Chapter One Hundred and Seventeen: Mad Max

Chapter One Hundred and Seventeen: Mad Max

In Orbit around Sian, June 26th, 3026

"Hanse, there's no radio signals, there's no movement, there's nothing down there." The captain of the Warship that Hanse was on stated. "I don't think we should send anyone down there unless we can be certain that it's safe."

"Peterson." Hanse turned to the Marksman CO. "How secure are Mithril from NBC weapons?"

"Completely secure unless a seal gets breached." Peterson responded. "But I don't think we should go down there at all."

"Why not?" One of the Marshals of the Crucis Lancers spoke up.

"Because I don't think Mad Max would leave just a bioweapon behind." Peterson stated. "Most of the strategic arsenal is on this world below our feet. And if there's no movement down there, then we should just leave it be, because if I were trying to make sure that everyone loses, I would have things set up to where the minute someone steps a foot onto the surface that it turns the planet into lava."

"And given we don't actually know what they had on the planet, he could potentially crack the planet in half." Another officer brought up, "I think our best bet is to leave a Warship on duty and have daily reports sent out until something moves down there."

"How badly do you suspect everything is down there?" Hanse asked the collective group.

"I think that we need to be extremely cautious here." Peterson warned. "I want Max to pay for what he's done as much as anyone here, but if we aren't very careful here we may end up dead anyway."

"We could use the vehicle factories that are down there at the very least." Hanse muttered to himself. "Let's have a volunteer team touch down around the factory complexes." He said after thinking for a minute. "There's no guarantee that it's booby trapped, but just in case we need to have it be an all volunteer force."

"Or, alternatively." Peterson said. "We do have a couple of Voidseeker drone fighters onboard the Defender, and we've got one prototype that's been modified to follow specific instructions."

"So we send it down and see what happens." Hanse said, "And we don't risk losing any of our people in the process. How long will it take to get it set up?"

"Let me check with Captain Bruce and I'll get back to you." Peterson cut his channel off in order to go track down the Captain of the Defender.

"Captain Bruce," Peterson ran up to the CO of the Defender. "How long would it take to get the Voidsweeper prototype ready for use?"

"Two days to put it back together and another three to finish the software patches we were working on, why?" Bruce asked as he raised an eyebrow.

"I may have told Hanse that the prototype was something that we could send down to check out Sian and make sure that it won't blow up on us." Peterson said a bit sheepishly.

"We can rush it and have it done in three days total." Bruce sighed. "But you owe me one Thomas."

"I do, I'll go let them know that there needs to be some testing done first." Peterson rushed back to the communications area.

"Everyone able to hear me?" He asked once he was back on the communications channel.

"Yes, Colonel, we hear you just fine." Hanse replied.

"The prototype was disassembled while we were on Capella for some testing and software updates." Peterson briefed them. "Bruce told me that it should be put back together and updated in three days or so if we are willing to wait that long."

"We can afford the extra time." Hanse said with finality. "Give them five days, we don't want any screw ups that could get people killed."

July 1st, 3026

"Everything all set here?" Peterson asked Bruce as he supervised a team of engineers.

"We're just fuelling her up now." Bruce said. "She'll be ready for launch in fifteen minutes or so."

"That's good to hear, Captain Bruce." Hanse said as he walked into the small craft bay of the dropship that theVoidseeker was currently on. "Why did you have to move it off of the Defender?"

"Because despite how effective the Danteis as an escort Warship, it lacks the Small craft bays that you find everywhere else." Bruce responded. "So we'll be conducting this little experiment from Peterson's Colossus."

"Alright then, let's see what this thing has in store." Hanse replied while rubbing his hands together. "Can I fly it?"

"Let me show you the controls really quick." Bruce offered. "But either myself or one of the other trained personnel will have to take over once you're closer to the ground."

July 4th, 3026

"Can we go down to the freakin planet already?" Hathaway complained to Peterson. "If it were going to blow up in our faces it would have already done it, yes?"

"Hathaway." Peterson scowled. "You just ensured that this will go the worst way possible, and I'm going to consider demoting you when we return to Kentares."

"What do you mean ensured?" Hathaway asked right as sirens began to go off.

"Everyone to their designated battlestations." Bruce's voice came over the intercom. "A series of Nukes were just launched at both us and the planet from all three of the moons that orbit Sian."

"What are we doing Bruce?" Peterson asked.

"Us, and the entirety of the Davion Fleet is leaving as fast as we can." Bruce responded. "There won't be anything left on the surface for us, and if we don't outrun these Nukes, there won't be much left of us either."

"I thought the Defender was outfitted with an AMS along with all of the Vengeanceescorts that Hanse brought." Peterson said.

"Not enough to handle what's headed our way." Peterson replied. "Not enough."

St. Ives, May 9th, 3026

"Where the hell did they pull these from?" I asked Natasha as we coordinated fire against two lances of 'mechs."

"No clue." Natasha said as she laughed maniacally while headshotting an enemy 'mech with her gauss rifles. "Did you upgrade Hazen's mech though?" She asked.

"Yes," I said after moving out of the way of some LRMs that my AMS had missed. "I upgraded the outdated AC/20 she was still using for some reason to a gauss rifle. Is that a big deal?"

"Yes Mark." She said as she crippled another mech. "I thought you would have learned by now, Bitches love cannons, and you just gave her one of the biggest ones that there is."

"Whelp," I said as I killed an UrbiesAC/10. "Maybe I should make my noble sacrifice now?"

"Do it and I drag you back from the dead and proceed to ship you off to Solaris." Natasha said. "And you won't be allowed back until you can prove that your win against an Atlas in an Urbanmech wasn't a fluke."

"Was that the last of them?" I asked after nothing was coming my way.

"I believe it was." Natasha said. "But I sincerely believe that we may have to relocate after this."

"Agreed," I responded before getting Mathis on the channel in order to coordinate a move and double check some things.

"Mathis, Duchess Liao still intact?" I asked.

"She is sir, just a bit shaken up." Mathis replied. "Should I put her on?"

"No Mathis, but have them start packing up the prefabs, we're going to need to relocate before we get pinned down and destroyed by some arty that they were able to hide as well.

"Copy that sir." Mathis replied. "I'm evacing the Duchess to our dropships, and securing her there."

"Good to hear." I replied. "We're moving to the dropships on our own now, but have some of our salvage teams go through with some fireteams, we need some prisoners to give us some intel."