Chapter Forty: A roll of the dice

Chapter Forty: A roll of the dice

Helm, Free Worlds League May 17th, 3009

"We managed to get the key right?" I asked Hanse, wanting to ensure that we didn't get buried in a Castle Brian by accident.

"We got the key." He replied. "We're going to need your help to locate the area the cache is in though." He said,

We got both the maps from the key and from the most recent planetary survey and compared them while I consulted my SLIC notes. "Follow the river." I told the tech after I had consulted my notes, "There stop." There was a small building, almost a shack that was outside of a mountain. "That's the area the Brian is in."

After I had pinpointed the general area of the hidden Nagayan Mountain we descended into a nearby valley.

"Thanks for the mech." Hanse said, I was currently riding in his jump seat. "Never had the chance to drive a "Royal" before"

"Really?" I asked as we neared the lone building by the side of the mountain. "I figured that you'd have access to all sorts of Lostech."

"Last time I checked, my name was Hanse." He replied with a smirk on his face. "Not Ian."

"So Ian has a Lostech mech than?" I asked.

"I can neither confirm nor deny any allegations as to what the Davions pilot." He replied with a chuckle. "Aside from this baby of course." he patted the side of the TDR-5Sd that I had gifted the Davions for Christmas. "Why didn't you bring your mech?" he asked, genuinely curious.

"The techs were still figuring some things out when I left." I responded with a shrug. "That, and I didn't want to have people trying to steal my mech thinking it was the one I took an Atlas down with."

After fifteen more minutes of conversation and plodding along, we reached the shack and Hanse made his mech crouch so that we could use the ladder to get to the ground.

"Think this is it?" Hanse asked, looking at the strange square prefab in front of us. Little more than a shack. "I didn't think ancient Star League facilities had gate houses that looked like this."

I just gave him a look™. "You would be very surprised." I said as I walked in. "Hand me the case?" I asked, and Hanse passed me the key.

"Moment of truth." I said, as I placed the key into the slot in front of me. There was a moment in which nothing happened, and then the ground shook, and a part of the rock face began to split apart.

An hour later…

"Is everyone here?" I asked, as the rest of the column finally arrived. The Third had left behind a good portion of their people and metal on garrison in order to make the most out of their lift capacity.

"Yes Hull," Hanse rolled his eyes at me. "That's everyone. We can go inside now."

With that, we slowly walked the Thunderbolt into the Nagayan Mountain, flipping the spotlight on so he could see.

"Holy Shit!" one of the mechs behind us whispered over his open comms as we saw the rows and rows of SLDF mechs that the various spotlights illuminated. .

Hanse just snickered as various other phrases echoed over the open comms channels. After making sure the entrance was clear, we went through the kneeling and dismounting the Thunderbolt once again.

We then spread out, looking for the main computer so as to not accidentally trigger the self-destruct.

"Hull, over here!" Hanse yelled from the far side of the cavern. "I think this is it."

I made my way over to him and saw a massive computer screen in front of me. "Yeah, I'd say this is the right place." I walked up to it and inserted the Helm key into the computer and watched it boot up. The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty'. James Madison. Popped up on the screen in front of me. Then the standard OS of the Star league appeared in front of me. The facility also started to bring lights online and everything was starting to be unveiled.

Two Days later…

"We could finish the Capellan Confederation in less than a decade with the spare parts alone here." Hanse said as he examined a copy of the manifest I had printed out.

"Well, It's a good thing we brought all of the dropships then isn't it." I said, putting the copy of the core I had just made into a sealed crate along with the sixteen others I had made. "Make sure you split these up, I want every dropship out of here to have at least one of the cores." I told the two aids I had borrowed to assist me in getting everrything together on this. "These are worth more than all of the equipment in here."

I had brought enough computer cores to copy the whole library at least twenty times over, in every format it could copy them to, including the original. I had sixteen of them in the common format used today, and four of them in various other formats, such as the computers aboard the Messenger.

May 24th, 3009

We were lifting off now. We had to ditch pretty much all of the autocannon, SRM, and LRM ammunition in order to squeeze some of the tech in, but in the end, we managed to fit the most important parts of two brigades onto the dropships we had brought. We were stacked on top of eachother, and we had to leave some of the mechs that were still common in the Fedsuns behind, but we had made it out with a lot of material and over thirty copies of the computer core.

When we got ready to leave, we triggered the explosives we had set on the core and the material left behind and watched as the sea returned to the surface of Helm.

Hilton Head complex, Terra May 30th, 3009

"What do you mean there's a sea on Helm again?" The Primus, Julian Tiepelo asked Precentor Helm.

"Primus, we woke up this morning and the Yehudan Sea was back." the panicking B station precentor was panicking.

"Precentor," Tiepelo lowered his voice in order to help calm the man down. "It was probably something the SLDF did that finally collapsed on them. It would hardly be the first DoME project that failed after the destruction of the Succession wars."

Atreus, Free Worlds League June 15th, 3009

"What do you mean the Yehudan Sea is back in place on Helm?" Janos Marik asked the SAFE agent briefing him. "It was there last month wasn't it?"

"Yes Captain-General," The agent replied. "We fear the rumored cache may have been found and taken by someone." the SAFE agent replied. "But we don't have any evidence to prove that theory correct as of yet."

"Well, then don't come back with this kind of BS without evidence to back it up!" Janos Marik exclaimed, standing up from his desk.

Personal Journal: October 25th, 3009

Well, I did it. I managed to get the Helm cache, and as far as MIIO can tell no one is the wiser. We have enough cores to scatter out, and Hanse and Ian will be establishing NAIS as an attachment to NAMA within the next couple of years. I was allowed to take a lance of Royal Assault mechs with me as initial gratitude, and Ian had sent a message to Zarantha Calderon requesting a face to face meeting to take place in the next couple of years facilitated by yours truly. I had warned Hanse and Ian about Comstar wrecking efforts to recover lost technology and showed them the copies of secret operations and communiques I had made using the Messenger's facilities and so they were taking every precaution possible as far as the security of the cores was concerned and would only be bringing in various companies as necessary. I requested permission to buy out Salvatore Incorporated and received an affirmative as long as I could get the production lines up and running again. Thankfully, with the Mithril production starting to take off and our investments in TTI starting to pay off, we would be able to buy them outright and begin the process of getting our own dropship lines up and running again soon. I also was able to bring two of the copies of the data core with me to install in the heart of my base on Kentares IV.

Authors note: The dice were kind to Hanse... and I hope you guys like that I gifted one of the last remaining Davion Thunderbolts in existence to Hanse. I know it's not his Battlemaster, but I think it suits him.