"Operations", Part 3

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• Date: July 15, 3029; Date: 01:22 Local Time
• Planet: [Classified]
• Location: Leopard-Class DropShip "Shadowfox", 'Mech Deck

Mikell was watching the lifter leave the 'Shadowfox' through the cargo doors, and Reginald following at a jog with his jacket and trousers on. "You took time to change too." Reginald said, and looked over at where a small knot of people was situated under the Warhammer's spotlight with the torso leaned to have the Machine Guns in the torso pointed down. "Four dead, two 'MechWarriors as prisoners, a vehicle crew we pulled out of the destroyed tank keeping watch, and a dozen technicians."

"Right, well, the Vedette was never going to be an issue for us." He looked at the quiet tank and the Valkyrie which was still standing over it. A moderately-heavy tank with a Class Five Autocannon was really just good for deterring other vehicles. "The Javelins?" He looked at the two which he had pulled off to the side by dragging them with the BattleMaster. They were built to be fast, maneuverable, and armed with two six-tube short-range missile systems on either side. Exactly what they hadn't wanted to walk into here. "That was a bit much. Add the Valkyrie and it was a question of if we could avoid being outmaneuvered before getting dealt with."

"Shame about the other Valkyrie. But what is that?" Reginald walked to where the lifter was squaring up by the downed form of a Light BattleMech which didn't match anything any of them had seen before. Mikell had a slight inkling about it, but the lack of official documents meant it was an open guess. It wasn't in the database on the 'Shadowfox', either; it was roughly the size of a Locust, but heavier and with the front of it pulled into a beak. The two arms had been turned into a pair of pods, the left one having a spotlight of some sort on it while the right one now held two Medium Lasers. A six-tube short-range launcher was built into the right side under the cockpit assembly. "And why were they firing missiles at it when we arrived?"

"Some sort of weapons test, I presume. Seeing how agile it is? It's a scout of some kind, but what it is doing here and why we don't have any records of it is something for the ages. I do know I'm going to have Louis take a look."

"It's mine. I killed it, it's mine." Kelly spoke up, using the external speakers on her Valkyrie.

Mikell and Reginald shared a brief glance. To be fair, until she had shattered the internal right leg structure apart with two swift kicks it hadn't been going to be easy to take down intact. "Okay, you want to take claim of it? I got a contract to deliver it to a couple folks who want to study it, so you want to pay me what they are?"

"Mikell-"

"Shh." He looked back up at the Valkyrie, which then seemed to shrug. "So what do you want, Kelly?"

"I want something for doing all the work we needed to do."

"Did she just say all the work?" Olivia spoke up in the comms to Mikell's earpiece. "She taking credit for-"

"Quiet, Olivia, let me do this." Mikell subvocalized back, and then spoke up again. "We're supposed to be getting a new 'Mech out of this. You can be in on choosing which one we get, and we'll put your share of the pay as down payment towards it."

"Sounds good." She chirped happily. "We did good today, got a new 'Mech and a new new 'Mech we get to look at!" She leaned down and helped heft the pieces of the leg onto the lifter, before following it towards the 'Shadowfox'.

"Sir, she really is scary effective, but I'm uncomfortable with her." Reginald was saying, watching the lifter heading into the cargo doors, before Kelly moved the Valkyrie towards one side of the DropShip. "The new medications are keeping her from hurting us but she could have been more effective playing the right role."

"The right role was helping us box them in, and when that unidentified 'Mech made a break for it she stopped it. She did her job, Reginald."

"Well, what do we do now about the prisoners? No way they're going to forget us. They'll report us."

"Are you scared of that?"

Reginald stopped and stared at Mikell, before hissing through his teeth. "House forces. These aren't mercenaries or pirates. I know this is kind of your first time doing this sort of thing, but the Houses have long memories."

