"White Reach: Landfall" (Part 3)
- Date: August 4, 3031
- Planet: White Reach, Orenn Continent
- Location: Pierson Lake, "Calderon Firebase"
"Sir." The woman on duty at the comm center was on the other side. "We just picked up a DropShip, Union-class, making landfall east of here. We don't know who it belongs to yet but they seem to be putting down at one of the old Castellan properties." The continent had quite a few of those around, but since Pryde's Crucible had arrived Castellan had been pulling back more and more into their more fortified locations. As though the mercenary outfit was planning on robbing them. Then again, if they had something to hide, maybe it was worth looking into.
And if they were buying mercenary aid, that could mean they knew where this cache was. "Do you know if it's a bid by Castellan to reclaim it?"
"Unknown. We're still getting long-range interference with our spotters. What do you want to do about this?"
Pryde considered what they had on hand to take a look, then nodded to himself. "Okay, warm up the Crusader, Dervish, and Warhammer, then see who volunteers to help escort them for a look. I want to know who's out there."
"Very well, sir. I'll inform you when they're ready to be briefed."
"We don't need a formal briefing, just have Lieutenant Byron take care of it." He rolled his eyes dismissively. A scouting mission didn't need all that much fanfare, just picking the squad and sending them off. They didn't need him to hold their hands. Once they got back, of course they'd discuss what the intel they got meant. Until then, it was just a matter of letting them do their jobs.
- Planet: White Reach, Pelea Continent
- Location: Dropship 'Aquila', 'Mech Deck
"No, just taking a look and seeing how the task is going." Mikell looked around, and sighed. "What's the story?"
"Once upon a time there were six BattleMechs who got the living hell kicked out of them, and now I have to put them back together. The end." Louis muttered as he crossed to the coffee machine and looked at it. "This isn't mine. Why is mine missing again?" He snapped his fingers, then looked under the counter, pulling another one of the same model out with a red warning label on it. "Okay, good, nobody needs to die today."
"You know-"
"I'm joking." He rumbled, already setting up his modified coffee machine. "This couldn't wait for a daily briefing?"
"That would have been an hour ago and we only met to discuss the latest issues with politics, bureaucracy, and more politics." He looked around. "And before I play hardball with the planet's government I need to know how we're doing on supplies."
"Well, ammunition is good. We can stretch that out a bit. Armor, though, I went through about a third of our supply we brought with us just putting things back together. Other repairs aren't as much of an issue, but we're going to be taking our time to repair rather than replace." He sighed. "If you can get a replenishment for armor that'd be great."
"I'll keep it in mind. No problem with the Wolfhound?"
"It was shot more or less clean off, but the process has us replacing the whole arm structure due to the shoulder joint being frozen in place after it hit the ground. Now, the real trouble was figuring out the problem with the Warhammer. We're restoring the software from backup now, thank Jade for that step." He looked over his shoulder. "What are you expecting next? A pair of Highlanders or something?"
"Please don't joke about that, Louis." Ninety tons, jump capability, and incredibly thick armor did not sound like something Mikell wanted to consider dealing with sosoon. "I'm just trying to figure out what's going on with the signal interference. Jade's scrambled channels weren't affected but the wide comm band was, and we lost capability to talk to anyone else on the surface so far. There's some civilians using short-wave-"
"Okay, then what you are looking at is probably not a local jamming." Louis interrupted. "I've seen this before once, it was nasty work. Something the Draconis Combine was using which played havoc with long distance or unsecured communications. I never learned much about exactly what it was, but I know-"
"Ah, you said Combine?"
Louis blinked, and watched the coffee machine for a few breaths. "Well, yes, they've gotten pretty far ahead with communications technology from all accounts. The Forces couldn't disrupt their comms as much, so they stopped trying it."
"Interesting tidbit, thanks."
"Does it buy me another day of you avoiding the 'Mech Deck? I need to focus." Louis grumbled under his breath. "Ask Jade to look into it. I only know what I had to work with, and it wasn't for very long after I told them it wasn't a hardware issue." He walked off. "And remind Aubrey he can't catch autocannon rounds with the BattleMaster's body!"
