Chapter Twenty-Six: Surprises

Chapter Twenty-Six: Surprises

Valexa, Federated Suns: August 10th, 3006

"Mmm." I relaxed into my morning cup of coffee. "This is the life." I was taking a week long break after having been doing training exercises with the new recruits for the last six weeks. I hadn't even so much as looked at a stack of paperwork in three days.

Thankfully, most of the training didn't need direct oversight and we had nearly perfected our standard recruit and cross training regimen. Our Senior NCO's got to supervise and were able to develop the kind of things we looked for in officers, and the junior NCO's got to prove that they had the chops to move up to senior NCO's. Also, Dunham's team had gotten extremely good at weeding out the intelligence people that tried to join our battalion and we would find reasons to flunk them out of boot.

Currently, I was sitting on the front porch of the building I had rented for the week of my vacation and doing nothing more than reading, and relaxing. This was the first Vacation I had had in six years after all and I didn't want to get burnt out. Peterson was in command while I was on this getaway and he ran a pretty tight ship in conjunction with the rest of the senior staff.

I was still being sent reports that I was periodically browsing though and the latest report said that they would be field testing the finished project that R&D had been working on for the past two years.

The Argo had become the home to a bunch of extremely interesting people. Our R&D department was generally made up of people that were criticized and outcast for wanting to try new things instead of following in the Star Leagues footsteps, and our doctors, nurses, and therapists were all the best that we could afford from both the Taurian Concordat and Magistracy of Canopus.

I would still be on vacation when the field tests were conducted. However, Peterson and the rest of the current command staff were still supposed to file reviews and document everything that was going into this project. We were also working on a couple of projects that would probably spook the Wolf's Dragoons. Modular technology was something that I knew the Clans had near perfected, even if it took another five years, having modular weaponry to swap out on a dime in order to swap roles for combat would be worth both the money and time invested. For now, I had them working on building the framework for Modular Combat vehicles. We could scale up or down as necessary.

For now though, I wasn't thinking about work. I was making a concerted effort to relax. I hadn't originally planned this vacation. (But according to Sheppard and the rest of the command staff I had been working too hard.) But by God I would make the best of it. I did bring my Warhammer and a decent supply of small arms with me after all. There was no way I was being taken by any sort of intelligence agency without a fight. So, I sat on the front porch in a rocking chair, drinking my coffee while I was cleaning the carbine I usually kept in the Warhammer.

"I'll need to remember to send the Wolf's Dragoons a fruit basket or something." I reminded myself. "They did manage to get the rest of the Highlanders and Lancers taken out after all."

My comm device started chirping at me while I was finishing the last of my coffee.

"Colonel Hull." I answered, putting the device on speaker while I finished cleaning.

"Colonel, It's Peterson, you might want to get back to base ASAP." He said.

"Why?!" I stood up and grabbed my go bag, making for my Warhammer. "Is there a problem?"

"No sir, but Hanse Davion is here and wishes to speak with you." He replied.

"When did he get on planet?" I asked as I rushed up the ladder to the cockpit of my Warhammer. "I should have at least gotten a report of some kind."

"Colonel, no one knew he was here until he walked into the repair bay and started lending a hand with some repairs." Peterson said a little incredulously. "He was on site and assisting in coveralls for a solid hour or two before Sergeant Lamb walked through and recognized him."

"He didn't have bodyguards?" I asked as I powered up my Warhammer and ran through my ID protocols.

"He did, they were helping too, and with all of the new people we've recruited over the past couple of months he blended right in." Peterson said. "It's hard to keep track of all five to six hundred of us. Honestly, we need to give Dunham a promotion and more funding if this keeps up."

"On my way now." I said as I linked my Warhammers GPS to the small satellite we had put in orbit. "ETA two hours."

"We'll expect you then, Peterson out." The comm device shut off.

Two hours later…

I parked my Warhammer in the warehouse we had converted into a temporary 'Mech bay' and climbed out as soon as I had powered everything down. Rushed onto the catwalk and made my way down to ground level. I was seriously concerned that I would leave a bad impression on both Hanse and my new recruits by having not been here when he first arrived.

"Colonel." Peterson greeted me as soon as my feet touched the ground. " Colonel Davion of the Third Davion Guards is in the Mess hall. He's been waiting patiently for a while now."

"Alright." I replied. "I'm not even in uniform though."

"I don't think it'll make all that much of a difference at this point sir." Peterson observed.

"Let's just get going then." I said, running a quick glance over my jeans, scuffed gray boots, and flannel shirt.

"Colonel Davion." I shook the man's hand firmly. "I apologize for not being present when you arrived."

"It's quite alright Colonel Hull." Hanse Davion smirked. "I'd wait almost any length of time to meet a time traveler after all."

I facepalmed. "I guess you read Precentor Winfrey's treatise?" I asked after my embarrassment had eased a bit and the redness in my face had subsided.

"Why yes actually, it was quite an interesting read." Hanse replied, that insufferable grin still on his face. "Now tell me, what was it like living in the Star League before the Exodus and Dissolution of the Hegemony?"

I knew at this moment that how I answered this question would at least influence part of how Hanse and hopefully Ian Davion viewed the Star League.

"Do you want the truth?" I asked. "Or do you want me to lie to you?" I was extremely serious at this moment.

"Well, better an uncomfortable truth than a lie." He replied.