"You're letting yourself get upset and worked up over nothing." Mikell held up his hand before Reginald could protest, and stared back. "Four things. First, the Houses have long memories for things done to them personally or to threaten their position. Things like a little skirmish are not the sort of thing the ruling nobility nurse a grudge over or devote time out of their days to contemplate how to repay. This is going to fall down the chain of command more than a few rungs. Secondly, these were House forces in another House's dominion and not flying the colors of House Davion." He pointed up, and Reginald looked, realizing there were no symbols here. "So that makes this a secret, and they're not going to make a fuss publicly over a secret."

"Secretly making a fuss over it, though. Also, secret missions have a tendency to have more attention from on high, not less."

"Thirdly." Mikell ignored Reginald's protest, voice firm. "This was a sanctioned mission posted through ComStar, and the Mercenary Review Board will back us if we file complaints about being unfairly retaliated against. And you know even House Davion doesn't want to cross them." Reginald's expression softened and he gave a half-shrug. "Fourth." He paused. "It's going to be a little difficult to conclusively prove our involvement." He turned to look at a trio of medics in white garb carrying a case with them. "The fun thing about finding the right treatment for Kelly is how many extra drugs we wound up with, and what the side effects of them are. Up to and including short-term memory loss of up to a couple hours before the drugs were in the system."

Reginald's face went from worried to wincing, to neutral in a few moments. "This feels wrong."

"Hey. The other option is trying to leave no witnesses. You know, the 'dead men tell no tales' school of secrecy. Only problem is, they generally do paint a gruesome picture and the blood tends to stain more than the hands. So, if you have another option here, you're all welcome to speak up." There was silence, and Mikell nodded. "I thought so. I don't like the option any more than you do, but it's a hell of a lot neater and I don't want to start this outfit off by leaving a big bloody stain when we didn't have to. Get your gear squared away and we'll do debriefing in an hour."

---

• Date: July 29, 3029
• Planet: Ryde
• Location: Ryde Spaceport, Leopard-Class DropShip "Shadowfox"

Mikell opened the door and smiled, motioning. "Louis, how was your trip?" At the soft grunt, he stepped aside and followed. "So, there's a new BattleMech chassis in the hold. I need you to look at it." He noticed the double-take and shrugged. "Look, it's not in the files, and nobody here has run into something like that before. Not only that, I had a tech check out why it seemed to have about five tons taken up by something which was not the engine, weapons, or armor. Guess what?"

"No." Louis glanced around, headed for the cargo area. "I don't feel like guessing."

"Fine. Special equipment nobody has any idea about. It seems to interfere with sensors, though, based on our combat experience."

"Is it possible you damaged it, at all?"

"I had Kelly deal with it after we had trouble getting our sensors to really find it for the fire control-"

Louis looked over a shoulder. "Is that a yes or no?"

Mikell shook his head. "Only damage we had was the leg being shattered and some armor which broke in the fall onto its side. Everything else seems intact and undamaged as far as we could tell. We didn't notice the equipment until we realized we had the discrepancy in weight." They emerged into the cargo bay, and all the techs who were looking over the dismantled 'Mech took one look at the head technician and abruptly scattered. Louis ignored it, simply walking up to the station and reading through their notes. "I've got the meeting tomorrow afternoon, you think you can-"

Louis held up his hand. "In my bag there's the coffee maker, and two bags of coffee beans. Get them to me and you'll have your information tomorrow morning. Assuming this new equipment isn't just something that hums and has pretty lights on it."

Mikell nodded, and walked away, using the subvocal tones into his earpiece to get the thought across as he noticed Olivia standing nearby. "So, is he going to do it?" She asked lightly. "He sounds annoyed."

"Yes, well. I didn't hire him for his charm, I hired him for his talent. Also, if his eyes are any indication he's been awake overnight. And I just dropped a significant issue on him, so I guess he'll be busy until he gets an answer."

"Right. Well, Elly said to find you, there's a message which came in. Eyes only, sealed." She glanced at the closed cargo bay door. "So-"

"Olivia, do you want to go in there before he has his coffee maker?" She shook her head and walked off, and he hesitated before hurrying to catch up. "Have you seen Kelly?"