- Date: August 13, 3031
- Location: Dropship 'Aquila', Briefing Room
"Oh, great, another Atlas?" Olivia rolled her eyes.
"No, no Atlas. Instead it's a Stalker."
"That's not better!" She groaned, and put her hands over her eyes. "Eighty-five tons of screw you." Another Assault-class BattleMech, the Stalker was a plodding machine which didn't move all that fast but in turn was armed with pairs of weaponry. Large Lasers, long-range and short-range missile launchers, Medium Lasers... it bristled with as much weaponry as you could fit on it, plus enough sink capacity to keep it from glowing brightly when firing half of that.
"Escorting it are two Stingers, a Shadow Hawk, another Orion, and a Vulcan." Mikell finished. "The Vulcan appears to be the 5T model, meaning it needs to close to be effective with four Medium Lasers. Just keep an eye on it, and we can handle it with the Shadow Hawk. If we can keep the Orion and Stalker from being too much of a nuisance, this shouldn't be too bad."
"So the BattleMaster is out, we're deploying . . . what?"
"I want to deploy the Raven and Locust to try to track down their approach and see if they have friends. Otto, Vandal, that's you. Everyone except Aubrey, you need to be ready for this. Reginald, you have the battlefield command for this. With the interference going on, I'm going to be working with Jade to try to figure out what's going on. Aubrey will be doing operational command instead."
Aubrey looked around, then raised his hand. "Are you sure about this, sir?"
"I'm sure about one thing, we need to kill this jamming. Or figure out what it is so we can function normally."
"Okay, but our scrambled channels are working, right?" Otto looked around. "So we should be good-"
"No, the scrambled channels are short-range." Reginald said, leaning towards him slowly. "So you and Vandal are going to be out of contact with us while you're out there. Don't engage anyone, and don't get out of sight of each other." Otto's eyes widened, and Reginald shook his head, sitting back upright again. "Vandal will know what to do."
"Yeah, don't worry about it." Vandal said cheerily. "If there's a problem, we just run until we're back in range of the 'Aquila's communications."
"Hold on! I know. We could have the 'Shadowfox' flying-"
"Eva will skin you alive for suggesting that." Mikell interrupted. "Reginald has the right of it. You're going to need to scout and you're going to absolutely not make contact. It's a Locust, and a Raven, against whatever they have as backup or a rear guard. At least two more units I think." He tapped his fingers on the table. "Anything else?"
"Sir?" Olivia held up her hand. "If we take down the Stalker, do we keep it?"
"Anything we take down is going to be ours this time. All right, people, let's get moving."
- Location: Leopard-class DropShip 'Shadowfox', Briefing Room
"Well I knew it was likely you wouldn't be able to do much, but I felt the long shot was worthwhile." Mikell frowned, looking to the information he had pulled up. "So far, I'm trying to pick up what we intercepted from the other side and run it through your decrypt sifter. It's not picking up much, all things considered. What I am picking up is some group called the 'Birdwatchers'."
"Yeah. I asked a couple questions when I was out the other day with Louis picking up electronic parts." She paused. "They're civilians, who got their name because the network they put together was used primarily for birdwatching and sharing information among those people as to migratory patterns. Apparently the native fauna includes a lot of different types of bird-" She stopped and waved a hand. "Cutting to the point. When the interference began making the long-distance networks fail to work properly, and ComStar shut its doors, the hobbyists switched focus and began keeping a sort of city watch. They coordinate with emergency dispatchers, too, civil service meets volunteers."
"And they were watching the battle. Elly got recordings of everything, and they seemed apprehensive about our presence. The High Senate is still not meeting so I can't handle that deal, but the Common Senate should be meeting again in a couple days. I plan on putting in an appearance."
Jade stopped her work and looked up. "Why?"
"Because we can't keep behaving like we're either above or beyond the local law."
"We kind of are, though."
Mikell rolled his eyes and got back to work. "Okay, picking something out here, I think we have our mystery combatants. They're going by 'Harbingers' if the decrypt you wrote is working properly."
