Chapter Fifty-Four: A Series of Unusual Events

Chapter Fifty-Four: A Series of Unusual Events

Taurus, Taurian Concordat August 25th, 3005

"Once again, I would like to try and meet the people that brought us home." Adrian Brutus, the leader of the group of scientists and their families that had been recovered from a failed colony said. "It is unfortunate that they left so quickly."

"Well, they did seem to be moving onto a contract with the Federated Suns." Zarantha shrugged. "Pity that, we could have used them here but they did help us out tremendously."

"Oh, I agree." Adrian replied. "It's quite interesting to see so many Taurians willing to fight and potentially die for a Davion's sake."

"Well, Hull seems to inspire an almost radical sort of loyalty to himself." Zarantha shrugged. "Why, if I were thirty years younger, I might have left my role to Thomas and gone with him myself."

"Is he that attractive?" Adrian asked curiously. "Because I found him to be merely average at best."

"It wasn't his physical appearance that was attractive. Not that he was bad looking." She said, "It was the sense of purpose he carries within himself. As if he is sure or certain that every action he takes is his own."

"Now, back to the Toro Factory and what was in both it and the feeders." Zarantha got Adrian back on track.

"Well, we had a computer core with all of our latest technology in case we needed to manufacture anything." Adrian started and began to discuss technological improvements to Zarantha.

January 3rd, 3006

"You're telling me you have some people who worked on Warship repair and theory." Thomas Calderon asked.

"Why yes." Adrian Brutus responded, more than a little confused. "When we said we were the top scientists in every field we were not joking, good sir." He seemed a little offended.

"Would you mind if I borrowed some of your scientists to work on something?" Thomas asked with a mischievous gleam in his eye. "We have something that they might want to supervise the work on."

"You're in charge here, just make sure they're fairly compensated for it." Adrian responded. "And you have to convince them of it."

"That won't be a problem." Thomas said.

Hyades Nebula Taurian Concordat, April 19th, 3007

"Check on those power couplings?" Sage asked her partner in crime Ariadne.

"Yeah, I'll let you know when I get there." She left to go run some tests.

The Vandenberg was a hot mess of a Warship. Sage and Ariadne had agreed. But they could get it working again provided they had the funds and the materials they had said. They were a year into the repairs, and had finally gotten the power systems working again. Which was the biggest step in the right direction they could make at the moment. If they got the power flowing to every area of the ship again, they could begin to diagnose and fix the real problems that lay underneath.

"Power coupling checks out." Ariadne yelled, "Hit it!" And so Sage flipped the power to the main reactor on. Watching as everything flickered for a moment.. And then stayed on."

"We did it!" They cheered, happy to have finally made some visible progress. "Now we can really get started."

Taurus, Taurian Concordat April 23rd, 3007

"Colonel Hull sent you to negotiate some licenses with myself and TTI?" Zarantha asked the young officer in front of her.

"Yes ma'am." Dunham replied, "He gave me authorization to negotiate in his and the company's name."

"Well, what is the first thing he wanted you to discuss?" she asked, deeply curious as to what Hull might be offering.

"Well, our R&D team has come up with something pretty unique, and we figured you'd want the first licenses to produce it." Dunam responded as he slid a piece of paper across the table. "It's M10A Mithril Mithril powered armor." He started and repeated word for word the spiel that Peterson had made him memorize. "Ma'am, we're also going to be trying to license them with the FedSuns, but we wanted you to have first pick."

After several moments of studying the data sheet in front of her, she nodded. "I think we will be purchasing the license from you, it should prove useful in a lot of different areas."

"Yes ma'am," Dunham said. "The Colonel already had a contract drawn up if you'd like to take a look at it."

Zarantha took a long look at the contract, making sure to go over the fine print. "Looks pretty good." She then set it to the side. "That can't be the only reason you were sent here."

"It wasn't ma'am, I'm here to get our DroST's refit to a new classification drawn up by the crews themselves." He offered. "Colonel Hull had me take a look at the DroST license, so we could purchase it before making modifications and putting it into production when we eventually set up a yard."

"Do you happen to have a copy of the redesign on you by any chance?" Calderon asked. "Because if it matches with the Mithril you just offered me I may be looking to purchase this as well."

"How many AC/20's?!" She exclaimed, spitting out her water."You're building a flying death machine." Her eyes gleamed with a true gun nut's delight. "Where do I sign?"

"Umm, Right here." Dunham hadn't expected that sort of reaction. But had the contract drawn up by the Marksman legal team available anyway.

August 12th, 3007

"I'll have to apologize to Colonel Hull next time I see him." Thomas told his mother. "I was extremely offensive and it was uncalled for."

"It's entirely up to you whether you apologize or not." Zarantha offered. "But if he keeps offering these kinds of advancements to us and the Davions, we may just have to start making in roads into more trade between us." They were looking at trials for the first new suits of Mithril Powered armor.

