"It All Began With..." (Part 10)

---

• Date: April 5, 3029
• Planet: Twycross
• Location: Salmacis Base, Commander's Office

Mikell began sorting through the expense reports, frowning at the mounting costs without having a Lance ready for action yet. He still wanted that Griffin to fill out the four, but there wasn't any luck finding one. He found more than a few people trying to offload Wasps, Stingers, and Locusts though; Light-class BattleMechs which were remarkably common, built for scouting or light patrol duties. Inevitably they were incapable of holding their own in a battle situation, the first two were humanoid twenty-ton machines which were remarkably similar in profile and mobility. The third, the Locust, had legs designed to be reverse-jointed not unlike a bird's legs and had much of its weight devoted to a fusion engine which made it one of the fastest things on the battlefield. In trade, it was remarkably lightly armed and armored - but if you needed a scout you were hard-pressed to find something better. The jokes about "Lyran Scout Lances" being all Assault-class BattleMechs not included.

But of course, he didn't have the luxury yet of considering that option. The force he had so far was better suited to combat than scouting, being half as fast as the Locust and meant for fighting. To use a Locust in such a force would require a lot more awareness of what it was useful for, and what it could and could not do.

He rubbed his face, sighing as he was getting lost down tangents of thought, and regarded the expense reports again. He really didn't want to be thinking about those, even though he knew this was important. Salaries for Irene, Eva and Elly, Louis, Jade, the technician and medical teams were mounting quickly. On top of that, there were the fees for using the land, the cost for parts to begin serious restoration on the Valkyrie and Warhammer as well as to begin setting up systems and finding new and wonderful ways to bleed out money.

A knock at the door heralded exactly one other way this was, as Irene stood in the door holding an empty shipping box which had been collapsed flat. "Were you ever going to explain this?"

"It appears to be a box." He blinked and squinted past his console display. "I seem to recall a delivery arriving a week ago, is this you finally getting a chance to inventory and make a list?"

"This is a parcel from Rysel Pharmaceuticals."

"Again, that is what it appeared to be." He said slowly. "Why do you bring it up?"

"They don't have a supply line to the Tamar March. How did you get it?" She looked at the box, then him, eyes focusing intently.

Mikell leaned back in his chair. "If I recall, most of what I picked up from them were not pharmaceuticals but medical supplies. Gauze, sterile implements, a couple instruments. If there were medicines packed in there, they would have been non-perishable ones we should have on hand. I'm still working on acquiring the ones with expiration dates, but until we have a first contract saying where we will be and when? I've got to be careful acquiring things too soon. Do you consider this a good enough explanation?"

"I'm just wondering if this wasn't a message."

"Irene." He folded his hands before him and sighed. "I'm far, far too busy mentally to be setting up messages like that for you. I also respect you too much to play games like that, so I'm telling you now there wasn't any hidden message or purpose. You may feel free to believe what you will, of course."

She stared at him for a long moment before shaking her head and letting the box fall into a corner of the office. "Two of the machines have bad starting calibrations, I'm going to need to have those done again. I can do it here, but it will mean the equipment isn't going to be ready for another week."

"Noted. Is there anything you need from me before I start making orders out for purchases?"

"No, thank you." She nodded and left, tugging her labcoat closed. The sound of her walking down the hall was more measured, casual. He guessed that meant she wasn't upset, but he really had no idea just yet.

Mikell resumed looking at the finances and only made it five more lines before he noticed someone in the still-open door. Louis was standing there with a datapad in one hand, and a motor of some sort under the other arm. "What can I do for you, Louis?"

"I have a problem with some of the simulation pods. Turns out whatever collector we got them off of didn't do routine maintenance to ensure they would be in working order. It was enough to have them crated up and stored." He snorted. "I have a list of parts to get pods six through nine working."

"I am still surprised you feel we need that many." Mikell saved his current draft of the financial paperwork and stood up. "Let's take a look at them."

