"Operations", Part 8

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• Date: August 20, 3029
• Planet: Ryde
• Location: Ryde Spaceport, Hangar C16

Mikell settled into a chair and looked over at the Black Eagle-class DropShip sitting there with the new emblem painted onto it. Louis was sitting beside him, half-sprawled there in all his tired presence; it was so bad Mikell swore he felt his own energy fading away from him. Olivia and Reginald walked up, hesitantly looking at the two of them. "What is it?" Reginald asked after a moment. "Don't tell me the life support failed again."

"I won't tell you, then. Jade is working on it before the next plugs-out test." Louis was the one who spoke up. "At least fire suppression kicked on this time."

"Downside, there was no fire to suppress." Mikell added, then let out a long and slow sigh. Louis lifted his head to stare at him, and Mikell turned his head to look back. "What?"

"Never assume there's no fire until we get back on there and check it over for damage. And by we I mean you stay the hell away from it until we get it behaving. I thought we had it this time." He muttered to himself. "I'm going to go make more coffee." He got up and walked off, hands in the pockets of his coveralls. "Damned museum-bound deathtrap." He muttered and shook his head before vanishing out of sight.

"So, aside from a cranky head tech short on sleep, how is it going?" Reginald asked, walking to stand beside the chair.

"I also have a cranky IT person short on sleep doing debugging."

"Isn't that their normal state?" Olivia asked, shrugging. Then she paused. "Don't tell Jade I said that."

"She designed the comm system and probably heard it, or will later." Mikell stretched his legs. "Good news is the 'Mechs are all in order now. Louis took a moment to figure out what was up with the BattleMaster's PPC's power system. The thing causing it to heat up over tolerance?"

"What was up with it?"

"Crossed wiring."

Olivia blinked a few times. "How- nevermind. It's fixed now, right?" He gave a thumbs-up and nodded. "Did we name it?"

"Yeah, got a bottle of wine and everything." He made a vague wave of his hand. "It's now the 'Aquila'. Registry went through without a hitch, which is about the only thing which did for the damn thing."

"So, what's next? Are we still doing this job?"

Reginald looked around, then back at the two. "Real question, do we want to try to skip on it? We still can do so, right?" He'd lowered his voice, almost pleading.

"No. We're not skipping on it, and we can't do so without incurring penalties. The plan right now is to deal with this contract. It's low-profile, it's simple, and the contract is well-defined. Jade and I looked it over for loopholes they could use to mess with us."

"Wasn't she supposed to be working on the 'Aquila''s systems?"

"I bought her a bottle of sake and drank it with her." Mikell shook his head. "We get back to Salmacis, restock and do a final check on the new ship before we hit the Periphery frontier." He stood up. "Oh, right, Olivia?" As she blinked at him, he darted out his hand and twisted at her ear only enough to be painful as he leaned in. "Do not do something as stupid as firing your pistol in public again just to prove a point." He hissed softly. "I am lucky it turned out all right, but that's just the kind of leverage which could put us in bad waters real fast. Do you get me?" She started to nod and thought better of it. "Promise me you won't do something like that again?"

"I promise! Ow! Let go!" After he let go, she glared at him. "Damn, sir, why are you so worried?"

"I don't have the luxury of bailing you out because you shot someone's foot off in public." Louis was coming out of the DropShip, waving. Mikell scowled, and then poked her shoulder before walking off. He turned his head to call over his shoulder. "Use a knife next time, after you get it back from Kelly." Olivia patted herself down, then swore and ran off. Mikell knew it wasn't too fair to put this on her, or to point out Kelly having the knife. After all, Kelly would return it sharp enough to split a hair and smile the whole time. Then probably offer to teach how to skin hares or something.

Louis noticed the expression, and glanced past. "So, trouble?" As Mikell shook his head, the tech nodded and pointed over at the ship. "We're ready for the next round of tests. Jade gives it about one out of ten odds something doesn't work properly, and one in five it'll just be the fire control circuit again. Also good news, you were right! Nothing caught fire, but there was a short in the sensors we had to fix by tightening down the wiring again."

"Okay, good, let's-" He paused as Louis grabbed his jacket. "-watch from a good safe distance."

"I tell people you're a quick learner, good to see you actually are."

---

• Date: August 21, 3029
• Planet: Ryde
• Location: Leopard-Class DropShip 'Shadowfox'

"All systems are good, we have clearance to take off whenever we're ready." Eve said over a shoulder. "Aquila is set to follow our lead. Elly has them patched in on channel two." She turned back around, and settled back into the chair. A flip of a switch at her left hand, and she spoke into her comm. "This is your captain speaking, please secure yourselves and your belongings. We will be taking off momentarily. Priam Company is not responsible for broken or misplaced items because you were too busy to batten down the britches."

