16.2

Tharkad

The Triad

A different perspective

Col. Earl Fritz

"Good. Gentlemen, about the other matter?"

"Apologies General, our connections are still slow coming, but I do have some information about the Ko incident."

"Well Fritz, let's hear it."

"Very well Sir. The ISDF…"

"Yes I know they picked about the most arrogant name in the Sphere, get on with it."

"Yes Sir. The ISDF landed on Ko with minimal losses. Reports indicate, only some ASF losses before landing. They landed with three Colossus class Dropships. Yes, gentleman, that data is accurate."

"How the hell did these mercs find three Colossus without anyone knowing about it!?" One of the men in the smoke strewn room called out angrily smashing the stub of his cigar into the ashtray, before reaching into his jacket to pull another.

"We don't currently know. One was confirmed by LIC Command to have been found on Phecda. Archon put out orders to leave the ISDF alone, and so other than a Lohengrin attache, we don't have much intelligence on them. Apparently the few Intelligence agencies that tried anyways ran into… Problems."

"They got their base locked up tighter than a Combine Princess's virgin asshole." Grunted another man and many in the room chuckled at the thought.

"Yes sir. If not for the Archons, direct orders, we might be more concerned, but they have been vouched for. Although I do have a note saying the Archon was shocked at the information about Ko when it was delivered. Apparently, even she didn't know about the ISDF's entire resources."

"Hah! That'll serve her a bit. Putting too much trust in mercs is bad for business. I wonder how much of those Lostech machines the kids have been piloting were taken from bases that should be going to Commonwealth soldiers."

"I couldn't say Sir." Fritz sighed internally, he hated moments like this, being the presenter to a group of the highest ranked generals in the Commonwealth was always a pain in the ass. Most of them didn't care what he said, and those that did would ask questions that Fritz would have trouble answering.

"Enough Handoven. Leave the Colonel alone. What do we have on the Archons relationship with these ISDF. If she is ordering us to leave them be, what exactly is the connection?" A few grumbling agreements went around the room.

"Apologies General, but the Archon's office hasn't given us much. General Steiner, only offered that the ISDF have done great work for the Commonwealth, and should be treated as a trusted ally until such a time as the Archon revokes the orders… The fact that the Commander of the ISDF arrived on the Triad a few years ago transporting Morgan Kell, may have something to do with it."

Nods went around the room. Morgan Kell may be a merc, but no one denied he was a Lyran through and through. The Generals of the Commonwealth happily considered him as one of them.

"Damn, I wouldn't mind having one of those dropships for my command." A grumble reached out of the darkened room, and with that, the grumbles all basically agreed, more than a few were cursing that they hadn't been handed to them so they could finally 'get something done!' Fritz just kept his mouth shut.

Insulting Generals was a good way to lose your commission.

"Colonel! Tell me something, this battle of Ko. The report is obviously full of nonsense, so what were the losses on both sides, and I heard rumor, that these ISDF trashed every mech taken from the 22nd, that they couldn't take with them?"

"Yes General, the ISDF did destroy any mech or vehicle that they recovered that they couldn't take with them, I believe the LIC attache described it as "Aggressively thorough," in the report." Fritz sweated a bit "And I am afraid that even from outside sources our report is accurate General.. If you are referring to the losses taken on by the ISDF. They were confirmed from multiple sources."

"Bullshit." That same general cursed out as he ripped open the report packet. "It says here that the ISDF took FOURTEEN, losses over the course of the battle, and that isn't mechs downed, that includes infantry!"

The rumble of voices washed over Fritz as the Generals, all pulled open the packets, many of them hadn't even touched them until this moment, and as the men all read through the papers, many of them let out curses of surprise.

"The numbers were confirmed. The ISDF landed with only a single ASF loss on their re-entry, but the pilot was recovered. From there, they led the 22nd in an anti-scouting engagement. They were apparently so successful, that the General in charge of the 22nd, had no idea of the true force brought to bear against her."

Fritz took a moment to take a sip of water before continuing. "The Commander of the ISDF landed with eighteen Long Tom Artillery pieces…"

"Jesus Christ! Who brings that much artillery on a raid!?"

"The ISDF apparently." Grumbled another jokingly as the chatter around the room lifted up, stopping Fritz from following any specific conversation.

"Go on Colonel! Ignore the chatter of these old gossips." Ordered one of the generals, to a short upraised roar of denial before Fritz decided to do as ordered.

"The ISDF landed with so much artillery, but the scouting elements of the 22nd never got close enough to their landing sight to alert their command. So since the ISDF was showing off so much heavy equipment, the 22nd apparently decided on a defensive engagement. They surrounded the ISDF from their bases in the area probably hoping to use the emplacements to blunt any assault."

"Fuck. They surrounded an artillery park." A general muttered, and that idea sent the others into nods of understanding.

"No wonder they won with so few losses. The Combine would have never parked so close to an artillery park if they had known it existed!"

"Hah, good play then, keeping the scouts off their ass meant they had a shooting gallery."

"Yes Sir. The artillery barrage, and this information is from a Combine officer on the ground that survived and sent a report to Luthien that we retrieved, stated the artillery was impossibly accurate. The officer reports seeing artillery, drop directly onto moving mechs as they attempted to dodge the fire."

A whistle let out, "How the hell did these mercs manage that? Anything on that?"

"Apologies General, the only note we have about their artillery capability, is a tendency towards. 'Extreme training time like much of the ISDF towards any matter.' I believe this may just be a very experienced artillery crew."

"Well I'll hand it to them, that's a nice trick. Think we could pull it off?"

"Colonel, do we have a listing on how many shells they fired out of the Long Toms?"