"If you want to set up Lance-sized training exercises you need four." Louis said as he started walking with Mikell towards the simulation chamber. "But a fifth is useful to set up as an observer or command interface. Now, you're about to ask why that becomes nine, and I'll tell you exactly why-"

"Two opposed teams."

"Good. Sharper than I hoped."

"The academy would do it regularly, then turn around and use what was done in the matches to write simulations." Mikell said blandly, and shook his head. "Still, the expense of finding nine of these even in partial working order, these usually go to academies so-"

"No, those are Mark IIIs. These are Mark IIs, the first redesign after the Luposi interface was made the standard. At least they're not the Nick interface, whomever decided analog and digital could mix like that was really pushing matters." He paused and keyed open the door, tilting his head a moment. "It seems someone else is running a simulation."

Mikell stepped in, and glanced at the data panels on the walls showing the feed. Reginald and Casey were squaring off against Olivia and Simone, and the comm chatter was reminiscent of his days at Blackjack. He smiled despite himself, and picked up a headset nearby to put one speaker to his ear.

Reginald was speaking in a calm deadpan, as the marker for the simulation Orion moved behind a forest. "Casey, if you take your Griffin around to your right we can catch Olivia in a crossfire."

"Dream on, Reggie. You try that, and I'm going to toast one of you." Olivia's Warhammer had taken a river ford and was relying on the Valkyrie in Simone's hands to threaten flanks on the Orion. From the brief glance over the damage data, it was paying off but the Orion was far from endangered just yet.

"I can get a clear shot if I take the bluff."

"Don't do it, Simone, I have the low ground." Casey chirped in. "Get up there and I'll knock you off."

"Bring it, girl." The Valkyrie leapt up and turned to train its weapons on the Orion, only for both it and the Griffin to send volleys at it. "Oops! Almost bought it there."

"And that is why we don't stand on top of things where everyone can hit you, class. Stay on the ground." Olivia aimed her right arm's PPC and a bolt seared through the air, striking Casey's Griffin on the side and the damage readout showed a red bloom. "And you're dead, Casey. Or good as, because you left your right side open."

Mikell set down the headset and looked to Louis. "Can I have a recording of this once they finish? I think this will be entertaining and informative." Louis made a non-committal grunt and Mikell walked out to feel a lot better about his chances with this foursome should he get them in the field. Of course, that was just the start. The next steps would require expanding, and getting a contract. His fingers twitched at his side as he thought about this again, and he took a deep slow breath in and out to calm himself. One thing at a time.

---

• Date: May 4, 3029
• Planet: Twycross
• Location: Salmacis Base, Briefing Room

"Ladies and gentlemen, I have good news. We are still operating." Mikell sat down at the table with the other officers, and all of them except for Irene looked up towards him. "Also, I have finally begun looking at new MechWarrior recruits beyond the huge stack which was delivered to me by my contacts." He held up his datapad. "I'll address that shortly, but the bad news is next. We still don't have a viable contract yet, most of what crossed my desk was related to the push on Romulus or garrison work on Giausar." Irene's eyebrow twitched at that; she undoubtedly understood why he'd passed on it.

"Where the hell is Giausar?" Olivia asked Reginald.

"I think it's a Periphery world? I don't know, never heard of it."

"Why aren't we taking garrison duty somewhere then? We could use the quiet and just collect a paycheck for doing a job keeping nobody attacking a planet nobody cares about."

"Well, it depends, if it's the wrong contractor." Reginald glanced over at Mikell, who gave him a nod. "Because when you take those sort of contracts, and the sneaky contractor knows nothing's going to happen anytime soon? They put you up, generously, on their own land and in their own facilities and provide what you need to stay functioning and in the terms of the contract." He drummed his fingers on the table. "What they don't tell you is revealed when after the first few months you're approached about an outstanding bill with them for their services, because they're not going to waive the costs! It costs money to keep facilities running at a level to be combat-ready within an hour's notice, after all, and they're paying you to be ready. If you're not ready, then they don't need to be paying you, and if you're not paying for their services you can't be ready can you? Congratulations, you're now in debt to them." He clapped Olivia on the shoulder, and smiled thinly under his mustache. "Ah, but don't worry! They have a payment plan which will make sure you can pay it all off and be clear, eventually. Maybe in a couple dozen years, and they'll just extend your contract and renegotiate the payment . . . oh, since there's been no sign of enemy action, they're going to have to drop the rate just a bit, you understand . . ."