"Harbingers? Of what? Really, someone wasn't sure what they wanted to call themselves." Jade sighed, and looked over as she began moving files around again. "Okay, if Louis can do a few modifications to the comm systems later, we might be able to punch through the interference cleanly for short-range comms. I will recommend we use the 'Shadowfox' as a mobile center, but-"
"It's not really built for that, the thing doesn't really glide too well and the engines are made to thrust into orbit. And that's assuming we can convince Eva it's perfectly fine to do it, which is a tall order." Mikell stood up at a chime from the intercom. "Elly, what's up?"
"Reginald is coming back. We've run into a problem, some of the enemy took off running and it's not along the direction they came. Tracking them shouldn't be hard, but they'll be moving fast. If we can't stop them from reaching wherever they parked their DropShip, they'll be gone."
"Okay, tell Louis we need to get Kelly and the Wolfhound ready quickly. What else didn't take serious damage?"
"Good news there, most everyone came back fine. The Warhammer needs mostly armor repaired, the Wolfhound didn't get beat up too badly, and we dragged three 'Mechs off the field they abandoned." Elly paused. "I'll let Reginald fill you in more. There's an Orion, a Stinger, and a Stalker waiting for you to decide what to do with."
"Tell Louis the Stinger gets priority, we can use that to chase down the enemy." Mikell looked over to Jade. "I'll meet Reginald on the 'Aquila'." He shut the intercom off and turned back around. "See what you can dig up about the source of the disruption, if we can find it we can stop it."
Jade waved a hand in a vague salute, not even looking up from her work. "Go ahead. I'll be at this for a while before I have something to give Louis about the comm systems."
- Location: DropShip 'Aquila', 'Mech Deck
But there wasn't a lack of arguments, as Mikell heard raised voices and started to drift in that direction. "You people are going to be a problem for me." Louis was poking Reginald in the chest, scowling. The 'MechWarrior sighed, shaking his head. "No, listen to me, Reginald. I have only so much spare armor and other parts, until we can get some sort of resupply going. "This." He jabbed a finger at the Stalker which had cranes holding it upright while the leg was dismantled. "This monstrosity is going to take literal tons of them unless we put it on the back burner. So I am not going to fix it."
"We can certainly use the firepower it could give us, you know that." Reginald was saying, patiently. "If those idiots with the Atlas come back? Last time we barely managed to push them back."
Mikell cleared his throat and both men turned to look at him. "Louis?" Mikell spoke up, keeping his tone mild. "Please don't reprimand my 'MechWarriors." He looked to Reginald. "Reginald, don't tell Louis how to do his job. I was hoping to catch you in debriefing, but I find out you're down here giving a hard time to the techs. They have a hard enough time right now."
Louis frowned and folded his arms. "Why are you making sense?"
"Because it's been less than a week and we've been in two intense battles which have your crews all but burned out." Mikell replied and glanced to Reginald. "Take your time." Louis nodded and glanced to Reginald. "And Louis? Fix the damn Stalker when you can. Use what you have, and if we're short on supplies it can be held back in reserve."
"I almost thought you were being sensible."
"He is." Reginald looked over at Louis, then Mikell. "I'm sorry sir, I was presuming too much-"
Mikell looked between the two. "I appreciate my people taking initiative, but I really appreciate it more when we all get along." He inhaled slowly and let out a sigh. "We're on our own here until I can convince the Senate we're not here to loot the planet like the rest of the mercs here. Which, hopefully, starts as soon as I get the authorization to speak to the Common Senate."
"What about the High Senate?"
"They're still not talking, and that's my problem, not yours." Mikell looked upwards. "Kelly, Olivia, and Vandal should be back before dark. I'm hoping they have good news about these attackers, but if not I want to be prepared for what happens if they come back at us." He sighed, and tapped Reginald on the shoulder. "Let the techs work, in the meantime get some rest. If things keep up at this pace we may need you back in the seat again in the morning."
"God willing, that won't be the case." Reginald muttered and headed of. Louis shot a look after him, then looked to Mikell.
"Do you expect thanks? Me working harder to prove something?"
"No. I expect you to do your job exactly as you would any other time. You're tired too. Get some sleep soon as your so-called coffee wears off. Also, hopefully we can get out of this hole with the Senate soon."