"Ah apologies General, I do not, at least nothing exact… It does seem that the artillery barrage from all eighteen Long Toms lasted at minimum over an hour as they continued to hammer fortified positions that the 22nd retreated to. So the amount of shells would be… Obscene, I believe the term would be."

That earned him a few chuckles from the generals but a few frowns as the actual competent men did the math.

"Are you telling me that girl shot close to six thousand rounds!?" A general sputtered out his cigar falling out of his mouth in his exclamation. "That's what… Twelve or so million C-bills in ammunition!?"

The roar of shock from that filled the room. Not just at the absurd number, no Fritz also realized how shocking that was.

What sort of merc had that much money to burn on a raid that ended with no actual raiding!?

"That isn't all the artillery they used." Fritz felt forced to add into the arguments breaking out along the room.

The Generals went silent as they absorbed that fact, "Well get on with it Colonel! Explain yourself!"

"Yes Sir, the ISDF had three working Colossus, if you are unaware Generals, the Colossus class dropship carries with it two Arrow IV launchers. All six of which were added into the artillery barrage."

"COLONEL!" A roar ripped through the room as General Handoven ripped himself from his seat. "Are you honestly telling me a mercenary company, that I have only heard of because they were on a damned HOLOVID, has the capability of fielding twenty four artillery pieces, six of them Lostech, and can then fire them for over an hour, and I somehow, for some reason had no intel on this before hand? How the hell are they even affording such a thing?!"

The General was red faced and furious. Because even Fritz had realized just how shocking that knowledge was. Artillery was not something any general worth their salt ignored, but that many pieces? For a raiding force especially? He had seen such things at defensive worlds, but on a raid? What kind of fool would bring that much artillery?

"I believe Handoven that is what the Colonel is telling us. Now sit down and stop scaring the lad, I think we are all trying to process what we just learned."

"Twelve million C-bills, and… Do we even have a number for the cost of Arrow IV at the moment?"

"No, that was added to the extinct equipment list a century ago. Those missiles are priceless."

"Did the snakes think the sky was falling on them?" A general choked out a laugh, which broke the shock of what they just learned and made them realize their enemy was the subject of the assault.

"Well Damn, my friends if nothing else we can be assured of one thing!"

"Get on with it Lergen, I don't have time for the length of your jokes."

"Well then my friend, it means we know this Commander is definitely Lyran, only a Lyran would cause such overkill!"

"Hah! I'll drink to that!

—-

A different perspective

Takashi Kurita

Luthien

The man bowing before the Dragon was nearly beneath his notice.

Nearly.

He was one of the few surviving officers of the former 22nd Dieron Regulars. Brought directly before the dragon to explain his failure.

"The enemy artillery was our first realization of our failure. It… It did not stop. The fire was too accurate for any normal artillery group, and there was simply too much. The honorable mechwarriros gave their life in combat, but the rain of fire simply. Ended them."

The man wasn't at fault for this, but there was no other to place the blame onto. He would at least be given Honor in his death, he had not tried to flee when the summons came.

"Very well." The words silenced the man completely. "My Garden is in need of watering." The silence was deafening, but not in fear, Takashi could see the man nearly break down in tears, that his honor would be kept.

"I thank you for this Honor Coordinator." The man rose and was escorted out of the throne room. The aides would take care of the man from there.

"Bring him." The order was acted on instantly, the pathetic Governor Kagemuchi was dragged into the room, his face streaked with tears, it was obvious the man had been begging long before he was brought forth.

"You have failed the Dragon."

The whimpering of the weasel before him only disgusted Takashi all the more. "You were given a task that was already completed in your stead. You merely had to gain the information I required. You instead gained nothing but useless ramblings of children, and lost not only those captured for you, but the honorable warriors that guard you."

"F-Forgive me Co-" The man was cut off by a harsh strike from his guards.

"You were not given leave to speak!" The guard growled, looking up at the Dragon for orders, but Takashi merely waved him off with a single lifted finger.

"Their loss could even be acceptable, as we have now learned much about a new enemy of the Combine from their loss. But worse. Worse than even that, is your actions after. You allowed yourself to be captured, to be paraded before the entire Inner Sphere. You dishonored the Combine. The Dragon."

The man looked horror struck.

For a moment. The knife stabbed into his throat ended his mewling.

"Ensure ComStar is not transmitting that Holovid any longer." He ordered the aide that had walked in a moment after the man had died. Good he had no time for failure.

"Your will be done."

"And… a message must be sent." He considered his next action carefully. For an enemy to cause this much damage to the Combine, he would normally send a message, a threat to them directly from him, but these… Mercenaries. They were not his peers.

But at the same time, they had caused more damage than a Mercenary could ever hope to achieve. Not just to his military power, but to his honor. They had slighted the entire Combine with their acts. Worse they had ensured the report left the Ko HPG terminal. The entire Inner Sphere had seen the Commanders words to the former Governor.

Yes. He decided. He would send a message personally. To ensure these 'ISDF' understood the enemy they had made this day. The plans to destroy them were also being worked on, his orders firm.

"Rain from a Dragons Whisker?" He questioned himself. He sometimes hated that he was forced to use the Dragon, in every poem, but such was the way of things.

—-

A different perspective

Francis Altdorf

First officer Altdorf had a good ring to it. Before this he had just been Lieutenant. A competent Lieutenant, but stuck behind thousands of others looking for a command position on a dropship.

But then the ISDF, some little known merc company had put out a hefty paycheck for officers to crew some dropships. It happens from time to time, some mercs find a dropship during a job and need crew to move the girls.

