of assaults. On the other hand aside from the Fortress it was a conventional sounding deployment.
 
"Major the Fortress doesn't sound Directorate to me, who do you think owns it?"
 
"The Concordat have a couple and I'm sure the Great Houses have some. I believe most likely Concordat though based on the earlier raiders."
 
"Very well, notify all commands about the projected ETA and then try and reach the Taurian Liaison Officer, perhaps they can help defuse the situation."
-----
Edmund meanwhile was using a very secure comms link to the Argo, secure against employers and hostiles alike. The Marauders' mechs were in theory hidden from orbit under camouflage covers that masked the usual heat and electronic signatures. He was as usual not entirely following the script.
 
"Darius, are you sure on those Leopards?"
 
"Definitely, I know their CO, he's already pinged us with a narrow band transmission." It wasn't something mercenaries liked to admit to their clients, but they preferred not fight each other if they didn't have to. The reason companies stayed in business was that they either had a Great House supporting them and replacing the losses or they avoided the losses by sticking to easy fights and/or fixing the fight.
 
"What did he have to say?"
 
"Says the Taurian big wig wants your head on a spike, literally not figuratively. He said after that he's up for coming to an arrangement to get us out, says you'd need to be handed over though."
 
"Is it Espinosa's bounty on me or something else?" Edmund couldn't think what he had done to upset the Concordat, if anything it turned out he had done them a huge favour.
 
"I'm not sure what you did, I got the feeling it was a lot more than just the bounty though, their language implied they thought something was out of place." Mercenaries that didn't have a sense for when something was politically not right tended to have short careers, so a vengeful client was a concern.
 
"I'll bear the bounty in mind. What are you offering him though?"
 
"The usual, if he hangs back till the end he can help with the salvage." That was a pretty standard offer, and something of a default position. It wasn't unheard of for mercenary units on big campaigns to skirmish futilely whilst they waited to see who the winner was, it was rare in the Inner Sphere but pretty common out in the periphery. Darius chuckled "He said he would think about it."
 
"Does he or his employer know what they are up against?"
 
"I don't think so, but he knows we have a couple of heavies and a mean track record." Darius chuckled again. "Nobody likes getting their paintwork scratched, I reckon once he hears the word 'Royal' on the comms net he'll be in touch."
 
"When the shit really hits the fan down here tell him the actual odds, a couple fewer hostile lances wouldn't hurt and it also wouldn't hurt our reputation in the trade if we are known to be polite." You never knew when you would need a favor, so companies tended to be reasonable with one another. After all today's foe could be tomorrow's ally.
----
Soon after aboard the Iberia
Commodore Oostergard wasn't happy, his raiding force appeared to have ignored their orders to avoid serious contact and just burn homes and crops, they were nearly a hundred and eighty miles from where they should be and barely reachable on the comms system. They had evidently attempted a decapitation strike on Lady Arano which had gone horribly wrong. Initiative was only good when it was combined with competence.
 
"Well?" He was glaring angrily at a pair of intelligence specialists who were studying footage from a spy satellite that had just deployed. They didn't have long as once the ship started to enter the atmosphere in a combat drop it was only possible to transmit small amounts of data, and realistically it was voice only.
 
The senior of them pointed at a regional map "We have identified five friendlies, they are being pursued by several lances and it looks like a pair of light lances are attempting to move into a position to cut them off." The hand showed the direction of movement. Samuel attempted to remain calm, but he was feeling nervous. His political allies assured him that a fair accompli would be accepted on New Vandenburg, but that had not assumed heavy losses. 
His raiders could well be wiped out before he had even landed the main force, hardly a good start. He looked at the Colonel who he had bribed to provide the troops. The man wasn't looking happy, luckily the man was in too deep to do anything but follow orders. Then he looked at the map with the proposed landing sites and backup locations.
 
"We can change to Landing Site Echo, it's further from the camp, but I can still provide gunnery support with the Long Tom, their dropships will still have to stand down or face destruction." He saw a nod. "You can bail out the survivors of the scouting force, eliminate their pursuers and then move in to support the Directorate." He saw another nod, probably happy with the unspoken plan to let the Directorate take the brunt of what could be hard fighting around Lady Arano's base of operations. "I'll retask two of the drones and keep you updated on anything the satellite spots."
 
