Chapter 16
Back from the Dead
Bellepheron
5th October, 3024
Returning the Legacy to TDR-3939 had gone without issue, and even now I understood they were transporting vast amounts of food and water up to the Monitor, and yet it highlighted a problem that I was not going to be able to eliminate in anything approaching short order. The Legacy had a population of a large town. Filling its supply vaults would take at least a hundred and twenty thousand tons of supplies, and TDR-3939 could not supply its needs.
For now though it was a matter for later, Darius had found work for us and wanted us to travel to Bellepheron, and so our fleet had arrived and I saw another jumpship and dropship waiting, docked with the Divine Right. It didn't take long for us to transfer over where I met them in the transmission room. Lady Centrella stood there with a modest bodyguard trying not to see us while also watching us.
"Greetings Mr Giordino, my name is..."
"Greetings Magestrix Centrella," I bowed respectfully. With a wry grin I spoke up, "Now that we've both established we know each others names, how can the Raven Guard assist the Magistracy of Canopus?"
A flash of irritation crossed her face, gone with a winning smile. "I should have known, if you must know, I represent a client of mine who wishes to remain unknown at the moment and she asked for you specifically, a little worrisome with your reputation I half wonder if a mere periphery state can afford you."
I laughed and took a seat. "Please, do take a seat, and tell us what job needs doing badly enough to risk angering Comstar?"
Her raised eyebrow betrayed mild amusement. "On Axylus there is a crashed derelict, a Star League era dropship that we would like to recover without the robes finding out and trying to take it away from my client. The moon is controlled by a pirate queen and we'd like you to go in and give our team time to get it operational if possible."
I picked up a datapad. "And what sort of opposition are we expecting?"
Lady Centrella picked up her own datapad. "According to our intelligence Grim Sybil has about five mechs and a couple lances of armored vehicles. There is likely turrets and some infantry as well. But we also need you to disable their AA towers to get in Doctor Murad's team."
I nodded. "No dropships or aerospace?"
"Not to our knowledge, it is probable Grim Sybil has one, but if so we haven't learned where her ship, or ships, are based." The lady seemed almost impressed. I however was busy strategising in my head.
"I see, potential problem but nothing we can't handle." Dr Murad's ship was just another Leopard, and the AA guns weren't exactly top of the line based on my memories. The question came whether I wanted to tip my hand much, or at all. The answer however was that I wanted to take the Legacy in and just teleport troops onto the Argo, but that was tipping the hand beyond too far. "Here is what i'm going to do. I'm going to send in the Hysteria with a unit of faster mechs to take out the anti-air defences before they can be stopped, once they're down i'll send in the Warden's Rest, they've got our Russ squadron and i'll have it deploy our Heavy Mechs. Miranda and I will go down as well in the Templar and Preceptor. If you want Lady Centrella, I can also detail a heavy unit of Guardsmen to protect your team on the ground. Two platoons can hitch a ride on the Rest." I brought up the details, "With the Rest two of our Stukas can provide air cover just in case their dropship turns up."
She frowned and looked at her own information. "Isn't that overkill?"
"My Lady Centrella, you're talking about us going down to recover a star league era wreck from a pirate. Do you dare risk paying for less and leave the job in doubt?" Darius said trying to apply more diplomacy to the matter.
"True enough, but we are a periphery world and not able to offer you billions of credits for a job like this, what we can do is... four million." She said with a quick check.
"Ten, we're talking the use of a jumpship, two dropships and a number of mechs and troops, we want to help you Lady Centrella, we really do, but we also have expenses, and if I keep pouring money out of my heel I may not be able to manage until I can get an income stream at least as good."
The lady nodded. "Very well, you make a good case."
I held out a hand and shook on it, in truth it wasn't a good case. The maintenance fees would dip dangerously into that and despite my newfound wealth, I was not looking to be leaking C-Bills, meaning my asking prices had to actually cover our expenses at a bare minimum.
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Phil the Would-Be-Pirate.
"Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum." The pirate sang to himself as he sat in the tower watching the great expanse of nothing and Grim Sybils abortion of an empire, holed up in an ancient wreck of a ship. Having fallen on hard times the would-be pirate outfit he'd had the misfortune to join up with had more enemies than friends, and recently their only dropship had been nicked by its captain and sold to a larger band of pirates a couple systems over for drinking money.
For the past five minutes he'd watched two blips on approach from the pirate point. One of them had hung back, but...
He sat bolt upright fully coming sober as he recognised the implicationds as two kilometres away he watched the Leopard come in low, fast and take off again before the defence guns could home in on it. "Holy shit! Cybil! Cybil! There's mechs coming!"
"What? What the hell, get everyone up and stop them!"
"But maam they're big mechs!" He shouted as the dust from their approach and seismic readings identified them as three eighty-five ton machines. When they crested the hill he slapped at the controls to activate the turret defences as pirates rushed for their mechs and tanks, waiting to see what pirate group had come for them now.
There was no waiting as the black-painted machines with green trim charged down into the valley headed for the first of the radar stations. They moved impossibly fast, even as the tanks scrambled and LRM fire reached out two of them stopped, Their arms blazing with autocannon fire stripping down the first turret as the third machine charged onto the platform.
