Chapter Forty-Eight: Lifting of the Veil
Kentares IV Draconis March, Federated Suns June 11th, 3011
"Natasha, I've got something to show you." I said. "Have you met Lieutenant Jones before?" I asked.
"No, I do not believe we have had the pleasure." She replied, shaking Dunam's XO's hand. "Is there a reason we are both here?"
"Yeah Nat, you might want to sit down for this." Jones stood on my left side and handed a file folder to her. "We've been doing some SIGINT work and found these communiques between a couple of different MASK cells." Jones had a separate file on the desk in front of Natasha. "On the desk is the list of MASK cells we uncovered and what intel we were able to pull from their files."
"I'm gonna kill that bastard!" Natasha roared. Standing up in a blaze of fury before realizing where she was. "Si!" She stood at attention and saluted. "Requesting permission to leave and go blow things up?"
"Denied Lieutenant Kerensky." I responded without getting up from my desk. "Now sit down and listen."
Natasha sat down promptly, but I knew that she was still angry. "Natasha, I'm sending them this Intel regardless of how our conversation today goes." I said, and watched as she sagged a bit in relief. "You can resign your commission, and go to aid them and none of us will blame you. I'll even send spare parts for your Marauder along with you if you want." I shrugged. "Or you can take the leave you've saved up and come back, the choice is yours. And regardless of what you choose, we'll have your back." I handed her a copy of the intel report. "Choice is yours. Now go hit the Mech range. I'll let them know you're coming."
June 17th, 3011
"Thanks for meeting with me Mr. Watson." I shook the TTI rep's hand. "It's good to finally be able to have a face to face meeting."
"Of course Mr. Hull, It's a pleasure to meet you." He sat down across from me.
"Now, I just saw the sheet on the Toro Production facility." I started.
"Yes sir, even with the MASK paying us a visit, we're still set to open in three days." Watson grinned. "I'm glad you managed to finish them off for us, Capellan Bastards, worse than these Davions." He swore.
"Well, I'll be with you at the factory on opening day." I said. "Is there anything you or your team need?" I asked.
"Just some room for expansion." Watson said. "TTI wants to offer you the option to buy out our peoples contracts." He shrugged a bit. "My contract is open to be bought as well. We all know you're going to be expanding production on Kentares, and we're here to make money so we're available for that if you want."
"Get a copy of the Contracts to Katherine over at Sharpshooter." I nodded at the office building set aside for the Manufacturing division of our assets. "She'll look them over and give you an answer."
"I'll do that, thanks." Watson replied. "Thank you for inviting me for this meeting sir. It's a real pleasure to meet with you."
"The pleasure was all mine, Watson." I stood up to shake his hand once more. "Have a pleasant day."
That was my last meeting of the day, and I wanted to get out of the office. I got up, threw on my coat, (I still wear the Marksman uniform for now.) and opened my office. When I got to the door of my new house, I paused. And instead of leaving right away, I went and threw on some civilian clothing. (Still with concealable body armor and weapons.) and when I left, I took the side entrance.
I knew that Jones had security people following me, but I just needed some alone time. And so I jogged until I had reached one of the smaller exits to the base and headed for the woodline. I needed some peace and quiet.
I had just reached a small stream in the woods when one of my bodyguards reached for his comm device. Lifting it to his ear, he nodded at whatever he was being told before his body language shifted and he turned to me. "Duke Hull, we've got a vehicle on its way. You have a priority transmission waiting for you at the Comms center."
"Alright," I sighed, and started jogging back to the base, meeting a military truck along the way. We drove at a rapid speed, and had made it through to the comms center in a very short amount of time.
When I reached the comm center, I was directed to one monitor with a headset and a microphone attached. "This is Duke Hull of Kentares IV, to whom am I speaking?" I asked.
"This is Archon Katrina Steiner of the Lyran Commonwealth. I'm requesting the use of your medical facilities for my Husband Arthur Luvon." Echoed through my ears.
"Archon, you have my permission to bring one small craft plus escorts to and aboard the Argo for medical attention." I told her. "I will meet you there as soon as I am able."
June 19th, 3011
"Sorry it took a little bit longer to get here." I told my old subordinate with a small grin. "I just don't have the same people to sort paperwork that I used to."
Katrina laughed a bit at that. "I always wondered what the reaction of some of the members of my fireteam were." She said out loud before getting a little solemn.
"How is he?" I asked, indicating Arthur. "I hadn't heard anything about either of you being sick." I said.
"It's cancer of some kind." She halfway sobbed. "We found an Old Lostech cache and didn't remember to use your protocols until we had already been exposed to radiation."
"Well, at least you made it here in time." I observed. "We should get you checked out too'' I waved one of the orderlies down. "Can we get a medical check and cancer scan done on Archon Steiner here?"
The orderly just nodded, and went to file the right paperwork before getting started. "It'll all work out Katrina, you'll see."
June 25th, 3011
"How are they doing doc?" I asked Janet Hale, the head doctor.
"Well, we managed to operate on Mr. Luvon just in time, if he had been even a week later, he would be dead." She replied.
"And Archon Steiner?" I asked.
"She's pregnant, her second one if I'm correct, and there's several areas that we're pretty sure are benign now, but could turn cancerous and kill her later." Janet answered my question.
"And she's waiting to see if Arthur is going to live before giving the go ahead on her own surgery." I said, giving a small wave to the woman on the other side of the glass.
"No actually." Janet replied. "She gave us the go ahead to operate and remove any growths we find."
"Then what's the hold up?" I asked.
"She's waiting to speak to you before she goes under." Hale said.
"Okay then," I said and straightened up a bit. "I better speak to her."
"Colonel Mark Hull." Katrina greeted me, using my rank. "Can I call you Mark?" She asked.
"Of course." I replied. "I was told you needed to speak to me."
"Yes." The typically strong woman looked a little smaller in the hospital bed in front of me. "Thank you." Tears ran down her face. "I don't know what I would have done if I had lost Arthur."
"Lady Steiner." I said. "You don't have to worry about that anymore, you were both once a part of the Marksman." I said.
"And the Marksman are family." She said, remembering her time with us fondly. "I'm going to go under for Surgery now." She said, "Can I count on you to keep us safe?" She asked.
"I'll always keep a member of the family safe." I said, "I've got you surrounded by people who will make sure that you and Arthur will make it back to the Commonwealth."
"Okay." She said weakly, "I'll leave it in your hands then."
I just nodded and then left the room to the doctors. I wanted to make absolutely sure that everything went smoothly from here on out.
June 30th, 3011
"Move the Argo into the shadow of Kentares' moon." Commodore Frye ordered. "I don't want anyone to know we're here until after the Archon and her husband are able to be escorted back to their dropship."
Two days into the recovery period, we had detected a Draconis Combine raiding party inbound towards the planet. It wasn't more than a battalion, but I was pretty sure that Comstar and ROM had a hand in leaking info to the Dracs.
Thankfully, we had Strider squadron, and a whole host of aerospace assets on standby to meet them before they hit the atmosphere…