There was a crisp salute "That'll be suitable, Commodore, I'll brief my command accordingly."
 
Fifteen minutes later they were burning through the atmosphere, communications with the other drop ships were intermittent and the fate of the lance on the ground unknown. He was strapped in and feeling the usual nervousness present when hurtling towards the ground in a heavy object and relying on equipment operating several hundred years after the end of its expected economic life.
 
As they headed down he knew they were well past the point of no return, their speed and altitude meant they had no choice but to land at or close to the assigned location. In this case he knew the geology of the landing site from Directorate records, there was a thin layer of soil on top of hard sedimentary rock, it was one of the better ones in the area. The heat of the landing thrusters generally dried out and hardened any landing site, but a big ship was still best landed on a hard flat surface.
 
"Vampire! Vampire!" He looked in resignation as red lights started flashing. At the high Gs they were experiencing there wasn't a lot they could do beyond rely on the ancient automated defenses of this ship if it was more than them being lit up by an air defense radar. Serious air defense systems were Lostech, and rarely present on worlds other than capitals and key industrial worlds, the precious missiles that they used were simply no longer made. Flak batteries existed but did little to the armour plating of most dropships, so he was probably safe. Lady Arano was according to intelligence reports limited to the light anti-air weapons on a handful of vehicles and a single Rifleman.
 
"One thousand meters." The pilot grunted out the distance as the ship started slowing rapidly. In the background he could the barely audible radio chatter as the Aerotech Wings attempted to protect their descent. It was the point of maximum vulnerability.
 
He watched the altitude dial, it was approaching eight hundred meters, soon the automated defenses would be online as the ship slowed and started targeting anything that looked suspicious.
 
"Sierra one one reports a missile hit." He looked forwards still feeling the deceleration and saw the dial reach 600. He knew with heavy heart that a Directorate combined arms company was gone.
----
Down below
 
Colonel Saunders watched with his binoculars from the dugout.They'd spent the last 48 hours digging in and camouflaging their position, it was on an elevated slope with varying views over most of the likely landing zones. All the remaining logistics platoon from the depot were sheltering in a nearby mine shaft with the remaining truck and a pile of rations. He and his aide had the jeep, a powerful transmitter and binoculars. Major Blackadder's active electronic warfare gear meant his transmitter was currently capable of nothing.
He watched as a Union class dropship slowed its descent and then suddenly shook as it was hit by a pair of Arrow missiles, something rarely seen since the early Succession wars. It started to turn uncontrollably as the control was lost and and spiraled down. He couldn't bear to watch the impact.
 
"Sir, they just hit a second one." His aide spoke softly, no doubt horrified that another company of personnel were about to die. It was a side of warfare one just didn't see very often in a desk job, or in the field, unless things were desperate since dropships were rarely targeted.
 
Dropships were not Lostech, but they were uncomfortably close, especially out here. Two Union class ships down left three more and the Taurian one, enough of the the big Fortress class dropships markings were visible through the fire and smoke to know for certain whom it served. Battle plan aside the mercenary would probably not have targeted it first as he wouldn't have known what countermeasures it could deploy.
 
"Should we try to warn them Sir?" Some in her shoes would have tried to warn them anyway, but he felt she understood the dilemma well enough to not go behind his back.
 
"No, we have trust the mercenary to give them a chance." Besides the radio was jammed and the Mercenary probably only had a single launcher. He knew the plan for the landed dropships was different, hopefully whoever was onboard was wise enough to accept reality.
 
The large Fortress class dropship slowly touched down and a huge cloud of smoke and dust fully obscured it. "I'm sorry you have to watch this Cornet, remember at this point I don't believe we can help them sufficiently to win, which only leaves trying to reduce Taurian casualties." She hadn't like his explanation that winning was not having to garrison a series of barely productive worlds.
 
He'd expected more missiles, precious Lostech Arrow artillery missiles fired as a group to overload the anti missile system. instead as the dust settled and the doors opened he watched the impact of heavy artillery.The first round landed about a hundred yards away from the nearest door, the Mechs marching out started to scatter as they realized the danger. Several more rounds landed in their midst, he wasn't sure if the concussion had any impact. Twenty seconds later there were a pair of impacts on the superstructure of the dropships. He knew the armour could take a few hits but there were always weak spots. The rounds were not from a Long Tom, but it was something close.
 