Francis had no idea what he was walking into. He had taken on a advisor position to the 'Captain' of the ship, a boy that had almost none of the experience needed, but at least he knew that, Francis had to admit working with him hadn't been as horrible an experience as he had expected.

These ISDF people were inexperienced, but capable. The fact that he had now worked on an actual Colossus meant he wasn't just a Lieutenant. He was a unique Lieutenant now. There were probably less than a few hundred people in the LCAF that could claim anything close to the same.

But Francis wasn't about to let a cash cow go.

He wasn't sure what the ISDF were really about, he wasn't sold on the few times he had asked Captain Miller about the ISDF, about how they were planning on acting as the defenders of the Inner Sphere, and beyond.

He had been surprised about the libraries though. That was… Respectable. The sort of thing that people took notice of.

But the pay for this job was twice what he had been making as a contractor with private dropships. Sure there was the danger that came with Hazard pay, but considering the Colossus was probably the closest thing to a warship in the Inner Sphere, he felt safer here than on a normal dropship.

He had been raided by pirates before, and he certainly would have liked a few of the Gauss rifles attached to this beast of a ship back then.

"I refuse Captain." He finally stated to Captain Miller. The Dropships had finally landed back on their home base, some minor world called Zaniah.

"You refuse?" Miller asked, if nothing else, the boy, and he honestly was, barely into his twenties it was laughable to Francis to think of him as a man, Francis had nearly a decade on him.

"Captain you need officers, and you frankly don't have enough trained men. I now have more experience with the Colossus dropship than nearly anyone in the Inner Sphere, and you need people with experience. My Commission was over when the battle was completed, but you need me. And frankly, there isn't anywhere else in the Inner Sphere I would rather serve. So you are stuck with me, Captain."

The boy opened and closed his mouth twice before chuckling. "Fine Francis, I will just have to deal with your terrible jokes, for a while longer. I'll reach out to Command and get a new more permanent contract set up."

"Perfect. I am glad to work with you, Captain."

Francis nodded. He would quite enjoy serving on board a ship like this, even if he had to deal with some mercs, at least his safety was better anywhere else. He patted the Console of the Colossus, she was a good ship. Sturdy, and practically new. None of the common issues of dropships plagued her.

"They certainly don't build them like this anymore." He whispered to her. Only reassured of his choice to stay on as crew for the ISDF. And who knows, maybe he would actually start believing these crazy kids and their wild plans.

Probably not. But anything could happen.

—--

My fingers tapping against the table echoed around the room. The armored glove made the sound tinny rather than flat. But it was still a good estimate of my annoyance.

We came straight back home from Ko. Landing back in our home, and settling in normally would have been a joyous occasion, but not this time.

Even with the return of our people. We had losses. And more than that. The after effects of such heavy battle was making itself known to everyone.

The first thing I had done once we landed was set up a psychiatry visit for everyone. Every psychiatrist on Zaniah had basically been hired. Not all of them were great. But I made sure those that needed it continued to visit.

I wasn't one of them. Not because it wouldn't be helpful, it probably would. But because I already long ago accepted the horrors of what I would end up doing.

I ended up murdering a lot of people on Ko.

And I would do it again. Without hesitation.

"Can you stop that?" Gauge asked me, irritated from where he sat beside me. The older boy was reading through something on his noteputer but his eyes pulled away to glare at me.

My finger stilled and I took an exhale. "Sure. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it." He finally offered "Shouldn't be long now. The others will be along soon."

"I know. I'm just antsy."

"Everyone is fine Vicky. Not everyone is cut out for battle. I mean, considering how many people we had see combat so few people having real issues is a bit of a blessing."

I snorted at that. Nightmares, panic attacks, PTSD. A blessing.

"It's not like you are going to make them leave or something Vicky. Relax."

"I would never!"

"I know. That's what I mean, they will always have a place here. They know that. Even the ones that are really upset. Didn't Simon join the culinary squad?"

"Yeah… He couldn't.. Didn't want to fight anymore."

"Well now he doesn't have to. And he is still with us. One of us."

"Oh not this again." Hanna interrupted as she waltzed into the office. "Benny tell Vicky to calm her tits."

"Vicky calm your tits." Benny agreed as he followed Hanna in. My finger quickly changed from tapping to flipping off the two brats.

"Well I'm glad these meetings haven't changed." Alfred muttered as he walked in. He had stayed behind with the newest recruits and those not coming along during the invasion of Ko.

I smiled a little at that as more of the command staff wandered in. This was a full staff meeting. Eris was even invited.

Finally I calmed as the room filled up. People I know were okay. They were alive and mostly uninjured.

"Glad to see everyone." I started off and the room silenced as I stood. "This is the first full meeting since our return from Ko. We are here to talk about what that means for us. What our actions will mean for the ISDF into the future."

"Commander." Eris broke in. "Before anything else. Although I am not unused to you avoiding me whenever we need to speak. This time I am going to have to request some time. LIC command is sending me a lot of questions about what happened on Ko."

"I figured they would. Let me go through the meeting a bit first Eris. I have a feeling a lot of your questions are going to be answered anyways."

"Understood Commander."

Sighing I turned back to the others. "Benny."

The boy nodded as he stood. "As many of you know, our performance on Ko looks great from the outside, but with an internal look it is very obvious we got lucky." He waved his hand through the Holovid player in the middle of the table. There an image of a woman appeared. "This was our enemy on Ko. The Former General of the 22nd Dieron Regulars. Tatyana Sobiroff."

The image swirl quietly as we all looked at her. The older woman was scowling into the camera wherever this picture was taken.

