Chapter Seventy: Wrath
Robinson, Draconis March, Federated Suns, September 15th, 3015
"Messenger" Mathis spoke into his comm's device."We are one Mike out, standby." No sooner had the words left his mouth then he had to swerve in order to avoid a man portable SRM someone had fired at our vehicle. "Hull, I need them pinned down in order to make sure we get there." He told me, opening the sunroof for me to stand up in.
The rifle kicked against my shoulder as I fired in short controlled bursts, hitting and stopping two of the people throwing SRM's our way. I had to reload after the third one was struck and then got back up again. Then, I felt something thump into my left shoulder and I spun around, seeing that there was a second group. We peeled past them, and I just held down the trigger, heedless of what might come my way. And then we were free, the Messenger was moving down the runway with one of its loading ramps down, and we shot into the bay as it took off in an almost vertical landing.
"You good David?" I asked the toddler. "He was crying and still covering his ears on the floorboard. "Mathis, you clean?"
"I'm good." Mathis said, "But my partner isn't." The Ducal Guardsmen who had been in the passenger seat had been nicked by a piece of shrapnel that had penetrated the passenger floor, hitting his femoral artery and causing him to bleed out. "I'm putting us in Mithril for the rest of eternity." He stated. "And I'm pretty sure the First Prince will sign off on it."
"Agreed." I replied, running a quick status check on myself. "I'm hit in the shoulder." I told him, "Clean entry and exit, I think it missed the important bits."
"I'll grab David." Mathis said. "We'll follow you to the infirmary."
Davion Palace Complex, New Avalon, October 27th, 3015
"Mark!" Ian greeted as he walked in the room. "Where's your better half?"
"The half of me most likely to invade Terra is currently visiting family in unknown space." I said in a cold rage. "And the half of me least likely to invade Terra is sitting here in front of you, and if you don't convince it very quickly, Terra will soon be owned by the Marksman and the Kentares Guard."
"What are you talking about?" Hanse asked.
"Comstar's ROM division." I tossed two separate file folders onto the table in between us. "Co Opted and created orders for two previously unknown sleeper cells to target and assassinate myself." I stood up in a cold fury. "If it were just me, I could almost accept it." I stated, "Unpleasant, but it comes with the enemies I have made. But they did not just target myself." I raged. "They targetedmy son, and so unless you and Ian have some extremely valid reasons why I shouldn't, I'm drafting the orders and carrying them out by December."
"The two Cells," I continued. "Were each from different nations, one was an ISF cell, and one for a MASK cell." I sighed. "If I had been on any dropship other than the Messenger we wouldn't have the intel at all. As it is, we didn't manage to decrypt the message until after we had left Robinson."
Hanse and Ian stood there, and their positions were reversed for once. With Hanse now seething with Rage just like I was, whereas Ian was silently contemplating everything.
"We don't have the HPG's yet." Ian finally said. "We haven't managed to spread out enough of the mobile HPG's we've been manufacturing enough to cover the areas that Comstar is in." He sighed. "The very minute that I have confirmation that we've gotten at least half of the coverage Comstar does, I will join you myself." He sighed. "I understand that you are angry, and you have every right to be, but until we are in the position to do this properly I'm going to have to ask you to stand by. While I am confident that you could not only take Terra, but hold it. If we were to be interdicted we would lose everything we have gained over the last decade in a single sweep of the table."
"I will allow it." I said, "I'm still going to formulate some invasion plans, and if they try anything else, I'm taking the Manassasand taking the system for myself, And I'm certain I could convince the Concordat to help me out."
"Hanse, you have to calm down." Ian tried to talk to his still angry brother. "I know that it angers you, but we have to think of the long term."
"Ian, I'm going to need a combat posting soon." Hanse said through gritted teeth. "I have to do something."
"I can give you a Guards division and send you to take Ares." Ian said. "I'm just not certain you want to do that with Dana about to give birth."
"I will wait." Hanse said, "But if something akin to this happens again, I will be joining Mark in any invasion he sets up. And Dana will gladly join me."
"I know," Ian replied. "And with the Taurians at his back I think he could do it." He shrugged. "I just can't have us commit to that offensive yet, if we did and the Interdict still happened, we would be torn apart by the Combine as soon as they knew that we weren't able to communicate. And while Katrina and the Commonwealth would try to assist, they're still in the middle of restructuring their entire military."
"I get it Ian." Hanse said sadly. "I still have this burning need to do something though."
"You're a Davion," Ian said. "If you did anything less than father would be rolling over in his grave right now."
"Ian, I'm going to go love on Dana for a while." Hanse stood up. "You should probably find something for Mark do do before he goes and storms the local Comstar station."