Chapter Fifty-Three: High of Seventy, With a chance of raining Mithril
Versaille, Comstar Hidden World, December 14th, 3011
"I expected more." Ian said as we traveled from the Jump point headed in towards the planet.
"Ian, this world is probably recorded as a dead world." I said. "If anyone came through here for a recharge, anyone down there would want to remain hidden. You can't really do that with a lot of active defenses in place."
"I guess you're right." Ian shrugged. "I just wanted a good fight."
"Ian," I said. "You are a Mech pilot, not an aerospace fighter jockey." I shook my head "What were you going to do? Hop in your Atlas and shoot AC/20's out of the Mech bay?"
Ian just shrugged in response. "I don't know what I was going to do okay?" He said. "I just want to do something."
"Well, you'll get your chance soon enough." I said. "Just be a little more patient."
December 18th, 3011
"Alright, we're dropping from and extremely high altitude people." Mathis relayed to the company of Heavy Guards infantry he had been attached to. "Our target is the HPG station down there." He paused. "Try for capture if at all possible. We don't know who this world belongs to, but we need as much intel as possible." He nodded to the Captain who was in charge of this company to take it from there.
After the standard pep talk and brief reminders that every commander went through, they watched the bay doors open, and waited for the light to turn green. When it flashed green, all of the Mithril clad Infantry jumped out of the doors in rapid succession. Their helmet's HUD giving them the altitude and how far they had left to go before using Jump Jets to slow their fall.
When the proper altitude was reached, the flare of small jump jets shone through the night as the company slowed their fall and finally hit the ground.
No one in the HPG station was ready for them, and Mathis, in his heavier armor, moved to deploy tear gas as fast as he could. The enclosed Mithril suits helped tremendously with that and it incapacitated a large group of the guards around. Which allowed a squad to go around and subdue the downed men and women while the rest of the Heavy Guards moved deeper into the HPG facility.
Everytime they came into a room, they entered with Flashbangs first, and moved to subdue any enemies they came across. When they finally reached the main office, they took what appeared to be a Precentor by complete surprise and had him bound and gagged just in case of any voice automated systems.
"This is a Comstar robe." Mathis comm'd silently to the company's captain. "We may want to tread carefully here."
"Comstar?" The captain replied. "I'm starting to see some robes over here too." The captain finished whatever his current task was. "We'll have to get to the bottom of this."
December 19th, 3011
"Ian, I don't think this is what we expected." I said as we dropped into the field next to the one city on the surface that appeared livable.
"Yeah, I'm not sure what I expected anymore." Ian replied. "Thanks for the advice on dropping the Mithril in the night, they took the HPG and the HQ without any casualties on our end."
"It looks like a lot of Civilians here Ian, I'm really glad me and the Field Marshal were able to persuade you to reign in the revenge a bit." I stated.
"What?" Ian asked. "You expected me to go out guns blazing?"
"No, I just thought you'd want to drop in your Atlas and kick the gate in." I replied. "The fact that we took their main base and captured what appears to be a lot of senior officers is a big deal."
"Now, I just have to make sure that these people understand that they're still Federated Suns citizens…" Ian responded. "Should be easy enough. I want to meet with that Self Style Precentor though."
December 25th, 3011
"Merry Christmas." Ian ended the small speech he had given to the people we were trying to make sure responded well to our current occupation. He then moved to shake some hands of people in the crowd when I got a really bad feeling. The same feeling I had before that bomb went off in my house.
Running towards Ian, I tackled him just in time to feel a truck hit me in the back of my body armor. And then, after I tackled him out of the way of the sniper, a bomb went off in the closest car, sending shrapnel mine and Ian's way.
After Mithril infantry had deployed to the situation, both rescuing the civilians that had been hit, and ensuring a safe perimeter, I got off of Ian and rolled him over to check for injuries.