"The Star League was a failure in both the governance of its people, and a failure in terms of a nation." I stated outright. "And this is coming from someone who was born on Terra during the Amaris Civil War." I said, making sure he knew where I was coming from.

"History teaches us that if a nation has to constantly and consistently be looking for someone to conquer in order for the state to remain stable then that state will eventually fall. The Star League was an attempt by Ian Cameron to pit his enemies against eachother and weaken every nation but his own. The various non-periphery member states benefiting was simply a fortunate side effect of being closer to Terra. The Reunification war was a series of aggression and exploitation that simply sealed the Star League's fate. The Succession Wars are simply the breakdown of what was a failing system in the first place." I paused for Breath. "I'm sorry if I ramble a little bit, but history is one of the things that I've always taken an interest in and how civilizations rise and fall is one of the things I particularly enjoy reading about."

"No," Hanse sat there with an extremely intrigued look on his face. "Please continue

"Well," I began to start up again " what the Star League led to was essentially institutional reliance and slavery for the periphery nations and I would add the member nations as well. You see, the way that the First Lord kept the member states in line was by being the source of advanced technology both military and civilian in source. As we see throughout the Succession Wars, being bound to the technology and science path of the Star League has actually led to more issues than anything else. Rather than each Member state and Periphery nation building and researching things on their own and inventing new devices, there was an overreliance on parts made and overengineered by a nation that needed things to work in their favor." I paused to breathe again. "This is the way that I see it, coming from Terra directly and having seen both before the Succession Wars and in the midst of them now."

"Well," Hanse said after a moment. "That's going to be quite a lot to digest."

"I'm sorry if I offended you." I responded. "I am a firm believer that we wouldn't have been in the situation that we are in if not for an overreliance on both the Hegemony and Star League for research and Technology."

"The Succession Wars?" Hanse asked for clarification "Or the Lostech?"

"The Succession Wars were going to happen regardless of the Amaris War." I wave a hand. "They would have been just under another name. But the technology difference, I lay the blame for that squarely at the feet of the Camerons and Hegemony."

"Well, I came here to get the measure of our newest Mercenary hires and instead I got an interesting opinion to digest." He shook my hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you Colonel, I'd get your people trained up and repaired quickly if I were you." He winked. "We may have an offensive planned."

"Thank you for the heads up sir." I responded. "We'll be ready."

At that, Hanse got up and said his goodbyes. It seemed he had to get back to his Regiment.

August 12th, 3006

Alright, we have a green light." Peterson said, turning to the soldier about to run through the course we had designed for field testing. "Corporal Jenkins, you have a go. Proceed through the course as you see fit."

Jenkins started off with a brief jog, getting a feel for how everything handled before speeding up. He slid underneath the logs covered in Razor wire while shooting at targets that had been set. And used jump jets to get over the higher obstacles. Using the weapons placed in different areas to simulate different scenarios.

"Alright Jenkins," Peterson told him over comms. "Head towards the next area for live fire exercises and simulations." We were using the mockup we had made for the previous yearly exercise that had been interrupted for this trial and test run.

Jenkins took off at a solid sprint and made it over to the next testing area with plenty of time to spare. "All Green?" Peterson asked. Jenkins gave a thumbs up.

"Exercise is a go." We had our VTOL's in the air and our lone Vedette along with our Shadow Hawks for this exercise. If Jenkins could disable even a single VTOL and/or make it through without taking crippling damages then we would consider the trial a success and put it into production on the Argo.

The entire review team was watching the cameras we had set up and making notes. Trying to see if issues could be brought up. We had already done longevity testing as well as manufacturing feasibility and ease of repair and it had passed all of those tests with flying colors. This was more of a demonstration run for the Command staff just why I had funneled so much of our excess funds into R&D.

Jenkins made his way through the mock city fairly quickly, taking shelter in buildings and even using his jump jets to land on and place a "Det charge" onto a Shadow Hawks rear hatch. Rendering that Shadow Hawk as "Dead" to the rest of the Opfors sensors. He then used the "Dead" 'Mech as a distraction and made it to the LZ for a solid mission complete.

"So," I turned to the rest of the command staff. "What do you think?"

"Do they fit in armored vehicles?" Captain Rose was the first to ask a question. "Because if we can outfit everyone with a variant of this, we can cut casualties by a lot."

"We're currently working on scaling down for Cockpits and armored vehicles." I replied. "The R&D team has told me that they won't be quite as tough as the base models, and they probably won't have Jump jets but they'll be available after the Infantry are outfitted with their variant."

"Any other questions?" Peterson asked. He had been heading up this project since we left the Magistracy of Canopus.

When everyone had either said no or shaken their heads in the negative he continued on.

"The M10A-Mithril Powered armor is going to be the new face of infantry." He started. "It is impervious to Small arms fire, able to take anything less than a Medium Laser and survive, it is also completely sealed against any gasses or chemicals. It can achieve a maximum speed of fifteen Klicks an hour and has jump jets to boost mobility. The Mithril is powered by a fuel cell that will last a minimum of a month before needing to be swapped out. This ladies and gentleman, is where we make our mark on the Inner Sphere."

Authors note: I know that my viewpoint on the SLDF will spark some debate, I just want y'all to keep it civil if at all possible. I'll also be going back and cleaning up some of that word vomit to read better