Chapter Twelve

Tharkad System

Lyran Commonwealth

March 1st​, 3025

Happy twentieth birthday to me, interstellar travel sucks. I just can't go out with the guys to a bar when I am stuck in a tin can boosting to the jump point. Oh well at least I am out of the palace and can get some time away from all the hustle and bustle soon. We are joining the Third Lyran Guards regiment and a task force of cargo haulers to raid Helm and hopefully make off with the cache. It should take us a little over three months to get there using uninhabited systems in order to maintain surprise. The good news is that Katrina took my advice and will be using Snord's Irregulars to annoy Janos Marik. I have three new MechWarriors courtesy of Katrina's recruiting efforts and eight new fighter pilots although they are my former small craft pilots. I hope Commander Metcalf and the other experienced fighter pilots can whip them into shape by the time we get to Helm.

Katrina also found me some vehicle crews but they are only on board to help with the looting as I could not bring more than the four Manticores on the Scythe II. My force is at least expanding and I can now field the four Manticores and a flight of two Stingrays along with eight mechs from the Scythe II. That leaves eight Stingrays, two Ironsides, the marines of which I now have two full platoons apparently and up to ten other fighters to defend the space assets. Mastiff has overall command of the ground forces from his Centurion and his lance mates are Wolfman in the Griffin, Ricochet in the Wolverine II and Cooper 'Raptor' Hawkes in my old Chameleon. My lance consists of myself in the Black Knight, Willy in a Battlemaster, Nathan 'Hot Shot' West in an Archer and Shannon 'Shane' Vansen in a Marauder. I will need to spend some time getting to know the new MechWarriors. Katrina's people said they were experienced MechWarriors whom were cashiered for political reasons but had good records. I hope they work out; shit I hope I don't freeze if I am involved in my first real combat.

We have arrived at the jump point and docked with the Ferryman. I soon learn that we will have four open bays as we have only been assigned an independent squadron of Lucifer fighters. After going through the usual greetings and status checks I make my way to the Ferryman's cargo hold to make check on the marines. The Marine barracks containers have been moved here from the Vault to make room for the cache contents. There are far more marines here than I expected. I know we can support six platoons of them but I only remember having two platoons. Looking closer some of them have Lyran Guard uniforms which would explain the extra marines. Having completed my check, I then make my way to my quarters for some peace and quiet before we jump.

After over three months of reading or getting to know my new people during our charging times in uninhabited systems I am climbing the walls, I almost look forward to being shot at, Ha Ha. I am in my mech waiting on board the Scythe II in preparation to jump into the Helm system. We are in a combat ready mode just in case there may be forces waiting for us.

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1" Discontinuity

I listen in as the Spacers perform the post jump checks. The chatter is starting to pick up and overlap with concerned voices before Captain Falk of the Ferryman over rides the voices demanding a Sitrep. Damn one of the jumpships has not arrived and it was transporting most of the Guards. Only the second battalion and a squadron of fighters in their Overlord attached to one of the primary cargo transport carrying jumpships has arrived with us. I suspect sabotage may have been the cause of the missing jumpship. I hope they are okay.

Confirming there is no immediate threat on sensors I have my communications patched through the Scythe II in order to confer with Colonel Finnan of the Guards second Battalion.

"Colonel Finnan, I say we continue as planned with what we have. There is no point in waiting to see if the rest of the Guards will arrive, they will or they won't but their fate is their own at this point. We need to proceed with the mission and I intend to do so."

"Fine, I don't like it but I agree to proceed as planned. You will ground near the access building and the rest of us will ground on the other side of the mountains at the point you specified in the mission briefing. I will then confirm when you have successfully opened the door for us to access the facility and you can then board the Scythe II and make the hop over to us."

"Agreed, we shall depart in five minutes from my mark. Mark!"

