Chapter Ninety-Two: Swapping Stories
Kentares IV, Christmas Day 3018
"Merry Christmas Natasha!" I said as I pulled the massive white sheet off of the Nightstar we had spent months refitting. "We used the Clan Data Core that Wolf gave us to get a head start on some things, and it still takes a while on most things, but we are able to custom build things using the Argo Machine shops we duplicated, and so we specced this thing out with Clan tech, it should have the same movement profile as your old Marauder, but an incredible amount of firepower to bring to bear on anything that might decide to come after you."
"Hmm." Natasha walked around the base of the assault 'Mech. "No jump jets?" She questioned with a smirk, knowing that we had argued over whether the Marauder II was a good 'mech or not.
"You know my stance on that." I responded with a smile. "But, what do you think?" I asked. "David helped me put together the paint job on it."
The Nightstar had a base coat of black paint, with gold edging to reference the Marksman, and red tracing the inside of that to show Natasha's connection to Clan Widowmaker."
"Well, I will have to get in and drive it before I make any final decisions." Natasha said. "But as long as you improved the linkage for the gun mounted ERPPC we should be fine."
"Mac did the work on it himself." I smiled, "He was actually really excited to do this refit for once." I laughed. "I think he was secretly glad that he didn't have to fix another damaged Warhammer."
"Well, I can take this on a test run later." Natasha said as she stopped inspecting the 'Mech. "Now, you promised me some stories."
"I did," I sighed as we began to walk back into the Ducal house. "But I want you to promise that you will remain calm. Anything I tell you I have already retaliated or dealt with."
"I cannot promise that." She shrugged in response. "But I will not push to do anything rash if you have already dealt with the problem."
"Oh, I dealt with the problems all right." I smirked. "They'll be reeling for a long time after the blows we struck."
"That was scary." David snuggled into Nat as I told her about the attempted assassination on Robinson. "And it was super loud."
"Comstar?" Natasha asked me.
"Comstar," I agreed. "They subverted a MASK and ISF cell on the planet in order to launch the assassination."
"And how did you manage to convince Ian and Hanse to let you retaliate?" Natasha asked me. "That does not seem like something they would have pushed for."
"They didn't accept anything open and blatant." I shrugged. "So we raided their "secret" Naval yards and took everything that wasn't nailed down." I chuckled, "And some things that were, there was one system that had a bunch of orbital factories, we are keeping that system."
"Well, I approve." Natasha smiled at me. "Now, I believe you promised to make cinnamon rolls."
"That I did." I said as I stood up and made my way to the kitchen. "You're lucky I still remembered to make the dough after everything that got sprung on me in the last couple of days."
December 27th, 3018
"Duke Hull," Khan Ward said. "I will be returning to Clan Wolf space in a week or so." He smiled as he shook my hand. "I plan on retiring in a couple of years. Ulric, the one I favor to succeed me, has finally achieved his Bloodname, and should be ready to be Khan by that time."
"And you are telling me this because?" I asked.
"You have such a nice planet, I was thinking of retiring to a cabin along the beach." He smirked. "And I would of course be a part of the militia should that come to pass." He stroked his beard in the way that wise old masters of their craft do.
"Clanners." I facepalmed to his great amusement. "Get off of my planet you old goat." I made a shooing gesture at him. "Please call before you drop by, while I love that my wife's family came by for a visit, you always leave me with more work to do any time y'all show up." My southern accent was making a strong return as I ranted a bit.
"I shall see you in the future, Duke Hull." He smiled enigmatically. "Be prepared for a visit in the future from myself and some other solamha retirees."
"Just leave." I buried my face in my palms. "I have enough to deal with as it is."
December 30th, 3018
"Natasha! I thought you said it was just a joke!" I shouted as I walked out of the living room covering my eyes.
"It was!" She called over from the other room. "Why?!"
"Because one of the Khan's just walked in naked." I said. "And I don't know how to respond to this."
"Oh, now that is funny." Natasha laughed as she walked into the room. "I guess they took it seriously." She laughed a bit. "Did you do anything else?"
"I beat her in sims earlier." I shrugged. "But I've beaten most people on the planet in sims, it's not like this is anything new."
"Well," Natasha smirked. "I could fix this."
"But?" I asked, seeing that she was about to pull an Ian or Hanse move.
"But frankly, I enjoy watching you freak out about this sort of thing, and I might as well get my laughs while I can."
"You're evil." I pointed at her. "Pure evil." I backed away slowly.
"Well enjoy the fallout." Natasha smirked, "I will be spending the day with David after all."
January 1st, 3019
"Commodore Jewel." I greeted as she walked into the room. "I take it Bruce is on his way back with the Texas."
"Yes sir, and we've finished getting quite a number of the Comstar Warships up and running again." She told me. "You never did tell me the plan for the fleet, because I'm not certain that we can afford the maintenance fees on all of them."
"We can't." I told her flat out. "The Concordat is purchasing all of the VincentCorvettes that we have along with the Volga that we took from Ross 248." I shrugged. "Apparently a couple of the frozen Scientists that we returned to were Warship engineers."
"And the remaining vessels?" Jewel asked me. "What are we doing with them?"
"The Lola's are being split between the Davions and the Steiners, with two of our Yardships being given to the Davions along with both battlecruisers and the other Potemkin." I replied. "The Aegisclass that were left in the station we moved away from Ross will be incorporated or sold when we start dismantling the station to move it to Kentares." I said and pointed to the calculations that we had done when we moved it. "We know the general area of it, and we're going to have to retrieve it at some point."
"Yes sir," Jewel replied. "We're keeping the Age of Discovery, Manassas, Defender, Texas, and the two Faslane? She asked for clarification purposes.
"Yes ma'am." I replied. "We're going to be splitting the fleet into two parts, with you commanding the two Yardships and the Defender, with Vice Admiral Frye being in charge of the other half and having overall command."
"Yessir." Jewel responded. "Bruce being moved up to captain?" She asked me.
"He is, just as soon as he returns with the Snowden and Texas that is." I replied. "Now go get some rest, Commodore." I tossed her new rank pins to her. " And try not to get into too much trouble now."
"No promises sir." She laughed. "No promises."