"Should have put a bell on her if you wanted to keep track of where she was." She said lightly, and stepped aside for one of the assistant technicians to rush past with a bag. "Reginald took Vandal and Otto out for work restocking our supplies. Ammunition, spare parts, maybe with Otto along they'll remember to get food."

"They got food the last time."

"Soy protein pressed into cubes and flavored with preservatives?" She made a face. "Come on, boss."

"It was edible. It had the right nutritional value."

"So does granola. I still throw it to the local avians."

Mikell waved her off as they parted ways, climbing upwards to the control center. "I heard there was a message for me?" Eve simply grabbed one of the datapads from under the console and handed it to him blindly. He started reading it as he walked down the hall towards the briefing room. It was mostly routine report stuff, at first, then there was something from one of his contacts regarding a potential line on a larger class of DropShip. Something which would be capable of carrying a full three Lances of BattleMechs and some support vehicles, though it was explicitly said not to be a Union-Class. He arched an eyebrow at that, and decided it would pan out when they got something more solid. On the other hand, there was also a note about another possible contract which had people looking for help. It wasn't an official one yet, but if he was interested the clients would put it through. Of course, there was still this contract to finish up before then. He also needed to find Kelly, to let her know she would be needed tomorrow.

---

• Date: July 30, 3029; 09:01 Local Time
• Location: Ryde Spaceport, Meeting Room C6

Mikell was in the room already as the Lyran Intelligence agent arrived, preceded by a different bodyguard than last time. They noticed Kelly standing to one side, idly running sandpaper over a piece of metal, and dismissed her after a moment. Kelly seemed to notice, eyes flicking up and then back to her work. As the agent settled into a seat, he cleared his throat. "So, I understand your mission is complete. Very good. What did you find?"

"There's a brand new chassis of a Light BattleMech sitting in our cargo hold." Mikell said lightly, and leaned forward. "There is, indeed, new technology on it. I had my head technician look it over specifically to rule out whether it was merely some exotic Lostech. It's new." At the wince from the other man, he put a lighter tone to his voice. "You said you wanted proof, definitive proof. I have sensor logs from my BattleMaster, a Warhammer, a Valkyrie, and an Orion which were present. I also have one of the 'MechWarriors who was on the mission here, who took it down personally when we had some trouble."

Kelly stopped working on the metal and wriggled her fingers at the duo of Intelligence agents. "Yeah, it'll just need a new pair of legs. It was either that or tear the head off and I couldn't manage that. Sorry."

The agent looked between her, then Mikell, then sighed in irritation. "Our agreement wasn't to include hostile action."

"Your contract forgot to specify that. It also was written in such a manner that simply visually identifying the target or getting photos was not going to be enough." Mikell laced his fingers together and leaned his chin on it quietly. "We were going to have to seize it to be absolutely certain. I am somewhat sure you knew about this."

"But by being seen, you've now possibly caused issues with our allies-"

Mikell shook his head slowly. "We didn't let on who we were working for. No real time for it. Now, we could, but that would be sloppy. Now, I had been spending this morning arranging for the dismantled BattleMech to be sealed up in a shipping container for you to pick up. Along with our reports on the unusual new technology we found, so you have it all in one place."

"Your actions could be considered breaching the contract, you know." The agent frowned, clearly trying to think. Mikell supposed it was always the plan to back out of actually paying, once he got to thinking on the offer of a brand new BattleMech. The value was simply too high for a covert mission. "We should discuss-"

"Now hold on." Mikell unlaced his fingers and held his hands out palm-up. "We did this in good faith, and followed the letter of the contract. Now, while you offered us a new BattleMech I am perfectly okay with avoiding insisting on . . . say, an Atlas or Zeus. We're quite happy accepting something fifty tons or under." The statement seemed to confuse them, as if they expected exactly that. "You obviously had something in mind when you talked with us, speaking of a brand new chassis and model?"

"Yes. But we still haven't settled the question if you actually should be given a reward."