- Date: August 30, 3031; 08:56 Local Time
- Planet: White Reach, Pelea Continent
- Location: White Reach Governmental Center, Common Senate Chambers
"Will everyone find their seats?" The Chamber Master spoke up, his earpiece having a small jaw-bone microphone near the corner of his mouth. "Commander Sethan, have you been sufficiently apprised of the rules of order here?"
"I was handed some last week with the... request to appear here." It was phrased like a request, anyway, but the text and implications were more akin to a summons not to be refused. He almost had expected it to be for the High Senate, but last he heard two of the nine High Senators had to leave and handle business on their own territories. "Is there anything I should especially know?"
"Of course, sir. The senators will have questions for you, and you will respond only to questions from them. If the gallery wishes to ask questions or make contributions, they may do so but you are not permitted to speak back to the gallery questions directly. Please remain silent until addressed by a senator." The Chamber Master shifted and began pulling up data on his own console. "Do you understand these rules?"
"I do. What if I break them?"
"You will be issued fines of increasing severity. On the fourth such breach of protocol, you will be incarcerated and held for a length of time not to exceed three planetary days. That is not standard days, sir, that is planetary days which equates to twenty-five hours and thirty-two standard minutes."
Mikell nodded slowly, and looked at the console in front of him, plugging his datapad into it and taking a breath. He looked up, and noticed the gallery had a lot of people crowded around the railing, many different expressions on the faces. He then looked to the senators, who were either staring at him or preparing their own notes. Reginald and Olivia weren't here, it was only him and this 'Common Senate' was more than willing to take advantage of his decision to walk in here.
"Order. We will come to order." The Chamber Master tapped a button, the sound of a gavel banging three times being heard. Mikell wondered why they bothered with that, not just a usual ceremonial gavel. Possibly the High Senate would do something like that, who knew. He also noticed the lights had begun changing, brightening around the senators and darkening above the gallery. "Today the matter for you, good senators, is the presence of Priam Company, mercenary outfit in good standing with the Mercenary Review Board. Commander Mikell Sethan is here to answer questions as you see fit. Who will begin?"
- 09:12 Local Time
- Planet: White Reach, Lucent Continent
- Location: Vernier City, 'Adare Trading' Building
A slow nod, and a curt reply. "Yes, ma'am."
"And according to this, he's looking to start a battle against these other mercenaries?" She squinted. "Harbingers, the intel calls them. How did we get that information?"
Adaro paused, searching her memory. "Public records from the Jump Point station, filed when the JumpShip 'Tridental Floss' left." She winced at the name, but Elisanne ignored that. "We have only their outfit name, commander's name, and that they arrived on a Union-class DropShip."
Elisanne was still reading. "And there's this report about a battle which happened outside the capital." She tapped the side of the datapad with her finger and stopped. "Find out who that was. It seems like the shooting is about to start in earnest, and I want to know the names of who is involved."
"Page three, ma'am." Adaro pointed to the datapad, watching her expression shift to annoyed before she started reading.
"Wait. 'Submitted himself to the Common Senate for questioning'? Are you sure about this?" She glanced at her assistant, and then handed back the datapad. "Find out who he is and what his angle is. Everything until now has been expected, but this suggests a different game is in progress."
"Ma'am, I would suggest-"
"That's an order, Force Captain. I want you to put someone on a flight to the city today, and I want them getting information tomorrow. If there's another game being run here, I want to know before I put my foot into it."
"Yes, Captain."
- 09:16 Local Time
- Location: White Reach Governmental Center, Common Senate Chambers
Mikell glanced at his console to check the seating arrangement, then nodded. "I believe I am addressing Senator Montrose, is that correct?" She nodded, looking annoyed at the request, and Mikell understood the feeling. "Senators, it was my intent to not start a battle. I deployed with the idea our enemy would see we had arrayed our forces against them and second-guess their actions."
"Yet for someone who did not have an intent to start a battle, you were prepared to do so." Another Senator, from the other side, an elderly man who had on darkly tinted glasses. Mikell was reasonably sure they had done so in response to the light over his seating. "Were you not?"
"Of course I was prepared. If I deployed and was not prepared, then I would have had to cede the field. I had no intention of doing that, Senator Cromwell."