Olivia shook off the hand. "Sounds like an invitation to be blown up."

"I don't feel like turning pirate." Jade said, balancing a datapad on her fingertips. "By the way, I've seen some of those contracts. They're insidious with how deep they hide the clauses which let them just claim your BattleMechs legally as debt fulfillment." Olivia just stared at her, and she looked over her glasses at her. "And defying it gets you blacklisted. You should be aware, I did work on Galatea for a couple years before your friend there hired me. I saw a lot of contracts, and heard a lot of stories." She tossed the datapad and caught it, smiling at the tabletop. "Now, the Mercenary Review Board does take a dim view of those antics and explicitly forbids doing it. But you have to be able to prove it, which can be often impossible."

"We'll see what happens. We might have to take something soon, but I'm looking at a couple options of simple field work." Mikell cut in, and looked up. "Jade, Irene, Louis. You can stay if you want, but we're going to be going over the six potential recruits I culled from the list so far." The trio stood up, leaving the room, and Mikell tapped the table display to show the files. "Okay, first we have MechWarrior Draven. Twentieth Skye Rangers, resigned from duty three months ago. Pretty decent marks, but a lot of the notes on his file are curious."

"I think there's something here I don't like, boss." Olivia read over the file on her own datapad, tilting her head. "Could be nothing, but let's bring him in. I want to get a look before I let my first reaction get to me."

"Vandal Gray." Reginald was the one who spoke up now, and held up his datapad. "This guy is experienced, looks like he's been in a couple units. It's an obvious alias he's using, and it looks like he's coming from across the Combine border. What do you think, Mikell?"

"I think he's one of the stronger candidates. Depends on what he says when we approach him. Third up, Kelly Sedda, in the Tamar War College current class. All sorts of interesting reports of their test scores, but my contact says they're going to wash her out."

"I don't like the look of this one." Olivia frowned. "I'm seeing a lot of redacted data here, by order of the training officers."

"We'll just have to see what she says and how it looks."

Reginald glanced at Olivia. "I'm going to have to second her reservations. Someone with this much data hidden doesn't smell right to me. But I also agree we should look her over before we make a final decision." He flipped through some more files, and glanced up to the images over the table. "Tomas Cane. Second New Hessen Irregulars? Seriously? That's a bit far from home."

"New Hessen? That's Capellan territory." Olivia glanced over, then up.

"Not anymore, FedCom forces took it last year. Second New Iverson Chasseurs, relatively new unit formed under the new joint forces."

Mikell nodded. "We'll look a little closer, see if he answers our request." He moved on, and pointed. "Glenn Raskin. Blackjack School of Conflict, so there's that, but he's also placed highly enough we might have some competition getting him."

"I'd leave it." Reginald said, and pulled up the data to read over himself. "Yeah, that's what I thought. I can recognize some of what's here, this guy is likely a plant from the LIC." Olivia winced, and shrugged a shoulder as Mikell sat back in the chair and began reading closer. "I can't say for certain, because that's how they work, but there's enough here I've seen with others in the First Regulars who were plants for Loki." The Lyran Intelligence Corps, as an organization, were always willing to put eyes out there and they were known to have both recruited fresh recruits who had a sense of patriotism as well as falsifying data to 'seed' some of their younger-looking members into the academies to quietly work their way into units already chosen for them and report on what they saw. Mostly it was considered harmless, as the LIC agents mostly would just report back everything you did and this was meant to keep you honest. The part of the Corps which called themselves "Loki", on the other hand, was a different story. They were far more active, and were known to be trained for infiltration for much different ends. Usually ends which involved death, property damage, and a great many people left wondering just what happened and how it managed to not be noticed.