"We got this image from ComStar after the battle. For a Combine General she was surprisingly careful. Despite having us surrounded she never started mass wave tactics. This is probably why." The image shifted showing a small detailed blurb about the woman.

Including her tendency to specialize in scouting.

"We went up against the very best enemy we could have. A regiment of light mechs led by someone used to seeing farther than their enemy."

A few mutters from those gathered as I nodded along. We had of course learned this from our captured soldier during the battle. I was glad we did. It put into place a lot of how the woman acted.

"So because we kept cutting out her eyes she didn't know what to do." Benny continued. "A Commander that is so used to having their eyes on the enemy suddenly losing that must have been quite a shock. It gave us the time to prod her into the position we wanted."

"Lucky us." Lenden muttered. The boy was glaring angrily at the image. Despite everything Lenden had taken the loss of more of his boys pretty hard. He tried to hide it. Tried to pretend it was alright, with jokes and smiles, but his attitude would often turn bitter. I had seen how much more he had been training since we left Ko as well. He was more than dedicated now.

"Yes. If we faced a heavier regiment I believe even just a medium regiment would have increased our casualties by over ten times… A heavy regiment, likely more than thirty."

"That's a big jump." Hanna uttered and Benny hesitated before nodding.

"It is. We are a bit over our heads when it comes up against elite pilots." He flipped a switch on the Holovid, and new scene started playing.

I had watched it more than once since it happened. Vincents run in with an elite Panther pilot in the smoke had become something I had reviewed over and over again. Trying to learn something from the fight.

Because that pilot probably would have killed any of us one on one.

That fact shocked me. Sure bigger mechs meant stronger, but there came a point where if someone was just that much better than you it hardly mattered. Since you couldn't hit them.

"This is the Battlerom from Vincent Alessa during the fight. Everyone is going to be reviewing this fight as part of their training." Benny offered his own blue eyes locked on the fight with a frightening intensity. "Because unless some of us can handle someone at this level, we can't truly say we can go to war."

"Is that a concern?" Gauge asked, cutting in. "This was a rescue mission. We aren't exactly going out and declaring war on the Combine."

"We aren't." I answered. "But that doesn't mean the Combine isn't." I wave my hand to Benny and he nodded.

"We have good reason to believe the Combine isn't done with us. We gave them a nasty bloody nose. They aren't going to like that."

"Fuck what they like. We beat them. Bad. They know better than to touch us now!" Hanna muttered but I put a hand on her shoulder and shook my head.

"Next time we won't be facing a regiment that has never heard of us. It will be a regiment ready to fight us on every front. They will know what our tactics are, and what equipment we have. We won't be able to artillery wipe them again."

"Speaking of." Eris broke in. "There are questions about the feasibility of what you did on Ko to the LIC. They are requesting numbers for your artillery effectiveness."

Benny broke in before I could. "We spent about 12 million C-bills in Ammunition for the Long Toms during our assault." He interrupted, laughing a little at the look of shock on the woman's face. "That's just in the rounds fired. Not including repairs needed for our engagement. Considering that was all ammunition we didn't purchase, because it's a little difficult to do that right now. I believe the street value would depend on rarity on each world. That's not something most commands would be willing to do. Plus… The Arrow IV missiles are in essence priceless as well. Considering we launched.. More than I want to admit to during the assault…"

Thankfully Benny didn't reveal the actual numbers… We had fired more missiles than we could have reasonably loaded on the Colossus. Just one more instance of logistics fuckery I had made possible.

Eris winced at that reveal, although thankfully everyone in the know about how easy it is to get more kept their faces blank, or played along.

"Very well. With the cost of use, and the near complete destruction of any salvage. I doubt LIC will consider implementing your strategy." She offered writing down something on a Noteputer.

"Yeah I doubt they could convince their generals to step away from Mech focused warfare anyways." I answer. "Benny. Keep going."

"Right. So we got really really lucky. Our people had an advantage in nearly every aspect but pilot skill, but it showed. We decided to allow the morale increase of the victory spread to all of the men, we the command staff need to be fully aware of how close that victory really was. Despite what the numbers currently tell us."

"One mistake and they could have crushed us." I add making sure the point stood. "Up until this point we have all, including me, let our equipment superiority carry us. That needs to stop now. We are going to be ramping up our training for mechwarriors. To try and increase our parity. We have a stellar reputation. We have had outsiders wanting to join us as mechwarriors in the past. Some of those that can be considered elites, are going to be invited to join us as trainers."

"We already train Vicky. Hell we even have skilled mechwarriors to do the teaching. We don't need more people." Hanna argued.

"I don't agree." I tell her running a hand through my short hair. "Hanna you are one of the best mechwarriors we have. I would put you in competition against just about anyone. You're definitely a veteran at this point. I mean you spend more time in your cockpit than you do out of it, but you saw that Battlerom. If you were put up against that pilot. Could you win?"

Hanna's normal arrogant swagger was nowhere to be seen as she hesitated. And in that revealed the truth.

"We can be better." I tell the room calmly. "And we will. We need some of our best to become elites. So we need more training. Something only an elite can teach us. The tricks that the absolute best of the best use."

"Okay so you hire some new mechwarriors. That's gonna hit our morale hard." Hanna brought up.

"I know, but I'll take the extra pressure it will put on some of the kids for the chance to make sure next time we have to defend ourselves we will be ready."

That went around the room for a minute and all I got in return were nods. I let out a breath of relief that it wasn't a stupid plan.

Sometimes I had worries. Same as anyone.

"Sasha. How is the recovery of the injured going?" I finally ask, turning to the older woman to continue the discussion.

