Chapter Seven

Turin System

Capellan Confederation

November 14th, 3023

I am relieved as we have made it back to the Nadir jump point safely. It was touch and go for a while as we were being shadowed by a pair of Transits. Thankfully it appears they were wary of tangling with the Scythe and the Stingrays. As soon as it safe to do so we will jump to Niomede.

The Niomede system has extensive asteroid fields and a small mining community so we will just be spending eight days in system to charge the KF drive.

Safely arriving in Niomede system I head to my father's office aboard the Vault as he has requested my presence. Knocking on the hatch I hear "come in" from beyond the hatch. Entering I find my father at his desk fiddling with a noteputer.

"Take a seat son and give me your hand so I can key you in to the noteputer."

Extending my hand, I feel the prick of a needle to extract a blood sample.

"What is this about?" I ask gesturing towards the device.

"I have stored recollections of my history, your potential future on this device. I prepared this for you so that when I leave, you may be able to find answers to your questions within it. I will also need to key you into the safe as my quarters will be yours after Andurien. Once we are done here, we will need to take a stroll as I have more you need to know about."

After being keyed into the safe I follow him to a nearby cargo bay and to a secured container. Once again, he keys me in to the lock before we enter.

I look around to what appears to be another office filled with stacks of books and manuals etc. There is another safe in here as well. I am going to run out of blood at this rate. I follow the procedure giving up more of my blood before he opens the safe and extracts a device and a data chip.

"This is the data chip for Major General Charles Lemarque commander of 8th​Army's Third Corps SLDF assigned to the first Free Worlds League sector before Kerensky left." 

Indicating the second attached device he continues. "And this device allows you to manipulate the chip into accepting your blood sample as correct. I hope this will aid you at Helm."

"The literature stored here is what I collected from the former crew which appears to have intelligence value. The next container over has the personal affects of the former crew. I now leave it in your hands to decide what to do with all of this."

"Gee thanks dad, no pressure then." I guess this is where my Battletech book collection comes into play. "That is some heavy responsibility, how about we spend today with mom before getting back to learning more about engineering and advanced technologies."

With dad's approval we spend the day with mom.

The next day John and I are with my father in his inspection and testing area examining various autocannons.

"Father, why does an LB10-X get smaller and lighter compared to an AC10 while an LB5X gets larger and weighs the same as an AC5?"

"That is a good question, the consensus amongst us engineers' was that the LB10X was developed from the Star League version in the helm core while the other LB-X cannons were rushed into production during the clan invasion and thus were not as well developed."

John then asks a question. "My question is about the ultra-series autocannons; do they actually cause twice the damage to match their rate of fire?"

"No testing has shown the damage increase is approximately sixty percent on average".

That is far better than the tabletop game, I will have to test this for myself before making any commitment on whether they are worth using.

"Okay let's get back to how to service and maintain advanced autocannons." My father is a driven instructor.

After waiting the eight days to charge the KF drive we jumped into the Lurgatan system to find utter chaos as Andurien forces were engaging the Capellans. I issued an open broadcast claiming to be free traders who wanted no part in this conflict and that we were just here to charge our drive before jumping out of the system. Eight tense days on alert later we jumped to the Andurien system.

Arriving at the Zenith jump point we checked in with the recharge station and informed them of our plans to head planet side to trade. We also let them know we would be charging our dive using our sails as we had no need to pay for a fast charge.

Father sent a message to Andurien Aerotech to arrange completion of our purchase. I however had to meet the customs inspector and show him aboard the Styx. I made him aware of the items we had for sale. The meat from Turin, two Charger 1A1's and a Goliath 1H. Upon request I showed him the Scythe but refused him access to the Vault. When he put up a fuss, I informed him that none of the contents of the Vault would be leaving the ship except some small craft which I volunteered to bring over to the station for inspection before heading planet side. Still giving me grief about inspecting the vault, I then informed him that if he persisted, I would leave the system and he could explain to Andurien Aerotech why they lost a multimillion C-bill sale. This seemed to do the trick to get him off my ship.

We unfortunately could not hide the fact the Styx was carrying a lot more cargo than we were putting up for sale. We had to wait two days for clearance to ground the Styx which I spent with my Parents. I had ten more days with my parents on the way down to the planet, before having to resume my duties.

Upon Grounding the Styx was surrounded by a company of mechs supported by vehicles and infantry. Captain Martinez and I both Share concerned looks with my father over the heavy military presence. I listen in as Captain Martinez has her communications tech open a channel.

"This Captain Martinez of the Styx, to what do I owe the pleasure of such a strong military response?"

"This is Captain Moe Yorkson of the First Defenders of Andurien, I am here to escort the representative of Warrior Arms to meet with Dame Catherine Humphreys."

They seem rather intimidating, I hope I can make a deal rather than be mugged on a grand scale.

"Hello Captain Yorkson, I am Rick Grimm and I will be with you shortly."

"Well father if you don't hear from me within 24 hours I suggest you leave me behind if you can get away."