"Last. Cadet Otto Greene, trainee in good standing with the Sanglamore Academy. I say good, because as you can see his grades aren't good enough to get him to more than a militia post. However, we can offer him a position to get better training with us than he will get there. Likely he'll live longer."

"Do you want to place a bet?" Olivia asked, flinching a bit as she scrolled through the records herself. "I think he'd be a poor fit with us, he's far too green."

"Well, we do have to start somewhere." Reginald said, but his expression was not pleased. "I don't see anything objectionable here. Invite him, we can put him through a training exercise to see how he does."

"You two have the task of coming up with something which we can use in the training pods." Mikell said, and looked up. "I'd say urban defense with your standard Combine Light lance?"

"Oof." Reginald glanced over at Mikell. "What are we giving them?"

"You come up with it, but we're more likely to pull work facing Combine forces so it seems fair enough to start with that." He stood up and cleared the display, removing his datapad from the table interface. "For now let's send out the six invitations and see what comes out of it."

---

• Date: May 5, 3029
• Planet: [Redacted]
• Location: [Redacted]

It was a picturesque location, a white house made of concrete and glass overlooking a red stone valley with a thin shimmering ribbon of water at the bottom. The path up to the house was watched by various observation posts, and they were tracking a pair of cars heading up the slopes. One of the observation posts with people in it picked up a phone. "Control, this is Calvin at Post Six. Tell the boss his company is arriving now."

As the road ended at the house, the pair of cars stopped, and two figures emerged slowly. They wore black uniforms with only one insignia on the left breast, that of an orange sunburst eclipsed partially by a green planet. They carried carbines, eyes sweeping the area before opening the rear passenger of the car. The woman stepping out of the car wore a saffron-yellow dress with white-gold embroidery at the cuffs and skirt hem. The top part transitioned into something akin to a blazer jacket, the left lapel embroidered with the same white-gold thread in the shape of a wolf's head.

At the door, two people stood waiting. An older gentleman with a white cane in gloved hands and a dark grey suit stood with a younger gentleman in a blue suit next to him. Both suits were hand-tailored, bearing similar embroideries on the lapels, only this time silver in the shape of half an eight-pointed starburst. The older man's embroidery had jade chips sewn into positions on the starburst, and the right breast pocket had a blue rose blossom tucked into it. As the woman approached, he plucked it and offered it to her. "Mademoiselle Reisel?" She ignored his offer, and he shrugged to put it back in the pocket. "I had not expected you for another week."

"If we had known-" The younger man began to speak, but she snapped her head around and looked at him with a withering intensity which made him shut his mouth swiftly.

"Mister Anthony Aliandros." Her escorts stood at the car. "If you had known, would you had still been here?" She waited at the door as the aide hurried to open it for her, and she walked through. The two shared a glance, both unhappy with the presumption. "You have not responded to our missives and requests for clarifications. My father is concerned you may have forgotten your place with us."

"Mademoiselle, I assure you-"

"I didn't want assurances." She turned and looked down at him, Anthony once more struck by just how tall she was. "My father does not want assurances, he wants an explanation." She slowly blinked, her expression neutral. "And he is owed at least that much."

Anthony walked past, flexing his gloved hands before motioning with the cane. "Please have a seat?" She slowly seated herself. "I have some water if you would like a drink. I know this dry air is quite an issue for many who visit here. I have a distillery doing nothing but making water on the premises, ever since that incident with the Capellans."

"Mister Aliandros-"

"I know. You would like me to get to the point." He sat down slowly, and shook his head. "You have come a long way, after all. The point of the matter is how you have been trying to contact me. I left rather specific guidelines the last time I met with you and your father." He lifted two fingers. "You were not to use ComStar services, and you were to do so only if it was necessary."

"It is necessary."