Blinking a little at being singled out she took a moment to start. "They are doing well. As you know. Most of the injuries were minor. A few broken bones and such. Those that… Were heavily injured mostly didn't survive."

I frowned at that. The fact we had lost tankers, and even a mechwarrior still hit me hard. I had thought… I had thought the plan had been perfect. But the enemy got a choice too and they had used it.

The Mechwarriors weren't the only ones that needed more training.

"But not all." I spurred on and she nodded.

"Correct. A few were heavily injured… Thanks to our medical equipment most of them will make a full recovery… With enough time. Your upgrade of the hospitals here on Zaniah was well timed Commander. They had enough time to learn how to use most of the lostech. We aren't Canopus, or the NAIS, but our doctors have some of the best equipment in the Inner Sphere. Miller will get his eyesight back. Mostly."

I exhaled slowly as I nodded, trying to keep that bitter rage in check. "Make sure he has everything he needs?"

"Of course, you leave the injured to me." She ordered firmly, and I nodded in thanks. Glad the older woman had my back with that. Seeing my kids injured was… Rough.

I looked around the room. "Okay let's go over some lighter topics. Benny how did our unit composition hold out, and any thoughts for improvement now that we are at a regimental size?"

"A few things need to be changed, and some Lances need to be diversified, there is a reason most modern Lances use a range of different weight classes. I do have some basic ideas, although I haven't written up a major change yet."

"Alright let's hear what you have so far, I want everyone to jump in if they have something to offer as well."

Chapter 16.2 Shocked Awe

3026

Zaniah III

RedBase

I had known that going all out like that was going to change things. Especially in the Commonwealth, it was one thing to be a mercenary group, which many still viewed us as, that had helped stop a raid on a planet.

It was a whole other can of beans, when news from Ko spread across the Inner Sphere. Of course the Combine did everything in their power to quell the broadcasts, I had even heard that the 22nd Dieron had been 'stood down' instead of 'annihilated to the last' according to the Combine news agencies.

That didn't really matter, because for the few days we controlled the planet, ComStar had no problem spreading the news of what happened. The ComStar News Bureau had picked up our actions on Ko without problem. The final Holovid of me holding the Governor Kagemuchi at sword point had become doubly famous once it had been revealed I was the "SLDF Standard Girl."

I reminded myself to make a note to take a mercenary contract out on Haufenpfah. A few assassins should remind him of my irritation at what he had done.

But that led to the current situation. The ISDF were more than just the local heroes now. We came back after basically single handedly conquering a Combine world.

That just didn't happen. The Combine were the single greatest military in the Inner Sphere, we walked up, squared up on them, and punched them in the mouth.

Then we walked away.

Eris had sent me basically a stack of requests from Generals in the LCAF requesting my regiment for raids, and assaults.

It was starting to become an issue.

What was worse was the fact I was now sitting across once more from Governess Alessa, who had requested a meeting with me not long after we had returned but I had put it off for as long as I could.

I really didn't want to deal with her right now. It was exhausting dealing with politicians. They were always so schemey!

I sipped my garbage leaf water, barely hiding my grimace at the taste. Why couldn't anyone drink a real drink, like a soda, or coffee. Even if space coffee was just a horrible tasting caffeine delivery system.

"Lady Alessa."

"Commander Eisen-Blume. Thank you for keeping my son safe during the battle." The Governess offered simply, without preamble. "He informed me that you made sure he had plenty of reinforcements to retreat, even if his showing was… lacking."

"No, his showing was exactly what I hoped for. He popped a trap, and showed that despite all of our training there are men out there better than we could imagine. His BattleRom of his fight probably taught my people more than anything else during the assault." I denied her immediately. "We owe Vincent a lot for taking that risk."

The Governess blinked surprised at what I had just said, obviously she wasn't expecting my words. Not really a surprise. Vincent had taken his one assault during the battle… roughly. He hadn't liked 'losing' the fight.

I felt bad still for it, since I had sort of set him up into a difficult situation to see what would happen. Him popping that trap, and showing high level combat was valuable. Considering everything I had no issue supplying his four mechs with all the repair parts they needed after we lifted from Ko.

"That was not exactly how my son described it."

I nodded at that. "Your son looks at the battle as a Mechwarrior, where every battle he goes into he should win that fight. I am looking at it as the Commander in charge of a large very serious battle. Vincent performed perfectly, no one died, he hit them exactly where we needed him to, and his efforts gave us valuable intel."

The Governess nodded slowly as she sipped her tea. "Thank you." She agreed. "I will have to pass on your words to him, I am sure he will appreciate them."

I shrugged, I doubt Vincent would really care, he never really had any real respect for me in that way. He was kind of an asshole.

"Is that why you requested this meeting?"

The Governess blinked at me, as if I had just said something monumentally stupid.

Then she snorted. "I forget how indifferent you are to politics." She shook another sip of her tea having seemingly relaxed in a way. "Yes Commander. I requested a meeting so I could commend you on your work and thank you for your service, as is customary to a returning raiding force. You did something that surprised the Commonwealth, of course I am pleased that you were successful. Even with our… Difficulties."

This was my turn to blink. "Thanks then?"

She rolled her eyes at me. Which was weird, she was usually far more put together. "You are as difficult to deal with as ever. Victoria do yo-"

"If you have to, call me Vicky." I interrupted. No way was I letting this woman use my full name. I already had to deal with Katrina.

"Vicky then, do you realize what you have done? How the Commonwealth reacts to such things?" The woman sighed "I don't think you realize just how much your actions are in the news. It has been quiet recently, raids are down, things are slowing, and you just went and upended the Inner Sphere. There aren't that many regiment sized commands in the Inner Sphere. You aren't the Eridani Light Horse."

