Chapter Eighty-Six: Reports

Chapter Eighty-Six: Reports

Kentares IV, Draconis March Federated Suns, August 11th, 3018

"What's the verdict doc?" I asked Janet Hale. "Did I break anything?"

"No, you just sprained it, but you're going to need to keep everything to a minimum for the next couple of weeks." She sighed, "I'm going to prescribe you an anti-inflammatory because I know you'll at least take those."

"I don't take pain meds doc." I responded casually. "I don't like em, they make my brain a little fuzzy and weird sometimes."

"I know Hull," She sighed. "Take the anti-inflammatories, and try and stay off of the foot for as long as possible."

"I'll wear a brace and use crutches if I need to." I replied. "But I told David we would go help the engineers catalog the base we found in the mountains."

"Just be careful," Doctor Hale sighed. "No more injuries this year."

"No promises doc," I smiled. "But I'll do my best."

After finishing up with Doctor Hale, I made my way back to the place where David was working on basic reading and writing with a couple of other kids his age.

"Hey guys!" I limped into the room. "Sorry to interrupt, but I'll be borrowing David for the rest of the day."

"That's perfectly fine." The teacher said with a smile. "He was telling us all about the castle that he found yesterday and is really excited to go back and see it. "

"Well, we marked the GPS coordinates, and we'll be heading back there today." I ruffled David's hair as he clung to my leg. "Hopefully with less injuries this time."

"We get to go see the castle!" David cheered as we loaded up into a VTOL.

"Yes David," I replied as we began the lift off procedures. "And Mathis had some people clear out enough of the trees that we can land a lot closer to the compound this time."

"So you can see it too?!" David asked me excitedly.

"Yes David," I replied with a smile on my face. "I'm going to be seeing the castle with you this time. "

We spent the hour-long trip just enjoying the view, seeing the mountains and the river flowing down it. David was in awe of the sun coming down over the mountain, and the various colors of the trees. Seeing as we were entering the beginning of the mild fall season, you had a mix of red, yellow and green leaves that flowed over the sides of the mountain. It looked like one of the renaissance painters had gone through and done a masterwork on it. The mountain had been gorgeous when we were hiking on it the previous day, but from this view it was an entirely different perspective.

"It's so pretty." David said through the headset attached to his head. "Can we take a picture of the castle and the mountain around it to show to mom when she gets back?"

"Sure son," I told him. "I'm sure there's a camera somewhere that we can use to do that after we go explore the compound that you found."

"Okay Dad." David responded, ready to go exploring the compound.

We got closer to the compound that David had found, and began to drop lower into the clearing that a group of combat engineers had cleared out in the last few hours. It turns out, explosives make one hell of a stump removal tool.

"That does look a bit like a castle." I told David. "I understand why you thought that." I observed the walled compound. There was a 'mech sized wall surrounding the compound, and a thick metal gate guarding the entrance.

"Now let's see what's inside." I told him and we began the slow journey into the compound.

"That's the building I went inside of!" David pointed to the tallest building in the area. "The door on the roof was unlocked."

"Well David." I knelt down so I could be eye level with him. "Doctor Rogers sent some people over ahead of us to get some lights up and running."

"They didn't explore everything without us did they?" David asked with a slightly panicked look on his face.

"No son." I chuckled "They just got the old lights here up and running again and made sure the doors were all unlocked." I stood back up. "But they left us to do the fun part."

"So we get to go exploring?" He asked with hope in his eyes.

"We get to go exploring." I agreed with a grin. "Shall we?" I opened the first door, and away we went.

"This is boring." David said and kicked at the dust on the floor. "Why isn't there any treasure?"

"Because son, not everything has to have treasure in it." I chuckled and then came to a stop. This building was basically a hanger with bays sized for 'mech repairs, and in the back was a massive elevator. "But there might be something down there."

"Dr. Rogers." I used my comm divide. "Can we get some people in the 'mech hanger, it looks like we may have found something."

And so, David and I took a break to eat a snack and let him take a nap while Dr. Rogers went through and got the elevator up and running again.

"How's the leg boss?" Mathis asked me while David slept on my lap.

"Been better." I shrugged. "At least it's not broken this time."

"Kid doing alright?" He asked, sitting down next to me.

"He thought it would be a lot more fun than this." I chuckled. "Tell me Rook pulled something from the leftover computers in this place."

"Rook pulled everything and borrowed some of Dunham's analysts to go over it." Mathis shrugged. "But it seems like everything points to this being the outpost the Mckinnon's raiders used during the First Succession War."

"Seems to fit, we knew they used a mountain to base off of, and maybe there's something interesting they left behind." I agreed.

"Maybe there's something at the bottom of that elevator shaft." Mathis said, "But there's nothing else here aside from an abandoned base."

"I may have it renovated and used as a fallback point or a ducal retreat." I said. "But Dr. Rogers has been pushing me to start a school or academy akin to NAIS." I shrugged, "This looks like a decent starting point for that."

"Whatever you say boss." He shrugged. "I'll let the engineers stick to that. I'm just here to watch your back and shoot who you tell me to."

"Duke Hull," Piped in over my comm device. "We've gotten the elevator powered back up, and we figured you'd want to do the honors.

"This is way better than treasure!" David exclaimed as we looked at the lance of 'mechs that were stored here.

"I have to agree with you there." I said as I noted the 'mech types. "They look like they took some combat damage before being stashed here." We walked around the massive machines. "I'm sure we can talk McCallister into getting them back up and running again.

"Hull," Rook said as he came down the elevator behind us. "I just went over the reports, and it looks like the Raiders left behind a lance of 'mechs that they didn't have the pilots or resources to repair."

"I could have figured that out from looking at them." I pointed out the machines in front of us. "But, there may be some records we can pull and give to the current iteration of the Raiders."

"They may want the machines back sir." Rook said bluntly. "They could argue they have the right to them."

"I'll give them first priority on the Grasshoppers and a lance of Toro's if I have to." I looked at the lance. "I'm going to have R&D going over them until we can produce them ourselves."

"That is a fair point sir." He agreed as I helped David crawl onto the massive foot of the lone assault 'mech. "If we can build lines to make some more of them, they may take the new ones over this group here."

"Author's note: I'm going to be twisting canon a bit here on the force composition of the original McKinnon's Raiders. They fielded one additional lance in my version of the Kentares Massacre. Also, sorry for this being late, I've been busy and even if this is technically still posted on Saturday, it's five minutes until midnight here in EST so I guess it still counts.