Chapter One Hundred and Sixteen: Results
New Avalon, April 15th, 3026
"Are we good to go?" Ian asked, getting thumbs ups and ok gestures of approval.
"It is with a heavy heart that I stand before you today.." Ian said in front of the press and assembled families. "On April Tenth, three thousand and twenty-six in the year of our lord, the hastily assembled Task-Force 141 led by Captain John Price raided a ship on the Avalon Ocean that had a nuclear device built by elements of the Capellan Confederations Maskirovka." Ian took a breath. "The effort that they went to in order to prevent the rest of us from dying to a nuclear device is beyond anything I can imagine. Unfortunately, Task Force 141 was not so lucky. From what we were able to recover as far as battleroms go, they were successful in every way but one." Ian did his best to maintain composure. "The thirty-six brave men and women of Task Force 141 were vaporized in a tactical nuclear explosion."
"Were there any other casualties?" One of the extremely subdued media members present asked.
"Aside from the Maskirovka personnel and Task Force 141 there were no casualties." Ian replied.
"What is going to be done for the families of the fallen?" Another reporter asked.
"We're not going to be able to replace their families, and we're not even going to try." Ian stated with a sad smile. "But we are going to do what we can. I have personally extended the families invitations to the Davion Palace, where we will handle the rewards personally and announce them later."
"What is going to be done to retaliate against the Capellans?" Another reporter spoke up. "Are we going to be using nukes of our own?"
"No, we are not authorizing any weapons of mass destruction at this point, or at any point in my reign." Ian said firmly. "Maximilian Liao might be willing to murder millions and billions of people in order to get what he wants, but I will never go down that path, and I pray that my successors feel the same."
St. Ives, May 6th, 3026
"I believe that is the last of the MASK cells that you informed us about." I said to Candace Liao. "If there are any others they may reveal themselves in the next few months or so."
"I spent years compiling intelligence on the Maskirovka cells that were on St. Ives," Candace said with a smug look on her face. "I do not think I missed any of them."
"I'd be careful about making statements like that." I said with a note of warning in my voice. "There's a completely valid reason that I wear body armor all of the time."
"No," Candace scoffed. "You are just as paranoid as my father if you wear body armor constantly."
I just exchanged glances with Mathis and Nat who were both clad in Mithril suits. "We shall see who is correct in the end, Duchess. And for the record your sister is much easier to get along with." I stood up from the chair and left the section of the prefab that we were keeping Candace on house arrest in.
"Make sure we keep an up to date watch on her, I'm worried that either the Duchess herself or one of the cells we didn't get to yet may try something stupid." I told Mathis and Natasha. "And have a couple of Stings in the sky with fireteams of infantry ready to deploy as a QRF, it'll burn fuel, but we can afford to burn the fuel if it means that we manage to prevent something disastrous from happening."
"Got it sir." Mathis said, "I've been keeping a close eye on our guard rotations already, and I hadn't considered the QRF idea aside from having a couple of fireteams attached to the handles on the Omnimechs that Nat's Marauders have."
"Do both, we may need the firepower." I said with a shrug before turning to Natasha. "You did incredible work on training the six of them." I praised her.
"It took six months to break them of the bad habits." Natasha said with a smile on her face. "And the fact that it gave me something to do while on the journey back to the Inner Sphere had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that they are consummate professionals now."
"Oh no," I agreed. "Absolutely nothing to do with why they're absolutely terrified of you half of the time."
"A little fear is healthy for them." Natasha said with a smug look on her face. "It will keep them alive for far longer."
"I guess it will." I responded with a chuckle. "Shall we return to our personal prefab?" I asked.
"We shall."
Liao, April 8th, 3026
"We managed to isolate three separate cells that have been working together." Mendoza briefed the assorted staff including his CO Colonel Packer. "Now, we can wait and see if they have connections to other cells, but it's probably safer to take them now, and pull these cells out before they do anything to cause more damage to the infrastructure that is on the planet."
"Then we take them out now, and make sure that none of them escape." Packer said coldly. "There will not be another nuke detonated on my watch." Packer stood up from the table. "Mendoza, walk with me, everyone else, I want your plans on taking down the cells on my slate by tomorrow at 0800."
"What do you need Sir?" Mendoza said as he walked beside his CO.
"I want you heading up our counterintelligence teams." Packer told his XO and longtime friend. "You're the one who got the extra training, and if we had originally been intended to hit a Capellan world, Dunham and Hull would have made sure that we had the extra intelligence people, but until we have them, we're on our own."
"Yessir, just let me know if you need me to do anything else." Mendoza replied.
"Go get some rest, we've got a lot of work to do Major."
Capella, April 10th, 3026
"Have you had the chance to survey the yards yet?" Hanse Davion asked Captain Bruce. "I know you were a part of the team that helped get the New Rhodes shipyards up and running again."
"I haven't personally done it yet, but I have some of the engineers from that project on the Defender currently, and they did take a look at it." Bruce replied.
"What was the verdict?" Hanse asked. "Those yards may be one of the most important things to rebuild in this region before we even take a look at the 'mech and vehicle factories."
"It'll take two years to fix the damage that was caused by MASK." Bruce said in between coffee and eating a breakfast sandwich. "Five to Seven to completely repair the yards and have more than one line running for both repairs and production."
"But they're not totally destroyed?" Hanse asked.
"No sir, those yards and the Iona Light shipyards can be repaired, it's just that it'll take time and money." Bruce offered. "The Iona Yards will take about a decade to restore to full functionality, but it can be done."
"I'll bring up the idea to Ian later." Hanse responded with a shrug. "We'll need projects like that to help bind the Capellan people to us anyway."
"You'd be the expert on that sir," Bruce said with a shrug. "I'm just an engineer and Warship captain."
"And damned good at both of those jobs from what I hear." Hanse said with a smile. "I'll let you get back to it Captain."
"It was a pleasure meeting you." Bruce responded. "May our next meeting be under better circumstances."
"Indeed." Hanse replied, "Indeed."