"No. No I'm not." I offered a little bitterly. I wanted to respect that group, and I did to an extent, but the remnants of the SLDF were no better than any other merc group at this point in time.

She noticed my bitterness with the EDF, but didn't mention it, instead continuing. "And yet, a new Regiment just appeared, and then destroyed one of the Combines… You aren't just some strange mercenary group on the outskirts of the Commonwealth anymore. I have been fielding questions about you from across the Commonwealth since the news broke."

"Sorry for the trouble?"

Another snort. "I accept your apology, but that's why I asked to meet with you. I am not a military woman, Vicky, so I decided to bring this directly to you. Here is the list of requests I have received, it would do you good to create a list of answers to many of them. That way when the questions come down, an answer you are pleased with is going out."

"Err. Isn't that weird? If they are asking you about me, shouldn't you tell them what you think? I mean, it's not like they are asking me directly, thank God."

A noise escaped the Governess that, I realized only after a moment was a groan as she pressed her face into a hand. "What did I do to deserve this?" She whispered to herself before looking up and seemingly nodding to herself after a moment… I think she just remembered the whole poisoning orphans thing.

"Vicky, you are now a political actor. I invited you here, to ensure you realized what that meant, and ways to best protect your people and now use your status to your advantage… I am offering my experience to assist you in this. It's obvious to me that you plainly don't have the interest in politics, but politics now has an interest in you."

I blinked. it struck me.

The Governess was basically offering to work with me.

Wow. The Ko raid really did change things.

"I would appreciate any advice."

This time she smiled nodding. "Let me call in General Faulkner. His advice on handling the military politics will be invaluable to you, while I can help with the civilian side." She offered, and I felt nothing but dread. I had just been trapped into learning, and dealing with politics, I was wrong, she was even more evil than I ever expected.

—-

I was totally unprepared for the sudden betrayal. As I entered back into the base, I was brutally attacked. Betrayed!

Both of my arms were captured and my feet dangled. I growled, I wasn't exactly short, and there weren't many people in the ISDF that were taller than me. "BETRAYAL!" I screamed as the two cackling boys walked me right down the hall in the opposite direction of where I was going. The other kids we passed all giggled or waved as I was walked past them. "Traitors! My wrath will be terrible! SO MANY LAPS!"

But they all simply accepted that as I was dragged into one of the break rooms. The room was pretty packed, and I was forcefully settled into a seat on the couch infront of a large Holovid.

"Hanna."

"Vicky."

We acknowledged each other, as my glare had no effect against the girl that was cleaning her nails with a knife as everyone settled in. "Popcorn?" Gauge asked offering the bucket to me, and I took the entire bucket from him with a glare. He just smiled at my wroth before the Holovid kicked on.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me." I grumble. But all the kids were cheering as news report after news report played. All of them about the Ko Battle. I was forced to sit through a marathon of all the news reports in the Inner Sphere talking about our battle, some were pelted by Popcorn by the crowd, especially the Combine ones, but most of them earned cheers or cat calls when they described our actions.

"Is this really necessary?" I whisper to Hanna who snorted at me. Long finished cleaning her nails she was happily stealing my popcorn as we watched.

"Yeah, you need to relax. A movie night of sorts is just what you need. Plus look." She pointed out and I could see Sandy, and a lot of her former crew were also packed onto other couches. "It's good for them."

I had to acknowledge that too. Their cheers were the loudest of anyone when it came to what we had done. The fact some of the news reports even had information about what had happened to them which is what led to the battle invigorated some of them.

What they had gone through was known, and many of the reporters spoke with sympathy. Of course the reporters didn't know everything that had happened. The debrief for all of them had been…

Well I had left early because otherwise my desire to name my next Colossus Shiroyama and take it to the Combine would have grown too much.

The Combine had been VERY interested in the ISDF. Very interested in where we had gotten the information the Commonwealth now had.

Eris had already sent the information to the LIC that the Combine were at least nominally aware that the Memory Core existed.

The cat wasn't out of the bag, but with knowledge of it existing it wouldn't be long now.

But the kids had done a good job keeping themselves alive. Many of them had revealed some information, and had cried into my shoulder while apologizing for doing so.

Again there was a reason I was forced to leave the rest of the debriefs to the others. Knowledge of the Memory core was nothing to my concern for my kids. And I made sure they all knew that.

So it was a good chance the raid on the Isaribi had been more than just an equipment raid.

My thoughts were pushed away when the Holovid showed a picture behind the reporter about that stupid movie.

My groan as I dumped my head into my popcorn to get away from it was completely drowned out by the shouting cheer of my kids.

While I hated that movie, it was basically necessary watching in the ISDF. I swear there was movie night at least once a week about it.

"You're all doing laps forever." I grumble into the popcorn, but I don't think anyone even heard me. Instead they had already changed the Holovid. The Jingle for the Immortal Warrior already playing.

—-

The next few months felt a lot like idling. Just wasting time. But I also knew it was important, all of my kids had a sense of normalcy resume, before we got back to it. Although while they were laying around I was fielding angry messages, or requests from all across the Inner Sphere.

Katrina funnily was a bit of both. On one side, her message by HPG was very concerned, hoping that our mission was a success and that everyone was okay. She had even put me in touch with some military psychologists, that might help.

They had.

On the other hand. She gave me a very disapproving angry mom look after that and hammered into me. "I should have told her before I left." yadda yadda. "Upsetting dangerous enemies." Blah blah blah.

I think the only line that actually made me wince was the old "I'm not angry, just disappointed you didn't trust me." Although I still wasn't sure if she was talking about my late message about our mission, or the Colossus.