The pirate watched from the tower as it stood next to the turret control centre and levelled its arm, there was no sound on the lunar surface, no air worth mentioning, and there was no burst of light, and yet he could do nothing but watch as the centre melted seemingly at random. The turrets shut down as the centre was slagged and the machine turned and swung its other arm, cleaving through the supports for the radar with its other arm, the chain cleaver on it carving through the scaffold like a hot knife through butter.
"Cap'n they're targeting the radar stations!" He cried out as the other two turned their autocannon fire on the radar dish too near to himself the delicate metal being torn apart by a storm of fire. And then, to his surprise they began to retreat at a pace they couldn't match, the AA guns disabled. He didn't get on the comms to report this as the Strikers tried to chase them down with LRM fire.
He knew now that the other object would be incoming.
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The Stukas plunged on the facility, blasting the other turret control centre as they made their recon, potshots taken at them from ground fire as the Union touched down and instead of just the mech doors opening, so to did the tank bay. "Commander Parkes, advance on our flanks. Engage enemy armored vehicles with maximum prejudice."
"Behemoth, take the Marauder and Warhammer and advance at their pace. I'll advance with the Catapults and provide fire support." The Dominus began to march forwards followed by the Catapults as below us two Valkyries were preparing to lift and go for the ship.
The Russes advanced at full throttle cresting into the bases perimeter in time for Behemoth to snap-shot a Battle-cannon shot into the torso of a Commando that jetted up to attempt an engagement. A Striker and Bulldog emerged from cover and weapons fire sprayed at her, deflected by the Ion Shield. The unfortunate choice of time to advance however put them square in the sights of more than half the Leman Russ tanks. Three of the Vanquishers fired their main guns followed by the lascannons on the chassis, the Bulldog exploded in a short-lived fireball, the lack of atmosphere meaning the only oxygen to burn was inside the tank.
The Striker was less fortunate. The two Leman Russes to spot it were an Executioner and Destroyer. Plasma fire volleyed out from the Executioners main turret and both sponsons blasting the heat of the sun across its armour, the limited protection it had was eroded in moments before the Destroyer fired, the intensely powerful laser blast carving through the tank and overpenetrating to strike the lunar hillside behind it.
Initiate wide-vox.
I willed the machine spirit and spoke. "This is the Preceptor of Death. For too long have you pirates plagued the region. We have been hired to come in and evict you forcefully, but I am a merciful man. Any pirate that lays down arms and surrenders immediately will be granted the boon of life."
A womans voice came back. "So what? We can be executed by somebody else. Any one of your fuckers even thinks of Surrender an..."
"And you'll what? Kill them. You putrid abhorrent little maggot. You have less than two lances of mechs, are down to half your armored vehicles, your surface to air guns are dead." I snarled. "I have two full lances of tanks, a full lance of heavies, two ultraheavies and three assaults as well as two platoons of infantry."
I blasted apart a Scorpion as it attempted to run for the pirates hovel.
"Not to mention two assault ASFs, a Union and a Leopard Dropship. In what world do you think this will end with anything other than your death." I marched and crunched one of the dead tanks beneath my tread, LRMs from the catapults screamed high into the air and came down on a target Behemoth painted as she carved into the second bulldog.
"Fuck you!" The pirate woman screamed.
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Murad
The mercenaries were moving with terrible efficacy, their war machines blasting apart anything that failed to give adequate surrender, fire ripping up the area as the two aerospace craft landed and twenty men emerged. They met up with me clad in unusual armour, the closed faceplates did little to lend them humanity, and their weapons were linked by thick cables to heavy packs on their backs.
"Doctor Murad?" The leader asked over the short ranged communications. "Point us in the right direction."
"This way gentlemen." I advanced on the hatch as my engineers cracked it and instantly we were met with ballistic fire. The weapons of the strange infantry levelled and they advanced into the fire unconcerned about the incoming projectiles as suddenly walls of repeated laser fire ripped out, the pulse laser weapons they carried rippling out in a rate of fire a machinegun would admire.
"Go go go!" I said diving in after them, my teams of engineers following, one of the troopers fell as slugs tore through him finally beating whatever personal armour he wore. My own laser pistol sliced a line of light across the room as the airlocks were sealed behind us, air flooding in to fill the chamber.
Laser fire crisscrossed as the pirates ran and I checked the datapad in hand, outside the fighting was already winding down as the monster called the Knight Templar beheaded a Quickdraw in a swift motion. As we advanced pirates were fighting to the death, terrified of being executed by association, a reasonable terror.
But it was a losing battle, and without much more effort the strangers managed to gun them down allowing her teams to work on restoring the ship to flight capability.
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"Ah, I see the operation went well." Lady Centrella said as we returned to my Jumpship.
"Well it took a little longer than expected hanging the ones who surrendered." I said taking a seat as Lady Centrella looked at me like i'd grown a second head.
"What?"
"Isn't that what you do, hang pirates?" I asked deadpan, not willing to give away the game as the others present looked at me like I had gone mad, only Yang and his secret enjoyment of old age of sail stories understood the reference and that I was pulling their leg.