"I am not so certain." He tapped the cane on the floor. "You're talking about the rumor concerning Houndstooth?" Her eyes narrowed and briefly moved to the aide standing there. "He's trusted, otherwise he would not be here. Should I call it by another name? I suppose Dragon's Teeth-"

"Enough!" She snapped out, finally letting her calm demeanor crack, eyes glaring at Anthony. "I should have turned you away when you showed up the first time. Our arrangement has been useful for a time, but you have shown knowledge of a considerable amount of information you should not have."

"This is part of my business. Knowing things. Finding them out. Putting the picture in the proper frame once I know enough." He quickly tapped the cane on the floor twice, shaking his head. "And trying to head it off. Unfortunately, there was an incident I tracked down and heard about. I am now certain you have heard of it as well, involving some members of the Lyran Intelligence Corps and the Internal Security Force who began circulating documents to higher-ranking members. Documents which spoke of several potential worlds on which caches could be located containing military materiel." His eyes held hers even as her nostrils flared angrily. "It goes further, you know. I have it on good authority there are other intelligence agencies starting to get reports. Someone leaked it broadly, and directed the attention at a handful of systems. The Federated Suns- excuse me." He rolled his eyes briefly. "The Federated Commonwealth has seen to it to begin starting training exercises on Phalan, Sakhalin, Dalkeith, and Symington. There are rumors the Free Worlds League has intelligence operatives checking into the planet Carnwath." He glanced at her hands, whose knuckles went white as they held onto the arms of the chair she was sitting in. "And I don't want to draw any more attention to them by putting any of those system names through ComStar's hands. I don't trust them."

Her voice was quiet, soft, and steady as she met his eyes. "What do you know about those systems?"

"I know before we met, there was a survey expedition hired by some people claiming to represent Defiance Industries looking for sites to set up. As soon as they reached Dalkeith, Sakhalin, and Phalan they ran into an unfortunate accident and their ship was destroyed as well as all data about those systems. I know, now, the claims were not true. Someone was making an effort to find something in that area and I believe it was in those three systems. I've narrowed it down considerably, but the rumors in the last year now have done it for me. Someone else was doing the same homework, and now they have a location. It's called White Reach, and there's a lot of rumors going around about what's on that planet."

"I don't see how this concerns us. Or our partnership."

Anthony leaned forward on the cane, lowering his voice. "The 'Jackal's Smile' came from the same system as White Reach. That's how it concerns us." He leaned back, and his hand drifted to rub at his left temple and forehead. "I didn't put these rumors out there. I know who might have, but it's still a theory. I need to look into it first. Personally. I planned on leaving Basalt before the end of the month to take a trip towards Port Moseby and meet my source for information."

Mademoiselle Reisel frowned and glanced out of the windows, then shook her head. "My father is not going to like any of this." She sighed out slowly. "I know I don't like it. Our partnership wasn't supposed to include covering up this sort of thing."

"On the contrary, our partnership was founded on the concept we all could be trusted to keep it quiet. I didn't let the information out, your people definitely did not, so now we have a problem figuring out who else knew enough. Or if nobody else did know, how was it found out?" He spread his hands. "I have people who I trust, and if your father or yourself insist I can put them at your disposal to start looking into it. But I will say one thing more."

"Just one thing?" Her mouth quirked up in a smirk briefly. "Go on."

"My contact fed me a small piece of information recently." He held out a small data storage unit. "I found it interesting, because it involves a BattleMech with a serial number which was decidedly falsified. I did a little digging, the mercenary outfit who registered it have a specific serial number which can be traced to a defunct arms manufacturer operating in coreward Lyran space over two hundred years ago. Well, it could if anyone knew what to look for. So far they expect it goes to a small manufacturer on Hamarr, who made that particular chassis for a time"

She stared at the data storage unit for a long moment as though it were a poisonous snake coiled to strike before plucking it up gingerly. "Bury what you know about it."

"Already done, Mademoiselle. You may want to see what you can do from any other connections you have."

"What about these mercenaries?"

"Newly registered, small in strength. If you want me to bury them too, I might be able to do something about it."

