Chapter Sixty-Six: Departure

Chapter Sixty-Six: Departure

Kentares IV, Draconis March, Federated Suns December 10th, 3014

"Colonel Wolf," I greeted the man as he walked into my office. "What can I do for you?"

"I am in need of your services." He said as he sat down. "I need to speak to Kerensky, and I would like to bargain for the use of some of your medical experts and facilities for my son Mackenzie."

"Alright then." I replied. "Natasha is probably going to walk in on the meeting in a few minutes anyway, and if you need to speak to her you can find her yourself." I shrugged. "Heaven knows I'm not controlling that woman."

"And as for the medical facilities?" The man asked. "What would it cost?"

"Honestly." I said, "Whatever it is that the specialists on the Argo want to charge you." I gave a small shake of my head. "I'm not going to hold your son hostage or anything like that, I don't really have any need to do that."

"You are certain?" Wolf asked curiously. "You could extract a favor or anything else within reason and you will not?"

"Nope." I replied, popping the "p" sound. "If I ever happen to need the Wolf's Dragoons services, I will purchase them myself." I shrugged. "I've got my Marksman for Mercenary needs anyway."

When I finished that sentence, Natasha came in the door with a wailing David.

"He will not stop crying." She said, handing him to me. "Work whatever wizardry you normally use." Then she noticed Jaime Wolf sitting across the desk from me. "Colonel Wolf." Natasha greeted him. "I was not expecting a visit from the Dragoons anytime soon."

"We have need of resupply." Jaime Wolf replied. "And I think you need to be there this time." He carefully didn't mention the Clans. "It could be important to your remaining in the Inner Sphere without issue."

"Give me a day to think about it." She told Wolf. "I assume you will not be departing within the day?"

"No, we will be here for a week." Wolf replied. "I am attempting to see if there is any way we can negotiate purchase of some of these "Mithril" powered armor suits while I am here."

"While I am not currently open to selling to mercenaries that I may fight one day." I shrugged. "Maybe there are some things we can negotiate over." I offered. "While I personally don't like the Marauder II that you and Blackwell have developed together. My techs wanted to take a look at it and see what they might be able to do with the chassis."

"We shall have to see what we agree to in negotiations." Wolf agreed.

Later that day…

"I think you need to go Natasha." I told my wife. "Given what you've told me about Khan Ward, and what I know from my past this could be absolutely critical." I pulled her in for a hug. "You going with Wolf this time could mean the difference between the Clans invading in the next couple of years, and the clans invading after our preparations." I confided. "That being said, I'm not going to force you to go, and if you do go I will just ask you to be cautious."

"Let me sleep on it." Nat replied. "I will need some time to come to a decision on the matter."

December 13th, 3014

"Say goodbye to momma. " I told David. "She's going to be on a long trip."

"Bye Mom'ma" David said his first stumbling words.

Natasha pointedly didn't cry, but she did hold David and just looked at him for a while before handing him to me and giving me a searing kiss and boarding one of the Dropships that Wolf had brought with him.

I on the other hand was one step away from full fledged tears. Only the fact that Wolf was still standing there prevented me from crying. I wasn't one to show weakness in front of a potential enemy unless it gave me an advantage after all.

December 14th, 3014

"Time to catch up on the news." I said to myself. We still didn't have an HPG on planet officially and so I had to get news via jumpships as they came by for trading.

"What the fuck?" I said as I browsed through the equivalent of the Federated Suns big newspaper. I rubbed my eyes and then asked Mary if this was indeed the latest edition. "And Bring me a beer please. I think I might need it for this."

"Of all the things to butterfly, I never expected this." I said as I took a sip from my beer with my door closed and the white noise generators on. "I don't even know whether to be scared, or excited at the changes that have happened…" I finished off my beer. And continued reading the documentation of what was being called "Romano's Story".

"Of all of the people to have a bout of sanity…" I chuckled to myself as I read different parts of her story. "I'll have to send her company some Mithril, if she can do that with regular infantry I can't wait to see what she comes up with when she has mobility and more options."

January 1st, 3015

"Sheppard, how goes the academy construction?" I asked the man as he sat in front of me. "I liked your recommendations for new senior staff, and will be approving most of them."

"Construction is moving at a decent rate." Sheppard said, " our people having experience with the base has helped speed some areas of it up." He shrugged, "and it was either Packer or Paige, and Paige is sticking with the Marksman as Peterson's XO so Packer had seniority for this."

"I would have thought Mathis would be up for promotion, but he requested a transfer to my physical bodyguard unit." I said with a nod at my doorway where the massive man was dressed in Mithril and alert for any possible threats.

"He likes the bodyguard work, remember?" Sheppard said with a smirk. "He'll probably start a family tradition of being Hull family bodyguards too."

"I forgot that was a thing." My facepalm echoed throughout the room. "He probably sees me as the last remnant of the Terran Hegemony or something doesn't he?"

"Something like that, yes." Sheppard replied. "You forget his family is from Towne, and that they have a lineage dating back to some of the last known SLDF members." He shrugged. "The ELH had to medically discharge him, and he couldn't afford the bills. So you taking him in and helping his family out…. You have a loyal infantryman and bodyguard for life."

Authors note: Wrote most of this on my phone, so I may have to go back and reformat some of it. Natasha going back to the Clans with Jaime will be a separate side story.