"Was this a matter of pride, then?" He spread his hands, tone casuall. "You chose to start a battle for nothing more than a victory under your name?"
There was a shout from the gallery. "People died!" This was followed by a couple more shouts, less distinct amidst the sudden murmur from the senators. The gavel sounded again, and everything went quiet.
Mikell bristled slightly, but kept his tone even. "I am sorry, Senator Cromwell, is that a question you mean for me to answer, or was it rhetorical?" At the smirk and a hand motion inviting him to speak, he continued. "I was not intending that battle to be started, and I gave explicit instructions to be careful firing weapons since we had no idea if residents had been evacuated. I can, and shall, submit proof of this if requested." He held up his hand. "I would like to continue, if I may, good senators." He glanced around, trying to read the mood of the room; this was harder, since most of them were keeping neutral expressions from experience in politics. But a few things stood out enough to give him a hint. "I know our battle with the unknown opponent when we landed was not authorized by anyone here or in the High Senate. It would be rather hard, however, to receive authorization from a body which declined to communicate with us at all on approach or in orbit telling us not to land or to leave." There was more murmuring, this time from the gallery. "It is our every intention to avoid civilian casualties when we can, to that end I had already ordered two squads of trained responders to see to it. Emergency response teams arrived a full hour after the battle had ended, while our people were offering medical assistance to anyone they could find." Irene had, in fact, insisted on this once realizing emergency responders had not yet begun.
Senator Montrose was speaking again, and her tone sharper. "While we do thank you for this graciousness, it would not have been necessary if you had simply not started a battle in our city." There was more louder mutters from the gallery, and Mikell tilted his head to listen, eyes drawn upwards.
A third senator was speaking now, and he dropped his attention back to them. "You had mentioned you were lacking contact with the High Senate. Were you aware there were communications problems currently plaguing us? Were you aware ComStar had shut down their systems, as well, which should have been a sign something was wrong?"
"I am addressing Senator Cook?" Mikell glanced to the console again, and at a nod, he continued. "Senator, ComStar shutting down their systems left me with nothing to go on aside from them having shut down their systems. My employer would not be able to contact me to tell me the contract was voided, nor would I be able to seek clarification on learning of any unusual situation on White Reach." He looked up to the gallery, and raised his voice just slightly. "My employer left me with instructions concerning the situation here, and I was issued no less than two other authorizations which supercede that of the High Senate. On finding communications with systems outside this one were unavailable, and there was an unfortunate set of circumstances preventing communication to the planetary officials who I would normally speak with, I was forced to make a judgment call."
"And that call was mistaken, was it not?" Senator Cook leaned forward, peering at him.
"I cannot say for certain. I have no means of knowing what would have happened had I decided not to order my ships to land. I do, however, have electronic copies of the documents I referenced." He held up his hand. "If the Senate requests, I shall provide them for viewing."
"This is the first time anyone has mentioned you being authorized, Commander." Another senator spoke up. "Why were we not aware of it?"
"I did furnish those documents to an agent who met me shortly following the battle in question, and said they were to be delivered to the Common Senate."
"We received no such documentation." They responded acidly. "We would like to review it to make sure it is legitimate, if you do not mind?"
"Good Senator . . . Farrel? . . . I would like to ask if that is a suggestion we have falsified these documents. A suggestion, I would note, we forged the signature and electronic authorizations of the Margrave and Duke of Skye. Are you suggesting that?"
"You are out of order!" Senator Farrell leapt to his feet at this, and the senator beside him looked at him in annoyance. "He was not permitted to speak." This was directed at the Chamber Master, who glanced between the two men.
"In my defense, he did ask a question." Mikell said towards the pulpit, and heard a couple laughs from the gallery. "Shall I withdraw my comment about being accused of forgery?"
The Chamber Master glanced between the two, then spoke to the senator first. "Good Senator, would you like to stand by this accusation?"
There was a long silence, as Senator Farrel held Mikell's eyes for a long moment and then sat down. "It was not an accusation, sir, it was an invitation to provide those documents for verification."