"I u... oh." Centrella's face went from mildly horrified to realizing her leg was being pulled. "Very funny what happened the ones who surrendered?"
I couldn't keep the contempt from my voice as I spat. "Worthless idiots, seeing as the usual penalty is death anyway, none of them were willing to entertain the possibility of surrender. Have my troops transferred back?"
"Yes they have." Came the voice I had been waiting for as she came around the corner, Lady Kamea Arano.
"Ah you're here. It's good to see you again Lady Arano." The confusion on her face was pure gold as the rest of the crew looked at me wondering how it was that I was so calm with a woman simply returning from the dead. I looked at them and the cursed myself, little slips of the foreknowledge I had were only going to cause problems. "Why is everyone surprised?" I said thinking quickly, "Is it not normal for a deposed noble to get out with a faked death? The question I have is maam, is why you've made contact with us now."
Arano nodded and Lady Centrella left. "I was the client Lady Centrella spoke of she's been hosting me for the past three years helping me rebuild my influence and resources, quietly, she has given me practical access to a blank checkbook, Espinosa has destabilised the region and the Magistocracy would rather have stable neighbours."
"I assume then my lady you've been keeping tabs on us."
"Indeed Kane, Markham is a remarkable man, and surviving against any odds down there... it is a pity that the same could not be said for Raju." This time I kept my tongue. I had plans to deal with that, unfortunately it also meant moving quickly. "But you've done so much, diving clean into the Davion checkbooks and coming away with a fleet."
"And a wife," I added with a grin Miranda planting herself in my lap as if to claim ownership, "So now comes the important question, how is it I can help you Lady Arano, I would love to bring an army to your doorstep for the right price, but at the moment I have a surfeit of fleet assets and a shortage of ground forces, a matter i'm working on now."
Arano nodded, "I understand, but I need people I can trust to take back what is owed me, and taken from me, you were there Warden, you saw what happened, were part of it. Raju regarded you more highly than anyone else. I have power and resources, but not much of either. I want to hire you to help us take back the Aurigan Coalition, to burn out the Directorate." She stood, "Lady Centrella has, as I said, effectively given me a blank checkbook."
"So what do you plan as your first step on the way?" I said leaning back.
"The Liberation of Weldry, i'm still putting together forces to strike at the planet, but I want you to hit the Icebox, a facility where they keep prisoners, especially political prisoners." Arano said with increasing confidence.
"Seal the chamber." I said as I stood up. Yang went over and slammed the door shut codelocking it.
"What is this!" Arano said standing up indignant, "You snake you to..."
"Lady Arano, what i'm about to reveal here is beyond a secret. Imagine, for a moment if you will, what they would do to get access to any information stored in the Argo, or Star League technologies if Comstar understood its importance?" I ensured that all external data links were severed.
"They'd probably come and try to take it if they understood what it represented."
"Correct. But now, imagine for a second you'd found a Star League era WarShip there?"
Her face went pale at the thought. "They'd likely stop at nothing until the Coalition had been gutted to find out what else was buried around our worlds."
"Well, you know I came from well beyond the Periphery, you've seen my mech, my implants. You've seen me selling technology recovered from our coffin-ships to finance my work." I called up a hologram of the Legacy. "Weldry is no simple mission, it cannot fail. I want to transport your forces on my jumpships to maintain secrecy because I want to bring the Kane's Legacy in. The vessel has extensive secrets I don't want anybody to know. But it's stealth systems are needed to carry out this operation in the timeframe I want."
"What? Why?" She said suddenly paranoid.
"Because Raju didn't get killed. He's alive in that prison. And if we delay over long, he'll be dead before we can liberate the prison." There really was no other option, I knew that we should arrive too late to save him with access to the technology and medicine possessed here on the Periphery. But the Legacy possessed a teleportarium and a medicae deck.
"How do you know this, how did you find out."
And now, I lied.
"I had a friend who went with Espinosa, only finding out the full impact of what happened later. He'd been transferred to the ice box and managed to squirt a message to me through ComStar. Last I heard he'd committed suicide." I activated the computer and called up a file i'd crafted for this purpose.
Arano saw the message and paled, the simulated face had been a crewmember on the Legacy who'd been happy to help.
"But Lady Arano, I mean it, I need my people to run the entire space-based side of the operation, including piloting your own Dropships if necessary. I don't want anyone outside of my own people, and you to ever see it. And my Lady, I value the secrecy of this information more than anything. Nobody outside of the Raven Guard can know. I'm trusting you as you are prepared to trust me. Can you do that?"
I hoped. I prayed to the Omnissiah that she would listen and trust. If she did not, I had a bolt round with her name on in the holster on my hip.
She smiled. "I can do that Warden, but if I may know. Why are you so worried about others finding out."
"I'm sorry Lady Kamea, if I could do this without you knowing about the Legacy I would." I said sitting back, "But Raju means a lot to both of us. Give me two weeks to prepare our resources and have your jumpships meet us here, your dropships can transfer to my Star Lords and make the next jump