I exit the Styx through a man sized door rather than the cargo ramp to make it difficult for the Andurien's to board the Styx. I am quickly escorted to a nondescript dark sedan by a couple of intimidating men in dark suits. This does not bode well for my future.

Arriving at a palace is a good sign, much better than a prison or military base. After being thoroughly searched, I am led to a sitting room to meet Dame Catherine Humphreys and her entourage. I bow in greeting and wait for her to proceed. She offers me a seat at the table across from her and sends for refreshments before beginning with small talk. I am way out of my league here but fall back on my noble upbringing to try not to embarrass myself. Sometime later she finally gets around to the point of asking about rumors of LosTech. I inform her that I recovered a cache of weapons which did have four LosTech mechs as well as regular mechs and vehicles. I tell her I am making my way to Galatea to expand my mercenary unit and thus I have been selling off equipment enroute to finance it.

Several hours of conversation later sees me forced to sell or trade a large amount of equipment including some Star League units. I gave up units I could afford to part with and did not have any tech I was worried about them reverse engineering easily. I ended up agreeing to 242 million C-bills and taking an additional six Stingrays with a whole lot of spare parts.

I also managed to get spare parts and supplies for our mechs and Manticores. It looks like I will be the guest of Dame Catherine for several months as all the details are worked out and the hardware is exchanged. On the bright side I am being paid for the equipment rather than having every thing seized by the Anduriens.

The crew will have a chance for R&R and I can spend a little more time with my parents, Dame Catherine permitting. I am sure this information will get out and hopefully everyone will think we have sold most of our stuff. I could use some more fighter pilots but I am leery of recruiting here. I will however keep an eye out for a better dropship to replace the Scythe.

After six months of living in a gilded cage, we are finally free to get under way. I managed to keep them from accessing the Vault using lawyers and refusing to unlock the doors. I even managed to replace the Leopard with a modified Union class dropship now named the 'Scythe II', it cost me 22 million C-bills on top of the Leopard to complete the purchase.

The Scythe II has had the four-unit mech bay converted to four heavy vehicle bays which gives the Manticore's proper bays. The extra freed up tonnage from the conversion was used to improve accommodations and enlarge the cargo bay.

With a bank account of 270 million C-bills after paying salaries for the last eight months it is time to jump to Shiro III.

Arriving at Shiro III I send a message to see what cargo they have for sale. Hours later I get a response stating they have a Wasp 1A and several engineering vehicles. Deciding that a thirty-day round trip to the planet is not worth it, I thank them for the offer and inform them of my decision to move on without grounding.

With my parents now gone I spend the time waiting to charge the KF drive working with Master Tech John Baltic. We continue honing our technical skills and learning about the advanced technologies by reading the manuals and examining in the units. The next two jumps were of no interest to me and were spent in the same manner.

July 1st, 3024 sees us arrive in the Shuen Wan system, home of the Kincha fruit. This is worth grounding for as it is a delicacy and only grown on this world. I should be able to make a profit from buying some fruit and then selling it on another planet . I purchase one hundred tons of the fruit in refrigerated containers before jumping to Calloway.

Arriving in the Calloway system I send a message to Earthwerks to arrange a meeting in regards to the sale of three 'prototype' stingers I have discovered. I plan to try and trade the three Stinger 5R's I have for spares and ammunition for my three Archer 2R's as they produce both mechs on Calloway. I will be removing the ER Medium lasers from the Stingers while enroute to the planet. With the lasers removed that only leaves Ferro-Fibrous armor and rocket launcher 15's as 'LosTech' on the Stingers, I don't even have sample rockets for them to analyze.

I take the Scythe II down to Calloway as it can easily carry the Stingers and one of my Archers so that I can work on readying it on the way back. I will need something to occupy my time on the thirty-day round trip.

The Earthwerks people are pleased with my offer after inspecting the Stingers. When they ask about the missing lasers I of course lie and say this was how I found them.

I also take the opportunity to sell the Kincha fruit and top up on fuel and supplies while on planet.

Once again it is back to jumping through smaller systems before reaching Keystone Sept. 11, 3024. Using contact information from the previous Earthwerks deal, I contact their division on Keystone and offer them a 'prototype' which is the Jackal 1532 I have. I request spare parts and supplies for the Griffin and Thunderbolt in exchange for the prototype as both mechs are produced here.

On the fourteen-day trip down I remove the ERPPC but leave in the anti-missile system and streak SRM2 as there needs to be some meat on the bone for them. I also make sure to sanitize the mech of any indications it is from the future just like I did with the Stingers. I did not get the chance to do this with the Hermes and Thorn mechs I had to give up to Dame Humphreys but I am pretty sure they were of Star League vintage.

The exchange goes well and I ready the Archer on the return to the Ferryman with the load of spares and supplies.

After jumping through the Bedeque system we find ourselves arriving in the Helm system. It is October 24th​, 3024 and I am unsure if the mercenary company landholder is still here or has already left for the Capellan Confederation. I know the land hold was empty from 3025 to 3027 so it looks like an intelligence gathering mission is in order.