"The jamming should be coming off now, prepare to hook us up to the command deck. We don't have long." He stared at the ship through binoculars, the smoke, dust and dirt of the landing were slowly dispersing. Behind him he could hear a soldier fiddling with the comms system, he prayed for success, this wasn't the time to hear something was wrong with the kit or the battery was flat.
 
Further rounds impacted the dropship and then there was calm. That didn't mean an end it to it all, just that the artillery were relocating. The Taurian mechs took the opportunity from the calm to spread out and then the tanks and infantry emerged, all were moving fast to find cover. He knew it was going to take time to ready the engines for an emergency lift off, time they didn't have.
 
"Sir it looks like it might say Iberia, but I'm not familiar with who commands it." He had tried but beyond seeing the name was short couldn't tell what it said, he did however recognize the name of the ship from past briefings once she said it.
 
"That's one of ours, she was involved in the original support operations, helped with the counter attack on Smithon." It had been a success of sorts, the local ruler had been driven from his fortress like home and the populace of the world had sullenly accepted the Taurian presence. Of course once the Taurian force had left the local leadership had declined to continue their lukewarm support for the Espinosa clan, a sign the Taurians hadn't backed a winner.
 
The light scout mechs for the Taurian ship were making good progress in securing a perimeter for the assault force when the first two salvos of LRMs were fired. The salvos were small and the damage was light, but what would have concerned their commander was that the fire was indirect so a fairly sophisticated mech or vehicle had managed to apply a sensor lock without being spotted.
 
The pair of light mechs accelerated and moved at a ninety degree angle to the direction of fire, the colonel knew that behind them Medium mechs and tanks would be moving up to engage the known threat. As he watched one his men came up with a small transmission dish. The soldier pointed it at the dropship, a direct line of sight made battlefield interference less problematic.
 
"We're trying to make contact on our usual emergency frequencies Sir, but we are dependent on them having someone listening." That wasn't a given if there was a serious contact underway, and it looked like there was about to be.
 
He kept his body language calm, his team knew the stakes. He nodded, aware they needed to be calm and concentrate. He turned back to the battlefield in time to see another small swarm of LRMs head towards the scouts, once again only a handful impacted the target.
"It looks a pair of Griffins backed up by a Shadow Hawk." There would be a fourth somewhere nearby, perhaps moving on their flank with tank support. "I still don't see who those LRMs came from though."
 
It didn't take long for that question to be answered, an Archer revealed itself by launching a strike with its full capability to batter one of the Griffins, this time the fire was more accurate and the Griffin staggered, the attack was then followed up by the PPCs of a K2 model of the Catapult design and from further back the harassing fire of Rifleman's auto cannons. The other Taurian mechs started laying in covering fire as the damaged Griffin moved backwards firing off its weapons as it went.
He suspected they were bait, as the K2 in particular would be known to have been captured by Blackadder. Regardless their action was overshadowed by two heavy shells hitting the Iberia, one looked like a 'harmless' impact, but the other appeared to have destroyed a defensive turret as there were small secondary explosions.
 
There was a tap on his shoulder, he turned to see the radio operator giving him a thumbs up.
 
Edmund knew he was now fairly near the Taurian Colonel's observation post, he and two of his lances were converging on the dropships position. He was still in awe of the difference it had made upgrading to a Royal Mech, his had once been designed for a leadership role and there was purpose built software that allowed him to see a holographic map of the terrain and the known hostiles positions, with a move of his hand he could direct his forces onto their targets. Of course whilst using the command console it was tough to steer or have much situational awareness so Darius was co-coordinating the details.
 
"Red one here, we have made contact, three mediums plus tank support." Glitch had risen to the dizzy heights of lance leader, it meant a modest pay rise and a slightly larger prize share. Though to be honest post Artru they all had the sort of retirement funds that allowed a pilot to hang up their boots and take up surfing. Even the junior crew had been given sums large enough that he had insisted it was invested properly if they weren't paying off debts.
 