Mikell closed his eyes, waiting on the launch to be over. Time ticked by as he felt the DropShip in motion over to where it could launch, then the steady and powerful acceleration which pushed him back into the seat. He focused instead on listening to Eve speaking into the comms to the traffic control, a little put off he had never bothered to learn how to do it. After what seemed like no time at all, there was a weightlessness which came to follow and he opened his eyes.

"This is Aquila. We were a little rough on takeoff but we're green now. How's it look from where you are?"

"Aquila, Shadowfox." Eve peered out the corner of the windows. "You have a missing armor panel, you know that? Other than that, you're looking good."

"Panel? Well, once we get to Salmacis we should be able to run the fabrication for it properly. Let's be moving, how long is this going to be?"

"Well there's the problem of the war still being on and military ships having priority. The fancy LIC codes won't get us more than a little bit of a bump in traffic." Eve looked like she was doing the math. "I'd say two months, maybe ten weeks maximum."

"Ugh, okay then. We'll have plenty of time to work on what we have." Mikell shook his head. "Which for me, is all the administration paperwork."

"Could hire an assistant?"

"And then I'd have to pay them too. No thanks. Not yet." He unbuckled the seat harness. "I'll be in my cabin, Eve. Try not to have any unscheduled emergencies."

She turned around as he was leaving the cockpit. "Are you saying we have scheduled emergencies now?!"

"Can't answer that. Just keep your eyes open, okay?" He walked into the briefing room, and settled in with a sigh.

"You're kidding about it, right? Ten weeks, tops, to Salmacis and then another four to Anywhere?" Olivia fidgeted against the straps. Mikell and Reginald glared at her. "What? I'm highly annoyed at this. What happened?"

"Well, there are no JumpShips going our direction half the time, so we have to wait." Reginald returned to looking at his datapad, eyes tracing to find where he had left off. "That rather inflates travel time. On the plus side, we found out there's no border issues in the Tamar Pact."

"No, there's only more political problems. But that's at Tamar, not Twycross." Mikell said patiently. "The downside is there's a little bit of tension in the air about mercenaries, and it makes me so happy to be shipping out to Anywhere and away from this crap. So, how are you feeling about Aubrey's work as Lance lead?"

The other two share a look. "Oh, it could use some work." Reginald said slowly. "Are you thinking about a third lance now? When we don't have money or 'Mechs?"

"We could have whatever we pull off the pirates." He resumed reading his own datapad. "Speaking of, there's some intel which was sent over to us from our employers." He tapped the pad to the table and pulled a cable to interface it in. "The pirates appear to have a few 'Mechs and combat vehicles, some of those being hovercraft adapted to work in the cold. One Medium-class BattleMech, chassis and model unknown. Lots of bug 'Mechs." The Stinger, the Wasp, the Locust all were pretty popular for pirates; they were easily acquired since they were overproduced, and it was remarkably easy to come by parts even out in the edges of the Inner Sphere. They also were fast, making them adept at raiding, not to mention most of those had hands. "So, now we can see the goal here. That means we can work up some simulations to practice while we're in transit."

The shipwide comm clicked on. "Attention, this is your captain speaking. Traffic control has given us the green light to lift. Please secure everything you don't want breaking against a wall."

"But that's for later. For now, enjoy the ride"

---

• Date: January 24, 3030; 03:30 Local Time
• Planet: Anywhere
• Location: High Orbit, Leopard-Class DropShip "Shadowfox"

Mikell was awakened an hour earlier than he anticipated by the intercom crackling to life. "Sir, we have a problem." Elly's voice was tense, and carried a note of urgency which shook him mostly out of sleep. He groaned, grumbled, and reached for his comm earpiece, missing the first and second tries. "Sir, please respond."

He finally got it into his ear. "This is Mikell. What is the problem?"

"We were just about to reach the planetary orbit when the pirates appeared from a Jump point closer than expected. The Aquaphos factory supervisor requested we make all due haste to protect them."

He sat up, and rubbed at his face with a hand. So-called 'Pirate Points' existed in most systems, where you could theoretically jump in a JumpShip close to the planet instead of having the usual seven or eight days to the safe Jump Points charted around the planets. The reason Pirate Points were dangerous was the unpredictability, as there were good odds the points could be invalid due to various reasons and cause a misjump. Which was a terrible, unpredictable, way to put yourself in the hands of chance. Mikell briefly recalled trying to learn about the art of navigation, and the headache it gave him. He also really, really wished he was more awake.

"Get us dropping in as quick as possible. Can we beat the pirates to the facility?"

"Yes, but we'll need to be ready to disembark and the Aquila won't be able to handle the rapid descent. They'll be thirty minutes behind."

"Okay, wake up Louis and tell him to start getting the 'Mechs online. I'll wake everyone else up." Mikell shrugged on a shirt and killed the intercom transmission before putting on his boots. Then he looked down, scowled, and removed the boots so he could put on pants first. "Too damn early in the morning for this."