Or something else. I am pretty sure I had at least a handful of other things that I haven't told her about yet… Well that's future Vicky's problem.

On the other hand, the idea that had been forming ever since we saw that Panther pilot show off what it meant to be an elite mechwarrior was coming together. Hanna, Benny and I were putting it all together.

The outsiders had been hired. I had built up a new complex outside Redbase to house our guests, some might take it as a slight, but I made sure the building was very luxurious, as I had explained to the first Elite pilot that arrived. "I figured giving you your own privacy off a military base will suit you more."

That and I didn't want them wandering around my base.

But Hanna had done as I asked, gathering together some of the best pilots across the ISDF, and putting them into a single unit for this training.

"You are the elites of our mech forces." I tell them standing on the foot of my Nightstar as the group including Hanna stood at attention before me. "You will be the elites that we use to stop enemy elite pilots from overrunning our forces. Considering circumstances, and history there is only one thing this program can be called. Gunslingers! Train hard!"

The roar of approval from the mechwarriors was what I wanted to hear. Restarting the SLDF Gunslinger program wasn't really possible, the fact was the knowledge was basically lost, or at least it was lost to us. Venus the training world of the Gunslingers had been thoroughly destroyed by Amaris.

"The Gunslingers were once the SLDF's answer to the Ronin of the DCMS. The ISDF too see the Gunslinger program to be the answer to the modern Samurai!" And it was. The best answer to an elite mechwarrior was another elite mechwarrior with a parity, or more advanced tech.

That was the goal here. To create the elites of the ISDF. Hanna standing tall in the front of the line of Mechwarriors hadn't known what I intended to call this formation. From the sparkle in her eye it had been a good choice. "Now, Gunslingers! You have instructors, learn from them, put your arrogance away. The ones you are learning from are officially elite Mechwarriors. They will know things that we don't. Learn them, master them. Become the Elite you were born to be."

I saluted the group, and the return salute was full of support.

Hopefully they would keep that excitement, once the training actually started. I had talked to one of the elite pilots about what the plan was.

It was going to be harsh. Honestly I was tempted to name the program the N7 school instead. But well. Gunslinger had class.

—-

"Hello no. No with a side of fuck no!"

"Vicky. I'm not asking." That shut me right up despite how much I hated it. Gauge had been squirrely since we got back. Now I found out why.

"Gauge. You can't just leave!"

"I can. I am. It's important to me Vicky." He breathed out a long sigh. "Don't make this harder than it already is. But this is important. I need… Well I have some things I need to find out, don't worry, I won't… Your secrets will always be safe with me."

"Fuck secrets! I'm not worried about that! ComStar is… Far away.." I ended weakly, damnit, I couldn't just say ComStar were dangerous. We hadn't had the conversation about them frankly yet, and worse, I still didn't have any actual evidence. Finding actual examples of ComStar Malfeasence, wasn't as easy as you would think.

"I know." he offered instead which brought my furiously racing mind to a stop.

"I know something about ComStar is… Wrong. I need to see how bad it is Vicky, I believe in ComStar, in what they should be, just like I believe in the ISDF. How can I stand aside and not try and do something. I'm going to Terra. Michaelson got me an offer to join ComStar. I'm sure they will try to interrogate me on you, but… Do you trust me?"

"Yes."

"I need a sensor."

"Okay."

"I don't know how long I'll be gone or how much I will be able to send through the mail, but trust me."

"You're my family. Of course I trust you. Idiot."

"Thank you." I groaned at his earnest tone as he pulled me into a hug. "This isn't forever. I just have something I need to do. What can I say I learned about responsibility from the girl that decided to shoulder the future of the entire Inner Sphere."

"Low blow." I grumble but I pull away from him. "I would send an HPG with you if I thought I could fit one in your luggage."

Gauge snorts at that. "I think Terra is a little far for that. But I appreciate the thought besides, our communications team has improved a lot. Our tests of the Mobile HPG were successful, if you ever need to send an HPG message, well. You have as many HPG's as you need."

"I know. I just always thought you would end up being my HPG guy."

"I am… I'm just gonna be the HPG guy for the Inner Sphere too."

"Pfft." I couldn't help but snort at his bad joke. "Seriously Gauge, I don't like this, you will be completely out of reach and ComStar… Just... Don't trust them."

"I won't."

—--

So the Combine were going to be a problem. One in which I decided that I would be ready for. A fucking Haiku had been sent by the Coordinator. One he had personally penned.

I don't read Japanese, and I certainly don't know shit about poetry.

I did decide to keep it though. If I ever did a museum for the ISDF that would end up there. But it meant the Coordinator wasn't willing to end our relationship as it stood.

So as always I decided I would take refuge in audacity. Thanks to our recent efforts recruitment had been… Extreme. The ISDF was growing, and I had already been forced to consider new ways to earn money in order to keep up, even with the Cooling suits now available for more civilian use, it still was barely keeping our income above our costs. I had taken to putting up some of the SLDF Neurohelms for sale. The price of those helped ensure we had plenty of funds in reserve for any emergency.

With how many people we had coming in, it was finally time for our next expansion, which is why I was gathering a lot of people into a Leopard.

The Leopard had originally been the same one Vincent had taken out to Ko, but well… I 'rented' it from the Governess. And then created my own. I would explain that the old one got blown up or something when I give her a new one as an apology, but that was for the future, because the thing was, no one really knew we had a Leopard.

I was going to use that.

"Vicky, I really don't like this 'idea' the idea that you specifically won't tell me about." Benny grumbled. We were standing on the tarmac and once more Benny was trying to weasel an explanation about what the hell I was planning out of me.