"Sunray here, we are two minutes out, remember the plan pull them back to the kill box." His company of Royal Grade Mechs was probably sufficient to take down a combined arms battalion, but it would be costly and likely see most of his mechs downgraded to a lower rating owing to the challenge in fully repairing SLDF grade equipment. Which was why the plan called for him to cripple the dropship with artillery and knock the stuffing out of a few lances to make the Taurian commander willing to take direction from Colonel Saunders. Saunders was retired but still performed special tasks for Protector Calderon, in theory he had the political authority to give direction to even a Marshal.
 
"Red One, acknowledges." He smiled, it wasn't going to be easy for the Taurians to close the distance with her Archer, those things just delivered too many missiles to want to close in with them.
 
"Battery two here, ready to fire." That was good progress, he had acquired four Marksman self propelled guns from the cache, they were the second largest field gun the SLDF had used routinely on the battlefield. The original design had suffered from a high breakdown rate, but these were the later model, apparently more reliable and also no longer in production in the self propelled format. He had the guns operating as pairs today, with the plan being to move after each fire mission to avoid counter battery fire.
 
"This is Sunray, Three rounds each at the dropship, Fire for effect."
 
"Battery two confirms, three rounds each fire for effect." The nice thing about a static target and a very high end aiming system was that after the initial ranging shot they didn't need to worry about adjusting the target location. The guns simply came to a halt the targeting computer adjusted the turret and elevation and the fire mission was carried out.
 
"Blue Two has visual, engaging now". That was Medusa, now the proud pilot of a Royal Highlander, ninety tons of top grade assault mech.The modern versions were good, but the SLDF one carried a gauss rifle along with better armour and double heat sinks. Edmund saw a stream of LRMs and then the telltale wake of the gauss rifle.
 
Moments later Edmund too had a visual on target and engaged a distant tank with his pair of ER PPCs, the tank had been attempting to take a hull down position behind small hump in the ground, but with Edmund coming in from a different angle the lack of speed proved fatal. Within moments of the impact he saw crew the bailing from a smoking turret.
 
He adjusted his heading to move behind some long abandoned industrial sheds whilst his main weapons charged again. The old industrial buildings were a reminder that this area had once been host to a thriving mining community. Now it was crisscrossed with overgrown roads and tracks and the few robust structures that had not yet decayed into collapse. The building briefly served its purpose as it absorbed most of the return fire from something's light auto-cannons. The was a clang as one bounced off the torso, it's kinetic energy too spent to do any damage.
 
"Battery two moving." Movement was good he thought, he would almost rather lose a mech than those irreplaceable guns.
 
"Red three confirms destruction of Sierra Hotel 1, ejection spotted." That meant the end of the Shadow Hawk, but there were additional red contacts on his HUD so the situation was getting more dangerous.
 
"Sunray this is Battery One, we are ready to fire." Edmund realised belatedly why commanders often stayed back from the front. He was struggling with contributing his weight of fire and managing the others.
 
"Battery One this, Sunray, target the dropship, three rounds, fire for effect." He realised he was rushing the orders, a bad habit with artillery. Still at least he hadn't misused the word 'repeat'.
 
"Battery One confirms, three rounds at the dropship, firing for effect."
 
He brought his mech back into a firing position, this time with a line of sight on a distant Blackjack, he'd been stalking it on his sensor display. The mechs left side took a hit first from the ER PPCs and then was followed by a burst from his top mounted AC/2, the theory being the light weapon would exploit gaps in the armour created by the heavier arm mounted PPCs. In practice he reckoned it rarely landed anything accurately enough for that. The display of the target showed the destruction the left hand weapon systems, he felt momentarily guilty as he was still the owner of a different variant of the chassis. He hoped the pilot would take the hint and pull out of the fight.
 
"Sunray, this Overlord, urgent message over." He recognised Darius's voice, it sounded more animated than usual though.
 
"Sunray here, send over."
 
"Saunders says they will pull back if we stop shelling their ship, their Commodore is down."
 
