Chapter Thirteen: Loading…

Chapter Thirteen: Loading…

"What in the hell did you do to this bridge?!" Kaylee Rye, the jumpship captain I had recruited asked me. "If you had done any of this even the slightest bit differently you would have been dead before you ever jumped out of your first system." She sighed while shaking her head at me and gesturing at some of the power conduits I had to reroute in order to get everything functional.

"This! You see this!" Miss Rye plucked a fuse out of the Navigation computer. "This is nearly fried, I'll have to replace it before we can do anything." Then looking at the ship started petting the navigation computer. "It's okay King Henry V we'll have you back up and in good shape in no time." Then looked at me. "But, in all seriousness; it'll take a couple of weeks to fix what you had to do to get here. I understand that it was life or death and so I'll just mess with you until you live down what you did to this thing."

I had been cringing through Kaylee's entire spiel. I knew that what I had done barely worked, but I had to do it anyway in order to get to where I needed to in order to start getting settled in the Inner Sphere. Kaylee had been poached from another Jumpship that had jumped into the system while I was present. Her and enough assorted other people to fill out a skeleton crew for the King Henry V She had been the chief engineer on her previous Jumpship but hadn't had any room for upward mobility, Her ambition was to captain a Jumpship and to one day be the owner and operator of her own Jumpship.

Luckily, I only had to finish signing a few contracts and some paperwork for the leasing of the Troy and about half of the Jabberwocky's that I had in stock. Five year contracts with extension clauses that would net me about twenty to forty million pounds per year until the end of the contract. The Troy alone was netting me a large part of the profit and was going to be replaced if it ended up destroyed while in use by the local militia. I had made sure that was going to be ironclad in the contract so that I wouldn't lose a third of my lift capacity if something happened to the local militia while I was gone.

January 1st​, 3002 Pierce, Capellan March Federated Suns

It was time to leave Pierce. I had done everything I needed to do here and then some, as of today, the Mercenary Company Marksman consisted of one Lance of Mechwarriors, two platoons of infantry, three dropships (we had a leopard waiting in New Syrtis for us) and one Jumpship. I had also begun negotiations with the Concordat for a year long anti-piracy contract via HPG.

The crew of the Messenger worked pretty decently for a crew that had only been put together in the past couple of weeks. We lifted off, and in conjunction with the Vagabond began the trip to the Jump point. Once we reached it, it would take us about a month to get to New Syrtis.

After the time to remain strapped in was finished and we had a consistent burn towards the Jump point, I unstrapped myself and made my rounds through the ship. When I made it to the cargo bay, I saw the crew struggling with a crate and a strap that had come loose during our burn off of Pierce. I went over and helped them wrestle the crate down and then had them teach me the better way to strap things down. "You see, the knot needs to go this way after you ratchet it down because you never know if the ratchet will hold during exit or reentry." The Cargo bay lead told me as he demonstrated how to ensure a tightly strapped down crate or 'Mech.

"Thanks, I'll be sure to drop by every now and then to make sure you don't need anything." I replied shaking the lead's hand and then heading towards the mess hall. In the mess hall, you had all of the ex military people I had hired watching a poker game at the main table. It was a strange variation of five card draw.

"Mind if I play a few rounds?" I said making my presence known. "I'll need to be shown the ropes, but I'll add a couple hundred Pounds to the pot regardless of whether I win or not."

"Only if you don't mind losing." Jonathon "Jack" Sheppard replied. "I've been winning all day." Jack was one of the medically discharged Mechwarriors who I was going to be helping out with medical treatments.

"Winning?" Asked one of the NCO's named Malcom Samuels. "You wish, I've been handing your ass to you all day. And when we reach solid ground again us ground pounders will teach you a thing or two."

"Easy fella's settle down." I said as I took a seat. "Deal me in and lets get started."

Personal Journal February 15th​, 3002

Well, we'll be on New Syrtis for another month or two as our two injured Mechwarriors finish getting their ailments fixed and they get put through the Sims and everything else again. The Leopard dropship Bittersweet that we picked up was used and needed some minor repairs but after we finish with those in another week or so we'll be in good shape. Myself and the hand picked officers here sat down and agreed on a ranking and rating structure that we think will go really well insofar as getting combined arms forces going when we finally have tanks and the like. Lieutenant's Sheppard and Peterson will be the XO of the 'Mech Lance and the Ground forces respectively. While we wait for Jack Sheppard and Alice Jenkins to heal we're going to be putting everyone else through a small boot camp and academy in order to get the beginnings of cross training. The ultimate goal is for every PBI to be able to pilot a 'Mech if we capture or salvage one in a fight. We also want to be able to have a Mechwarrior fill a hole in a platoon, fireteam, or squad if his 'Mech is in the shop. We don't have enough boots as of yet to get total cross training. But we will have the bare minimum that I think is necessary. While we head to the Concordat in a couple of months we'll begin boarding and Black Navy Boarding actions until we get to begin our anti-piracy contract.

Authors note: Sort've a filler chapter to bridge the gap and explain what happens. Especially considering the next one jumps right into some action. Also, some people have brought up trustworthiness of the new hires and trust me I know exactly what they're talking about. The overall plan is to pay them extremely well and bond them to me/ the Marksman company by doing things like covering their medical bills and treatment in order for them to fight again etc. Things like that are important and will matter a great deal to an individual and their family. I've stuck around for jobs I hated because I was loyal to a person in the company who helped me out when I was in a bind or something like that. So, loyalty is fostered in two ways at Marksman. LIfe or death situations where we're fighting for our lives, and by being well paid. That is all. See y'all tomorrow