"Fuck." I let out. "You stupid idiot." I grabbed my medkit and tore his coat and shirt off with my bare hands. "Check the front, then the back." I said to myself as I inspected for any holes in the front of his chest. Finding none, I signaled for the combat medic to help me lift him onto the stretcher. Where both the Medic and myself began to examine and treat what wounds we could.
"We need a medevac ASAP!" I told the Mithril clad medic before leaving here to do her job while I went to do damage control on the civilian's that had been caught in the blast radius.
"Anyone need medical attention?" I waved my IFAK in the air. "I can provide aid."
One mother held up her hand and moved to reveal a young girl with blood running down her arm. "Alright, clear me some space." I told the crowd and went to help.
"Set her down right here." I told the woman, indicating the cleared space in front of me. "I know it's not a hospital, but what I do here can get her there and help them do their job better." I made sure the mother gave me permission before starting to render aid. I checked for injuries, and found a ricochet from one of the sniper rounds had hit the little girl's leg. Grabbing my Tourniquet, I applied it to the girl, making sure to reassure both her and her mother that it would stop the bleeding even if it hurt. When I had finished with the girl and had wrapped her in an emergency blanket to help stave off shock another person had stopped for medical aid and I got to work.
Thirty minutes later…
"How's the First Prince?" I asked Mathis, who had now been assigned to bodyguard him instead of me.
"He should be fine, but he'll need treatment aboard the Argo, and at least six months of therapy before he'll walk or pilot a mech again." Mathis replied from his spot by Ian's door.
"I'll catch back up once I get some rest." I said. " I apparently make a great way to show that we're not here to hurt you."
"Well, not many people will jump into a crowd of potential enemies to save lives." Mathis pointed out. "And the Field Marshal was impressed at how fast the people turned bombers in after your little show out there."
"Well, I have medical training, and these people are brainwashed civilians. Most of them just want to live their lives so I couldn't turn my back on them." I responded before making my way to the door. "Now I've got to go sleep for about fifteen minutes, and then pray that Rook did his job."
January 15th, 3012
"Now I know what Hanse was going through after I left him on Tikonov." I muttered to myself, having had to effectively do a military governors job.
Thankfully, it had gotten both easier and harder after the bombings. Easier in the sense that most civilians were refusing to be associated with people who were willing to hurt their own in order to kill one person.
But the rest of them were harboring a vicious grudge. I had taken to wearing slightly thicker body armor than what I usually wore, and had been visiting the Mech factories daily in order to make sure that there wasn't any sabotage. The Heavy Guards were guarding the factories and all manufacturing centers with extreme skill. But that didn't mean someone wouldn't slip through the cracks and try to do something crazy and/or stupid.
To completely turn this planet into a Davion loyalist planet though. That would take the work of years, if not decades. And I had my own planet to get up and running again. I did not envy whoever had to run this place after I was gone.
I had gone into the HPG's systems and pulled out massive amounts of data on what the plans Comstar had running currently were, And we now knew due to interrogation that the local precentor had run far ahead of any ROM plans by sending his garrison forces to nuke Kentares.
So, we had proof that Comstar was hiding things and doing things that went against their public mandate, but we had no way of using that proof without it being blasted to pieces by the Comstar Propaganda machine and/or us getting Interdicted. While apparently NAIS first goal was to figure out the mobile HPG that we had taken from the Helm Cache, it would take a few years in order to figure it out.
Hilton Head Island, Terra December 19th, 3011
"What do you mean Taussen went dark?" Primus Julian Tiepolo asked, a little irritated at having been woken up.
"Sir, we have received none of the scheduled messages from the world." The young adept replied.
"Well, get one of our Jumpships out to check on them." Tiepolo replied. "We've had issues with multiple stations like this before for various reasons."
"But Primus," the adept interrupted. "There was no scheduled maintenance or anything else that might have made the planet go dark."
"Then we'll send one of the Dante's" Tiepolo responded. "We have no way of knowing what has happened unless the HPG starts responding again, and it's better safe than sorry."