"Sunray confirms, will order pull back of half a klick." He smiled, it necessarily wasn't over yet, but he didn't think even a Fortress class could endure many more hits, and the damage it had already taken would make a take off too risky. Saunders seemed to have called it right. "Overlord, keep the batteries moving, make sure we maintain a radar lock and try and get a damage assessment." The Fortress's captain needed to be reminded that even if he could take off he was still vulnerable to the Arrow battery.
----
The next morning
Edmund was sat on a deckchair finishing a bacon sandwich enjoying the morning sun. Whilst eating he was watching the arrival of the Concordat's dropship that had been assigned to collect their remaining stores and personnel. The lack of a ComStar HGP station meant the ship had still arrived on schedule only to discover they were landing into a politically complex situation. He didn't envy them, loading wrecked mechs rather than stackable shipping crates was bad enough, never mind the politics.
 
Around him sat many of the company, all exhausted after a fight that had lasted well through the night as the Directorate forces had been slowly ground down until they were down to less than a quarter of their original strength. Kamea had slowly tightened the noose around them, being frugal with her forces and hoping to force a surrender. It turned out Espinosa for all his flaws at leading a nation had been a natural leader at a regimental level, and it had taken the arrival of Edmund's company and the greater range of his weapons to break the deadlock just before dawn.
 
With both Espinosa and his son now in captivity the return to Coromodir ought to be a peaceful one. And that meant the end of the contract in the not too distant future. He hadn't really thought much about the longer term plan, he had vague ideas about a few years of garrison work whilst they trained up at a company level and then there was the widespread expectation that at some point the Federated Suns and Combine of Capellans would find themselves at war once more.
 
"Hey, Edmund, have you got a minute." He stood up wearily, even the voice of his employer wasn't enough to coax his weary muscles onto his feet with alacrity. Half his company were asleep in their chairs, the remainder looked ready for it. Kamea didn't look far off sleep either, but she forced a smile. "You look like s*** Edmund, let's go find some coffee."
 
"I feel it." He smiled, figuring he would be able to stand his force down soon enough. "What can we do for you?" He walked over to join her and followed her towards a block of damaged buildings.
 
"I'm sending Patrick Espinosa out with the Taurian dropship, they want him on trial for the Perdition business."
 
"It's probably easier that way." He said softly, they both knew he'd developed a bit of a dark side when it came to the treatment of political rivals. A domestic trial would just open up old wounds.
 
"It is, the Concordat seem to have some pretty conclusive evidence on top of the recordings we gave them." There was a slight hint of suspicion in her voice,
 
"I'm glad to hear it, and frankly glad they were out of the campaign so quickly."
 
"Me too." She spoke quietly, her voice sounding a little hoarse like his from the night giving orders over the radio.
 
"Edmund, Patrick's my cousin, so I'm granting him a last requests of sorts."
 
"I understand, family is important." He didn't want to bore her with the details but he still sent Christmas cards to all his mad Great Aunts despite their senility. "Patrick wants to talk to you alone, he's chained to a heavy steel girder so he shouldn't be able to try and kill you." That was a thoughtful gesture, he was pretty sure the rest of the Espinosa family wanted him dead, though Patrick's love for his sister hadn't stopped him trying to supplant her.
 
"Of course, he was a friend once, where are you keeping him?" Friend was stretching it, but he hadn't been outwardly hostile in the way Victoria's parents had consistently been.
 
"Under guard, I found a shady patch in the remains of one of the old buildings, he's in good shape unlike his father." Patrick's father had tried to fight to the last, he was sedated as his wounds were seen to. The man might live, which was an important step to putting him on trial. Kamea pointed to a nearby building, a squad of soldiers were standing around it. "He's been kept fed and watered, but you can still offer him a drink if you want."
 
A few minutes Edmund walked through a weather worn open doorway, a spare canteen in his hand. A couple of soldiers stood on guard in a dirty looking hallway and watched him walk in, the sergeant in charge open a door. "He's in there Sir, let me know if you need any help with him."
 
"Understood, I'd like some privacy but if you hear fighting bring in the cattle prods, I'm not proud."
 
"Got it, Sir." The sergeant called into the room "Jones, Pike out you come." Two soldiers filed out, both were carrying stun batons.
 
He walked into the room. It was overgrown with dry looking vines everywhere and a spot where a large animal looked to have made one corner into its home. There were small piles of droppings around the room, and a slight musty smell. Several windows with no glass looked out into the scrubland that surrounded the group of buildings.
 
"Hello Patrick, it's been a while."
 