Now the waiting begins, five days until we ground. I am glad they agreed to my suggestion not to use the entrance by the building. I hope to delay any response by being on the far side of the Nagayan Mountains and prevent anyone from finding the booby-trapped door near the building. The plan is for me and Wood to enter through the same man door as before, use the computer to open the door near the other grounded dropships and then exit and secure this entrance again before taking the Scythe II to join them.

We performed a quick over flight of the Building before landing and it appeared to be free of any obvious military presence. Once it was safe to disembark I do so in my Black Knight with Wood in the jump seat behind me and Willy in the Battlemaster acting as my Guard. I am trying to leave as little evidence as possible for any scouts to learn from. The others are on standby to come to our assistance if I detect anything with my beagle probe or come under fire.

Arriving at the building and with the beagle probe showing the area clear Wood and I exit my mech. Climbing down I can see signs of recent activity; I hope nothing has happened to the computer table that I need to open the cache. We cautiously make our way to and inside the building keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. There are signs of activity in here as well, someone must have seen us in the area and reported it. Plugging in the ID chip and feeding the 'vampire' brings the computer to life thank god.

"Wood check to see if the computer has been accessed since we left if you can?"

"Yes boss, give me a minute. Good news boss there is no sign of activation since I last used it and the cache is still in lock down."

"Great, you know what to do. Let me know when we can enter the cache. I will be in my mech using the beagle to keep an eye on things."

Once I have climbed back into my mech I send a quick update to the Scythe II via secure comms so they can forward it to the Colonel. So far so good now we just have to wait until it is safe to enter the cache. An hour later and Wood has come out of the building and motioned for me to join him. I am pleased he is following the protocol not to use communications devices unless they are secured like my mechs and the dropships. I climb down and join him for the trek to the man door while Willy watches over us and my mech from his cockpit. All seems quiet as we reach the door and there are no signs of activity here even our own tracks are gone. Perhaps they were washed away by rain, hopefully before they were discovered. We enter the door and I secure it behind us just in case. Looking around we find no signs of activity in the dust except what appears to be from our previous visit. Once again, I feed the 'vampire' to gain access to the library computer. Wood eagerly gets to work on opening the door for the others and pulling up additional data now that he has had some time working with the core copy over the last several months.

"Wood are sure you want to remain here until we come back from the other entrance."

"Yes boss, it will give me a chance to make additional copies for us with the blank cores we left in here. After you brought me up to speed on our situation, I want to make sure we have extra copies in case Comstar or others try to destroy them."

"Okay Wood, I am glad you are on our team. Don't forget to secure the door after I leave."

"Yes boss, and thank you for trusting in me."

Closing the door behind me, I look for a branch to use to wipe away our tracks on my way back to my mech. Finding one I do just that as I make my way back to my mech. With everything I can think of done to obscure our activity Willy and I return to the Scythe II. Having secured our mechs, Captain Munro makes ready to hop over the Nagayan Mountains.

Arriving at the location of the other dropships we ground and wait until it is safe to disembark once again. Walking down the ramp in my Black Knight I can see the hustle and bustle of the search and recovery teams unloading and heading into the cache. Everyone seems to be very excited while going about their business. Colonel Finnan seems happy about how things are proceeding but shares my concerns over the signs of recent activity and the rest of the regiments MIA status. He has sent scouts to the three passes through the mountains to keep an eye out for any threats. For now, we have taken up defensive positions around the dropships and cache entrance. I am stationed at the entrance incase I am needed to use the ID chip in which case I shall have go inside and get it from Wood.

On the third day of operations Wood has contacted us using the internal communications system to inform us that he has detected a large force approaching his location using the facility's sensors. He believes it to be a Battalion of mechs with vehicles and infantry in support. The Colonel and I immediately make our way to him using the internal transport system. As soon as we reach him Wood brings up the sensor feed and the computer analysis which suggests the force size and composition. It looks like we are in for a tough battle as we must defend the facility and dropships until we are done here. At least we have a day or more to plan due to Woods warning and his bright Idea to use the facility's advanced sensors. We will have to watch them as they get closer and use the Facility's cameras to get a better idea of what we are dealing with.