"I'm content to accept your judgement of the contract being voided due to a breach." Mikell sighed, sitting back. "I'll talk to the MRB and we'll settle whether there should be a black mark on our record." As the agent started to push the chair back to stand up, the commander continued slowly. "Then we will return the BattleMech to the Federated Suns with my apologies, as I expected it was a legitimate contract job I undertook."

"Now hang on, that should be ours."

"Not if you want the contract voided." Kelly finally spoke up. "I went through the effort taking the thing intact for you, save for the legs. I'd like some return for my effort."

"Ma'am. Please understand, if we accept it then that means we approved of your conduct."

"It could have gone worse." She said, abruptly serious. "If anyone died, it was because we couldn't prevent it. Everyone we left was treated for any injuries. We didn't do this with a body count in mind." She then sighed. "It would have made it so much easier, though."

"Commander, this is one of your 'MechWarriors. Who laments not killing someone?"

"Yes, well, she is correct. It would have made it easier if we hadn't kept it in mind. Gentlemen, you have a new model of a Medium-class BattleMech which was developed through 'our' allies in the Federated Suns." Mikell tapped his datapad connected to the conference table, and a wireframe image projected itself over the table. A gangly, thin BattleMech with an oddly-shaped head and a heavy hatchet in the right hand. "The HCT-3F Hatchetman , armed most notable with its namesake, a Class Ten Autocannon, and two Medium Lasers. Forty-five tons, pretty good piece of equipment."

"And you want this one, then? Well, I hate to disappoint but we don't have-"

"Oh, my mistake. This was developed by the Federated Suns!" Mikell interrupted. "Kelly found this in the recent reports, by the way, and it was interesting. The Wolfhound, I think you called it? TharHes was working on it, it's in the prototype phase from my guess. I understand it went through some testing in the field but that was with the Kell Hounds, right? How did it work?" They glanced at each other. "Hey, some things can be found out through buying the right people a drink or asking the right questions."

The agent spoke softly, only his eyes betraying how he was feeling about this. "And what will people find out if they buy you a drink, Commander?"

"Nothing. I don't gossip, I do business. I'll note this information is also available to those who know how to find it, publicly." He motioned out the window in a direction, and at the brief confusion on the agent's face he spoke up. "ComStar keeps incredibly detailed records, you know. And if you know what to ask about, you can get a fair amount of data and put together an interesting picture. Assuming ComStar ever finds out about it, of course. Which is why you will help my MechWarrior who secured your new technology acquire her very own Wolfhound. Then the only thing on file is a contract with ComStar which lists no system name and no target affiliation, only that Priam Company undertook a mission under the auspices of the Lyran Intelligence Corps. We might be pegged as the people who did this, but you have all the deniability in the world if you just approve the contract as complete. If we have to dispute it, then information will of course have to be filed to help prove our case to the Review Board, and-"

"We get the picture, Commander." The agent folded his hands before him. "Are you finished spelling out the terms of your blackmail?"

"Blackmail? Hardly, merely asking for our contract to be honored. We would like one new WLF-1 Wolfhound delivered here for us. Reimbursement for our repairs and expended ammunition, and a small stipend on top of it." He slid the datapad over. "I knocked a zero off the contract value, because I figured that it was a little excessive. I hope you agree, this is a fine deal for all of us."

"Yes, I think so. Does your-" He stopped at Mikell's glance to Kelly, and the agent turned his head. "Do you have any particular requests about your Wolfhound, miss?"

"I'd like it to come in red, please. I think red is a good color." She grinned broadly, and stood up. "That's all."

"I'll put it on file, and send you the shipping records for her 'Mech." The agent finally stood up. "I trust you will not see fit to remember much about this mission?"

"Unless I have a need to, no. Safe travels, sir."

After they left, Kelly giggled behind her hand. "Did I do okay?" As he nodded, she stretched her arms behind her. "I can't wait for my new toy."

"Now now, Kelly. It'll take some time and I'm almost certain they'll find a way to make it take as much time as they reasonably can." Mikell collected his datapad and wiped the data cache from the conference table with a practiced motion. "For now, I'm just happy we managed to do this because of you."