"It has, thank you for coming." Patrick had been twenty one when they last met, somewhat cocky and keen on the gym. Now he looked like he had aged a decade, loaded up on steroids and needed a shave. He looked exhausted, and it wasn't just missing a night's sleep either.
 
"What can I do for you?"
 
"I'm going on a one way trip, in more ways than one, I imagine if my father recovers he will be joining me."
 
"I'm sorry." There wasn't any need to point out he would at least get a trial, and unlike his victims there wouldn't be any torture.There would still be a firing squad though.
 
"It's okay, I shouldn't have let myself be taken alive. I guess I wasn't thinking clearly." Edmund looked carefully at how long the chain attached to the steel beam was, a metre plus the length of the body and whatever improvised weapon he could find gave Patrick a good reach against someone who was slow and exhausted. "I think I just wanted to know, I wanted to know what happened to Victoria?"
 
"How do you mean?"
 
"My father's men secured the spaceport after the raid, they found the escape pod and searched everywhere for her body. There was no body, and the small amounts of blood in the cockpit were from a light cut apparently." Patrick looked intently at him. " So what happened to her?" Edmund was no fool and could see that the wrong answer would likely lead to bloodshed, which was why he had concealed a small blade in his sleeve.
 
"Internal bleeding, the pod landed roughly. The blood was from a small cut when my team pulled her out of the pod. "The medical facilities at the spaceport were destroyed so we tried to get her to the Medbay on the Argo." He paused to give his story more dramatic effect, "We didn't make it in time, I was there when she died on the our ascent." That sounded pretty plausible he thought, best of all the cut bit was at least true.
 
"Did she say anything?"
 
"We made our peace with each other, our previous few meetings had been quite awkward." Most couples didn't end up literally fighting each other, from what he understood they usually used lawyers rather than battlemechs. "I think the closure meant something to her."
 
Patrick sat on the horizontal beam he was tied to. "My father said she died of exposure, I don't think he wanted to believe she cared about you." That was of course what Kamea had been told, and her circle of allies probably had a spy in it. "Did she say anything about me."
 
Edmund didn't really think Patrick deserved closure, his list of crimes was both extensive and nauseating. However he felt he owed it to Victoria to say roughly what she might have said to him in person. "She was sorry she had failed you, she blamed herself for not keeping you out of 'trouble'." Victoria was bitter that her father had twisted Patrick into something nobody should become, but she was also furious he had been trying to disinherit her.
 
Patrick's reaction wasn't entirely what he expected, the large man looked away and sat there silently for several minutes. "I thought she was weak, that tough times called for tough measures, and that she was letting the family down." Edmund a surge of anger, Victoria had done some horrible things, but she had at least been able to step back from the mass murder of innocent Taurian civilians.
 
"Did she say anything else?"
 
"She said she forgave you, the rest was between us." Patrick really didn't deserve the forgiveness, but it wasn't for his benefit.
 
"She must have still loved you, I'm not sure why. She was never the same again after she tried to kill you." Patrick looked thoughtful, "I thought it was killing her friends that did it, but maybe it was going up against you." Edmund was pretty sure it was the battles with her old classmates that broke her, Patrick had been just too young to have had the same experience. Luckily in the Federated Suns that sort of thing would never happen, he couldn't imagine what it would be like to fight old friends from the academy. "I never thought she would refuse our Father's commands, I think my parents blamed you for that."
 
"Patrick, can you tell my why that Taurian commodore wanted me dead?" He asked gently and slowly, aware that the Taurian was no longer in the land of the living.
 
"Oostergard you mean?"
 
"That sounds about right."
 
"I guess it's only fair you know. I don't think my father had told Victoria, but she was due to be married to his son." Edmund could see why that might be frustrating to Oostergard. "Unfortunately, you killed his son when you blew up that dropship at the spaceport, he was the captain." That made everything rather clear.
 
"I'm sorry for his loss, I wasn't too comfortable destroying a dropship like that, I'd have preferred to ransom the crew." That explained much, still the man had turned down the offer to surrender, and he really should have known he would have been at worst ransomed, and most likely simply released.
 
Patrick laughed bitterly. "All's fair in love and war." Patrick looked up at him from his seated position. "They would have ruled us through him when my father died, it was why I was trying to force my sister into second place, I couldn't bear to think we were being turned into a Taurian province."
 