"My apologies for the misunderstanding, good Senator, I will do so presently if it pleases the gathered." He plugged the datapad's transfer cable to the console and quickly moved copies of the documentation. He blinked a bit at a brief warning about something trying to install onto the datapad, and quickly disconnected it after the download to the console was complete. He'd have to thank Jade for adding that little bonus into the file system. "Chamber Master, I have submitted three files to the console for the Senate to review."
"We thank you." Senator Cook took over again, and looked thoughtful. "I would like to ask what your plans are now, regarding the planet and its residents, Commander Sethan. Would you care to tell us?"
Mikell hesitated. "Some of this does fall under operational security, so I must be vague on the exact details. I have orders, now furnished to the Senate, which indicate I am to act against those who disturb the peace. I understand some of you, good Senators, would claim that means we should handle ourselves. I assure you, that goal is very much on our mind. We have thus made a plan to utilize some territory on the outer edges of the White Reach Starport, where there are no residential buildings and no likelihood of damaging government, public, or private property." He held out his hand, palm-up. "Therefore we shall handle ourselves and remove ourselves from a place where we may involve civilians in our battles. Secondly, we have begun looking into the interference signal which has been making telecommunication networks across the planet unreliable. Once we have identified the cause, and if that cause is an outside force who does not belong on White Reach, we shall act to remove it."
The senators began to confer to each other, and the gallery had begun murmuring again, a few shouts being let fly about the battle having still been inexcusable. He paused, and swept his datapad off the console and into his trousers pocket. The gavel sound did not abate the interruptions, but Senator Cromwell began to speak again. "Commander Sethan, we would like time to review your material as submitted to us. Will you be available to us for a second visit should we request your presence?"
"Senator Cromwell, if you request my presence to discuss the orders Priam Company has received and debate whether they are properly authorized and lawful, I would have to request in turn you seek clarification from those who gave the orders and the authorization papers. I do not have any further instructions or clarifications I have not furnished to this body." He spread his hands. "I may not be able to inform all of you, good Senators, about any actions my people will take in the interest of operational security. But I can assure you I will not attempt to deceive you as to my motives in this manner." He slowly stood up. "I was hired in order to make certain we convince the other mercenary outfits causing trouble for your planet find a reason to stop doing so. If I do so by force, I will endeavor to avoid further civilian casualties." He hesitated. "I would also like to invite the Common Senate to investigate potential costs of those who were affected, and as soon as ComStar resumes normal operation I shall certainly append those documents to an expense report."
- 18:29 Local Time
- Locaton: DropShip 'Aquila', External Access 4
"I was kept long enough until they managed to confirm the authorization code and signature." Mikell muttered. "I hate politics and bureaucracy."
"You must have been good at it to get back here-"
"No, I'm terrible at it. Too honest." He looked back at her. "Also, the Common Senate doesn't hold the power with regards to us, the High Senate does. And they're still nowhere to be found as a body, because two members aren't here to meet with the others." He threw up a hand, and winced as it hit the side of the corridor. "Of course, that means as far as the planetary government is concerned, we're not authorized until they do meet to discuss it. And they won't meet because - Gods help us - mercenaries have started shooting each other."
Olivia looked thoughtful. "I say we stage a coup. Just overthrow them all and let someone else sort it out."
"That sounds like fun." A voice piped up from behind the two cheerfully. Mikell and Olivia both stopped and turned to see Kelly standing there, hands behind her back. "Are we going to do that, sir?"
"No, we are not going to do that." He pointed at Olivia. "Stop putting ideas in people's heads, I have a hard enough time convincing them we're not like the other roaming maniacs on the planet."
"It could be worse, you know, it could be ideas to start a civil war-"
"Stop coming up with ideas which sound like they could bog us down here for another decade, and start by showing Kelly how well you throw knives." Mikell said lightly, and Olivia stumbled a bit as Kelly grabbed her arm and tugged. It wasn't fair to do that, but he really wanted to avoid dealing with anything which made him want to punch a wall.
"Commander?" Louis' voice was in his ear. "I regret to inform you I'm out of spare armor. If you can't find a local supply, we're going to be in for a lot of problems moving forward." Mikell stopped, and the next thing he remembered was pulling back bloody knuckles from a bulkhead. Well, at least Irene would have something to do...
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