"I don't trust the Davions." Thomas offered, "But, I will acknowledge that there has been no aggression since the Succession Wars began aside from the standard retaliatory raids."

November 16th, 3007

"Man, these Powered armor suits make working on this much easier." Sage offered. "I mean, we're able to move and lift heavier things in order to get Real work done without being bothered by the help."

"Sage," Ariadne said as she continued holding up the console that Sage was working on. "Stop Talking, you're moving around when you do and making it harder to hold onto this."

"Oh, right." Sage got back on task and helped Ariadne set it down when they were done. "But still, imagine what we could have gotten done back then if we had access to these!"

"I get it, Sage," Ariadne sighed. "The Mithril suits are awesome. Can we get back to work?"

Carthage, Taurian Concordat December 13th, 3007

"Man, these DroST refits are awesome." One of the local militia said. "I heard we're getting at least two per world as soon as they get the refits done."

"I heard the same thing." The other one responded. "When do you think we'll get to use it?"

"This week." Their CO walked in. "We have word a couple of pirate dropships are inbound, and you get to field test the design."

So they loaded up into the Sting class Gunships, and made their way to meet the pirates.

"Yee Haw!" The pilot said as they flew around the pirate's unions. "This thing's awesome." They poured fire into the dropships and watched as they stalled out or exploded.

"We're going to need more of these." The pilot said to his copilot. "A lot more."

Taurus, Taurian Concordat January 10th, 3010

"Ian Davion offered us a temporary pull back of forces on the border, with a clause for keeping the border demilitarized." Zarantha told her son.

"Are we taking it?" Thomas asked. "I can't imagine why they would be doing that?"

"A third of the Big Mac was taken out by the Marksman a couple of years ago. The Capellans lost a great deal of forces and have moved forces away from us to their border with the Feddies." She told her son.

"I'm sending you and some of our forces to take some worlds from the Capellan Confederation." Zarantha told her son. "I've heard rumors of some abandoned factories on Victoria, and we need more manufacturing and industrial capacity anyway."

"We're going to be taking everything from here to Victoria, and will accept this temporary peace with the Davions for now?" Thomas asked.

"Yes son." Zarantha sighed. "Can you accept that?"

"I'll accept it for the good of the Concordat." Thomas told his mother. "I don't promise to like it."

Hyades Nebula, Taurian Concordat November 17th, 3010

"Yay!" Sage cheered. "It's moving again."

The Vandenberg's thrusters had been fixed to their full capacity once more and the ship was moving on its own power.

"Next thing, the jump core." They had put off the jump core until they got the rest of the main systems up and running. "Sage, you can't be hyperactive when we work on this one, if we screw up who knows what might happen."

"I got it, Ariadne." Sage replied, finally seeming to slow down. "You don't have to babysit me all of the time."

"Yes, I do." Ariadne rolled her eyes at her sister. "Mom put me in charge remember."

Sage just pouted as they walked to the K-F Drive.

Toro/Mithril Plant, Taurus, Taurian Concordat December 10th 3010

"Production is through the roof. And we finally managed to work the kinks out of the first assembly line." the TTI manager, Davis Jackson told Zarantha.

"How do the modernized Toro's compare to other light mechs designed for similar roles?" Zarantha asked.

"Well, nothing really compares in its own weight class. With modern space savings, we managed to streamline the design and cram a Medium Laser for help with close quarters defense." Davis replied. "We got reports from the first models in combat on the Capellan front that the upgrades are beautiful. And that when used with other Toros, they can bring down much larger mechs when they work together."

"You sent the TTI team to build a TORO factory on Kentares IV?" She asked. "I thought you never planned on branching out."

"We didn't originally, but with all of the extra money we're raking in from Mithril, Sting, and Toro production, we figured that it was time to break into some foreign markets." He told Zarantha the thought process behind the company's decision.

Hyades Nebula, Taurian Concordat December 30th, 3011

"Are we finally ready for the K-F drive test?" Sage asked Ariadne.

"Yes, I think that was the last bit of the fine tuning needed." Ariadne replied, and wiped her hands on her Mithril. "Let's go tell the Captain that it's time to test it. "We'll jump to Taurus' orbit and see where the Protector wants us to move from there assuming this works."

They made their way to the bridge, and told the Captain to prepare the crew to jump. And after the warning and jump sirens had gone off, they proceeded to jump to Taurus.

They winked out of the Nebula, and appeared at Taurus' Orbit, just as planned.

"Taurus, this is the TCS Vandenberg. We will now be returning to duty." The Captain of the now somewhat spaceworthy Warship broadcast to the communications center down on Taurus.

One of the Concordat's lost naval vessels had returned home.

Authors note: A little bit of what was happening in the TC while we were busy elsewhere.