"Damn your father, Patrick, damn him to hell." Edmund in a rare moment of weakness unexpectedly lost his temper. "This whole damn war was for nothing, you and Victoria would have been happy as things were, even the Taurians just wanted a quiet buffer state." God knew what the Capellans really wanted, they could yet sweep in. He stopped his outburst, it served no purpose.
 
Patrick sat there silently looking down, after twenty long seconds he spoke. "Even you lost, Edmund, you may have made your reputation, but you lost Victoria. We all lost." Edmund hadn't really looked at it that way, about the only party better off was himself and of course the Federated Suns. If Espinosa had been loyal then Kamea would have muddled along as a ruler whilst demographics and a bit of peace would have meant a steady period of happy economic growth.
 
"I'm sorry, Patrick."
 
"Me too." Patrick stood up slowly and smiled, he gently offered his hand. "I could have lived with you as a brother-in-law." Edmund shook it.
----
Soon after
"That was very sweet Edmund." Kamea had a slightly angry look to her. They were standing a hundred yards away.
 
"You were listening." He said slightly nervously, unsure where the conversation was going.
 
"I finally have an answer as to what the hell my deranged uncle was doing."
 
"He was a fool, the marriage would have been a dangerous political mess."
 
"He was, I don't think he or I understood the delicate political balancing act my father performed." Kamea looked bitter, as she should given the unnecessary war they had been fighting.
 
"You told Patrick a very convincing story, he'll die a calm man."
 
"I felt I owed it to Victoria, for all his faults she loved him." Kamea was looking out over the scene of troops stripping the battlefield for parts as she listened. They both knew that sight well. She turned back to face him.
 
"You know, you also told me a very convincing story about how Victoria died."
 
"Really?" Edmund knew he was on thin ice.
 
"About how she had died alone and you buried her with a heavy heart. Of course if you had buried her she would have been found, and if you had brought her body back to the Argo I'd like to think you would have let me pay my respects to her."
 
Edmund was silent.
 
"That means you didn't do either, so what did happen to her?" Kamea looked at him with a degree of anger. Then her voice softened with a touch of realization "Edmund, is she even dead?"
 
"There isn't a good way to say this."
 
"I can believe it, I thought you knew you could trust me."
 
"I sort of sold her to the MIIO." It was good to get it off his chest.
 
"You sold my cousin and your girlfriend, well ex-girlfriend, to the MIIO?" There was a momentarily baffled and somewhat shocked look to Kamea. "I guess that's why the Taurians were so confident Espinosa had carried out the Perdition attack, and yes you are a bad person."
 
"They needed to find what had happened at Perdition, and she was as a good a lead as I could find. A lot of lives depended on keeping that from becoming a war, I have obligations too." He saw what looked a bit like respect on her face. "We got a lot of cheap kit on the back of the trade, so she was definitely worth it."
 
"You weren't sure I wouldn't kill her were you?" Kamea looked a bit hurt.
 
"It was more your followers, in their shoes I'd have given her a last cigarette and told her stand by a wall in front of a firing squad."
 
"They might have, and I was pretty desperate at that point. I'll forgive you for that." Kamea was silent, not always a good sign. "Have you heard from her?"
 
"She was allowed to send me a letter on the last supply run, she's being held in a nice apartment in the palace on New Avalon. She said she was being treated fine, couldn't go anywhere though." There was a lot of other stuff about finding peace with her many sins and giving up drinking, which to be honest was nothing Kamea really needed to know about.
 
"Huh, what do you think they'll do with her when this is all over. They must know she won't be welcome in these parts." That effectively answered one question thought Edmund.
 
"I assume release her, I expect Hanse Davion was grateful to avoid a campaign against the Taurians."
 
"He should be, and for all her sins I suppose I should be too." Kamea's expression seemed slightly lighter, perhaps knowing her cousin had slightly redeemed herself was somehow cathartic. "I take it you replied to the letter?"
 
"Of course, I told her we could always use another good pilot."
 
"Good luck with that." Kamea started laughing "She'd have to be nuts to sign on with the person who sold her off to be interrogated." She looked a bit more serious again. "But seriously do let her know she really isn't going to be safe in the Reach, too many people want her dead. I can't change that even if I can now respect her for eventually standing up to her father."
----
<<Next Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
7