The same sentiment was shared by Olivia, who blearily swore people would die over this. Reginald just sighed and made a detour for coffee at the tech's breakroom, knowing that cup would hold enough caffeine to wake him from a dead sleep. Casey just grunted and plucked up her cooling harness from where she'd been tinkering with the clasps to get it to sit right.

In twenty minutes, Louis was still shouting at the tech teams to ensure the full ammunition load for the Orion and Warhammer, while Mikell ran the startup sequence and checks on his BattleMaster. Olivia was turning everything on in her cockpit, focused on making sure everything came back ready. Then the startup sequence hit a snag, which Mikell glanced over and hit one of the override buttons.

Aubrey stuck his head into the open hatch. "Sir. I really need to talk to you."

"Does it have to be now, 'MechWarrior Duchen?"

He hesitated. "Sir, I think it's not entirely a good idea for you to take the field yourself."

Mikell froze, and sighed. "We had this conversation before. I think we had this conversation before, but it could be the abrupt wake-up which is confusing me. Have we had this conversation before?"

"Yes, sir. But you just told me to shut up."

"What makes you think this is going to go any different, this time?" He tapped a button. "Louis, forego loading the machine gun rounds for the BattleMaster. I've got a fire control error for them and it won't be able to fire."

Louis came back over the comm, with a sigh. "Copy that."

"Sir-"

"Aubrey, clear the hatch or I'll shut it on you."

"You really don't leave me any choice here." Aubrey said slowly, and then Mikell felt a sting in the back of his shoulder. As his senses dulled and became fuzzy, he heard Aubrey calling for a medic and tech team.

---

• Date: January 24, 3030; 09:30 Local Time

The next thing Mikell knew he was waking up on a bed and had Olivia and Reginald on either side of the bed. Irene was scowling at the foot of the bed, hands behind her back. "This is going to be the last time you show up in here due to being drugged, I hope?" Her tone was annoyed, and the fact they were all standing properly told Mikell they had made it planetside.

Mikell started to speak, and felt a headache pound through his skull. He groaned, and closed his eyes, forcing the words out. "Olivia, find Aubrey. Have the techs chain him to the nose of the Shadowfox and then let's break for orbit."

"Not gonna happen, sir."

"Mutiny, is it?"

Reginald cleared his throat. "If you like. He had a point. You were just not going to listen." He leaned back and then sat on the adjacent medical bed. "Every officer on the Shadowfox was going to drop, and every member of the company command included. If anything happened on the mission, Priam Company would be without leadership."

"And we're all here so nothing happened on the mission, did it?"

Olivia and Reginald shared a look, then Irene spoke up. "Aubrey Duchen took a laser hit to the head of his 'Mech and is suffering a minor concussion. He's in observation in another room."

"Oh well so long as it's minor, then I can still upgrade it to major." Mikell tried to sit up and found the room spun a bit too much for him to stay upright. "Okay, what's with this?"

"And young Aubrey also doesn't have a clue how much to dose someone with so they pass out, so you are suffering from a small overdose of tranquilizer." Irene clicked her tongue. "Which is also why you have your legs strapped to the bed, so you don't fall out of it again."

"Again?"

"You'll have my full report on it once you recover, now if you don't mind I'm going to look in on the young man in the other room." She turned and left, and Olivia looked off to the side before speaking up.

"The mission was a success, though. We managed to break the pirates' offensive and keep them from doing excessive damage to the factory. They didn't surrender, but that didn't matter. On the plus side, once Louis can sort out parts we probably have a whole Locust which can be re-assembled from the two they were using. The vehicles are mostly useless, though. The Aquila took them on board into storage."

"Small victories."

"Major victory. Turns out the pirate DropShip saw the fight turning and burned out in a hurry. I don't think we'll have anyone back soon and Janice thinks she can train a local group to handle short-range launchers and other defensive measures to sell off. Training the defense force will make it doubtful the pirates will make another easy score."

Reginald stood back up. "In the meantime, I say you promote Aubrey and let him be operational command of Sagittarius Lance." Olivia looked at him quickly. "Unless you want it."

"Hell no, I hate paperwork. And debriefings."

"Well, I prefer to follow instructions than give them." Reginald looked to Mikell. "You think on it. For now, let the doc flush those tranquilizers out of your system and relax."

They left, Mikell letting himself relax back into the bed, even as at the corner of his mind he heard a voice he hadn't wanted to hear again. "Are you sure you're cut out for this?"

"Miles, shut up, you're a hallucination in my brain from the painkillers." Mikell clenched his hands. "Let me sleep it all off."

"I'd wish you pleasant dreams, but we both know that's not going to happen."

"When I find you, I am so going to kick your-" He half-mumbled, then felt sleep drag him down.