"Sorry Benny, I know you want to know, but I need to keep this one close to my chest. Just trust that it's a good idea, or if not that, trust that it's probably a Vicky plan."

He snorted at that. "I don't think you are supposed to call your own plans Vicky plans, that's our word."

"Eh. If you can't beat em."

"But seriously Vicky. We kind of need you here. Disappearing into the black for… however long this is going to take."

"I know. Trust me. I know. If it could be anyone else, I would not be going but you have access to everything including our stockpile, right now we are just in training mode anyways. Or at least that's were I am leaving off. If you feel it's time, you are in command."

"Hopefully it won't come to that before you are back."

"Hopefully."

"Jeeze, first Gauge and now you? What next do I have to worry about Hanna running off to Solaris?"

"I had thought about setting the Gunslingers program on Solaris so they could use the Mech fights as training." I tell him with a wiggle of my eyebrows before he slugged my arm.

"Don't joke around."

"Sorry sorry. I'll be in touch… The Communications unit has our HPG up and running, we have signal times, and things, as long as we aren't too far out, we can always even have face to face communications. Just be careful."

"I'll keep it in mind. Fuck without Gauge here, I might actually have to train someone to be my 2IC, Hanna is too busy with Gunslinger right now."

"Yeah, well I'm going with only a few officers, I'm gonna be the one in charge for everyone going with me too."

"Vicky… You are always in charge. You moron."

I gave him a wink, as he was unable to resist rolling his eyes. Looks like he was calm again. "Benny. I'll be back. Take care of everything for me."

"You know I will."

—--

A different perspective

Eris Stingler

"What do you mean Vicky left!?" She wanted to scream. Her handlers were going to be furious, but the Archon was going to kill her!

"Yeah she left early this morning, sorry I can't say anything else, can't even tell you any more than that, whatever the Commander is up to, it's like super sneaky Delta level shit." Catherine was a nice girl, and one of the sources for Eris's gossip and rumors among the ISDF.

She also had never refused to share information before.

"But you know more, do share."

"Nope. Sorry Eris, don't even try your spook stuff with me, like I said this is Delta shit, it got passed around to keep our mouths shut. So we keep our mouths shut. You will just have to find out where the Commander went when she gets back like the rest of us."

Eris was honestly shocked, she hadn't expected Catherine to actually realize she was being milked for information. "I don't do 'spook' stuff with you Catherine, I simply enjoy your company."

"And my lack of filter." The girl says with a smirk, Huh Eris had to admit she hadn't expected such awareness from the girl, but it was a good thing for the ISDF, just annoying for Eris. "C'mon don't look so put out. No one knows where Vicky went, and she was sneaky when she left, I can tell you this, so at least you have something, cause you're a friend. Benny doesn't know where Vicky is going."

Eris blinked at that, her next stop would have been the Sub-Commanders office to try and weedle information, but finding out that even he didn't know anything?

That was… Concerning. What was that Gremlin up to!?

Before Eris could say any more Catherine was already walking away. "Go on I know you want to hunt down what info you can. Chat with you later, You won't believe what Donal has been up to!"

Eris sighed, she was sure she wouldn't believe what Donal was up to, and as much as she would enjoy hearing about it, Eris did have a job to do.

Keeping track of a gremlin shouldn't be this hard!

Rushing through the base she noticed right away the difference. Without the Commander there was a change in the atmosphere, it wasn't a lack of discipline or anything like that, but the change was noticeable. Walking into the Sub-Commanders office she only received a groan from the boy.

"I don't know anything, she didn't tell me anything, and I can't tell you anything that I do know. Please don't waste my next few hours interrogating me."

Huffing in annoyance Eris took a seat across from him. "I have never done such a thing, why does everyone believe I am going to pull them into a closet and interrogate them!?"

"I don't know probably something to do with being an LIC agent… And you did kind of kill your last target didn't you?"

"He was a disgusting pirate, and it was for the good of the Commonwealth." She replied flatly, seriously the last time they had fought pirates, and taken them prisoner she had actually had some of the others remind her not to murder them! What did these kids think of her!?

"Riiiiight. Well listen, Vicky left without actually telling me she was planning on leaving, and we lost Gauge, so I'm a little busy here."

"You do remember that while I am a member of LIC, I am also a member of the ISDF, officially, and I do have experience in command, and handling paperwork?"

"Not a chance in hell, I am sure a lot of my paperwork already ends up across your desk, but I'll be damned before I hand it to you on a silver platter. Gonna have to work for it spook."

"Tch." She clicked at him, irritated that it only seemed to make him more amused.

"But since you offered for extra duty Private Stingler-"

"Hauptmann!"

"Not in the ISDF your not." He told her with a smirk, Vickys purposeful order not to give Eris a higher rank would have rankled if not for the fact it was literally only the title itself she didn't receive she was being paid well, and she was treated as if she had a higher rank.

Apparently the kids thought it was hilarious.

"Thank you for that reminder."

"Right, well if you aren't busy we do have a group of people that I don't trust constantly on base. Keep an eye on those elite pilots we hired. On top of the Corsairs, and the crew for the Dropships… And I'm sure we have some more people to keep an eye on."

"Oh Sub-Commander, I already do all of that, and more." She hissed at him. "Please ensure that the room is locked the next time you and Hanna decide to find each others tonsils? I would hate for video to be released to the Commander, I am sure she would treat it with the respect and privacy it deserves."

She stands and leaves, a glimpse out of the corner of her eye showing a pale faced Sub-Commander as she closes his office door.

Make fun of her will he?