She shook her head, tucking the data storage unit into an inner pocket of her dress. "I would never suggest such a thing." She stood up. "I will talk with my father and try my best to temper his expectations about our partnership with your company, Mister Aliandros. But you had better appear in person for our yearly meetings, on Thorin this year."

Anthony slowly stood up as well, and nodded. "I intend to stop by sometime in August, with my current itinerary. Is there anything else?"

"No." She hesitated on the way to the door. "Just do your best to ensure your side in this partnership is doing all it can for the good of our side of the partnership. Do we have an understanding?"

"Yes, Mademoiselle." She nodded and left, and Anthony let out a long breath. "Cyrano, I want you to make a change to the travel plans. I need to make it to Ryde in July. Also find me a diplomatic pouch to use for a dispatch."

"Sir, I know I'm new to this but you haven't told me anything about who that was and why you let her talk to you like that."

"I'm more surprised she let me talk to her as I did."

"Why?"

"Because I treated it as a conversation between equals, Cyrano, and she does not necessarily think of me as one." He sighed softly. "What I know, and what I let her know I know, are enough to make her uncomfortable. What I need to do now is make sure she or her father don't have a reason to doubt I'm sincere in my partnership. Please find me the diplomatic pouch and bring it to my office, Cyrano. Then resume making travel arrangements."

---

• Date: May 5, 3029; 0430 Local Time
• Planet: Tharkad, Tatyana Islands
• Location: Tropicana

The office was dimly lit this early hour, the occupant quietly working on several different reports at the time. He rubbed his face gently before dismissing two of the floating images and making a signature on the last remaining document. A knock on the door to the office stopped him as he spoke up. "Come in."

The office door opened slowly, and the dark-skinned man entered carefully, glancing around the nondescript office. It was small, underground, and some would say it lacked any personality at all. That was just fine, as it was a temporary location anyway for the person inside it. "Sir, you asked for me?"

"Janus Templar. Please sit." As Janus sat down, he folded his hands and leaned back slightly. "You're one of our agents responsible for operations in the Federation of Skye, last I checked. Do you have any idea what rumors have started circulating lately?"

"Is this about the separatists?"

"No."

Janus sighed, and shook his head. "Then please enlighten me."

"What I am about to talk with you about is, currently, officially unsubstantiated rumors. I trust the sources, however. There are rumors of Lostech caches in the Virginia Shire, but there have not been many specific conclusions drawn yet. It's still enough some of my counterparts have gone and dispatched some 'training lances' from the Federated Suns to a half-dozen systems in the area. I also have seen some reports SAFE operatives have jumped the border from the Free Worlds League and were spotted in the Virginia Shire pretending to be tourists."

Janus cleared his throat, tilting his head. "Is it possible they are, in fact, tourists? I understand there are quite a few attractions-" At the expression on the other man's face he lifted a hand. "Very well. Between this and the committees at the end of last year, I think there is a great deal about to be put on my desk. So to speak."

There was the briefest flash of amusement from the other man. "You have a large desk, you can handle it." He shook his head. "I need a report in a month, Janus. Then I will need to advocate exactly what to do about this rumor when I pass the report to my peers."

"If I may be so bold, I would suggest seeing about similarly dispatching 'training lances' to the area and calling it a war game exercise with our new allies in the Federated Suns." Janus blinked slowly, and shrugged a shoulder. "I do have some contacts I will ask, but I can make no promises on exactly what I may find. Do I have permission to find . . . outside independent help?"

"You mean mercenaries?"

"Or freelancers."

There was a long moment, then a sigh and slump in the chair. "If you must, but do be circumspect about it."

"Naturally." Janus stood up. "Thank you for putting me on this, sir. It will give me an excuse for why the committee still will be waiting on the full disclosure we do not want to give them."

"Mister Templar, I'm shocked. Are you suggesting we conceal information from our allies, or that we not trust them completely?" A dry chuckle. "You'll go far in this business."

"I would prefer simply to stay alive and unknown, sir."