Chapter Fifty: Homecoming
Carver V, Capellan Confederation September 5th, 3011
"Colonel Wolf." Natasha inclined her head to her once subordinate as she was escorted to his office. "I have extremely important intelligence for you." She said, and handed the data in the form of files and the small core with the comminques on it.
"Kerensky." Jaime Wolf stated, leaving silence to fill the air for a solid minute. "We thought you had abandoned the mission given to us by Khan Ward."
"Were we not assigned to gather intelligence on the Inner Sphere?" Natasha asked. "How are we to know what the current climate is if we stay in our own unit instead of branching out to investigate."
"But we have not received a report from you in almost a year and a half Kerensky," Jaime wolf said, still not having raised his voice. "What was so important to bring you back here that you did not even send a message first?"
"Look at the files, and the data on the disc." Natasha said. "Everything you need to know is on there."
Major Joshua Wolf, who had been sitting in silence for the time being finally spoke up. "So, have you had any good battles?" He asked, eager to fill the silence and change to a different topic.
"Well, there was the Conquest of Tikonov." Natasha started, and then began to tell the story of the Marksman and what they accomplished on Tikonov.
"He eliminated three assault mechs?" Joshua asked, more than a little impressed. "All coming at him at once?"
"I still have a copy of the Battlerom somewhere." Natasha replied with a smirk. "It was quite the battle, shame that you were employed by the wrong side."
While Natasha and Joshua had been catching up and exchanging stories, Jaime was reading over the files that Natasha had brought to them for review.
"You are one hundred percent confident in Colonel Hull's intelligence report?" Jaime asked.
"Yes sir, I would stake my life on it." Natasha replied.
"Then we will be breaking our contract with Liao and moving onto the Free Worlds league." Jaime said. "Our families are not bargaining chips to be used to restrain us."
"You will be remaining with the Dragoons." Jaimes stated. "We will need you to assist with us breaking out."
"Place me where you need me." Natasha said. "I did bring a mech after all."
"I need to get the senior officers together." Jaime said and nodded to Joshua, indicating for him to gather the assorted Wolf's Dragoons officers for a meeting.
September 6th, 3011
"We are all in agreement then?" Jaime Wolf asked the assembled regimental commanders.
"Aff" Echoed in the small room.
After that, the assembled group of officers dispersed, Natasha's information having helped them to make a decision. Now they just had to carry it out.
"Thank you Natasha." Joshua Wolf said, "I know Jaime would not have said it, but thank you."
"I will only be here to aid in your escape." Natasha responded.
"You will not be leaving the Dragoons again, Kerensky." Jaime Wolf said, walking up. "We have need of your skills, and Khan Ward was not pleased that you did not accompany us on our last return and report."
"I think not." She replied. "And if you try to force it, I will call for a Trial of Refusal."
"So be it." Jaime replied. "We will settle this after we have left Capellan space."
The Triad, Tharkad City, Tharkad Lyran Commonwealth October 10th, 3011
"Alright, we got everything settled, put all of the fires out, etc." Katrina said to Arthur while holding Melissa. "Now let's see what the good Colonel left us in this letter."
Opening it, she took the time to read it and then, passed it over for her husband to read.
"That son of a…" Arthur started to say and then stopped when Katrina glared at him. Glancing down at the child she was holding. "Son of a motherless goat." He finished. "He's sitting back in his office on Kentares IV, laughing at us."
"Probably." Katrina agreed. "And now we owe him quite a few favors." She said, " I'll have to see if we can poach some of his Intel people. They're very good with SIGINT and have quite the number crunching team." She gestured to part of the enclosed documents that had been in the envelope. "See the numbers here?" She asked. "That had to take weeks of work to track down, especially considering the times and sheer amount of Kroner being moved."
"I can see that." Arthur responded. "We'll definitely have to help this representative he's sending to Tharkad to make some connections. Some of this could help us dominate the Dracs once and for all."
Carver V, Capellan Confederation September 10th, 3011
"I think they were ready for us." Natasha said as they ducked into cover on their way to the Mech bays.
"You don't say." Joshua Wolf replied as he fired his carbine at yet another group of Capellan infiltrators. "At least we managed to get the dependents out already."
"Yeah, but we're still here idiot." Natasha replied. "And now we're blocked off from the mechs."
"We'll get there." Joshua replied as he dropped another Capellan with a lucky headshot.
"Not anytime soon we won't." Natasha muttered. "Give me that," Natasha grabbed the carbine out of Joshua's hands and thrust her sidearm into his arms instead. Checking to make sure that the mag had enough in it, She burst out of cover rapidly, and advanced on the infiltrators. Firing short bursts in concentrated areas that at the very least caused them to fall back.
"Damn Natasha!" Joshua said as he covered her back with the sidearm. "Where did you learn that?"
"Marksman school of hard knocks." She replied. "It's an exclusive club. No Mechwarrior Mafia allowed." She had Joshua hand her the rest of the magazines he had, and reloaded her weapon. "Everyone learns how to be infantry there… Everyone."
After that, they advanced from cover to concealment, and vice versa until they had broken through to the mech bay where Joshua's and Hull's mechs were on standby. Running to the gantries, they climbed up the stairs and ladders in order to get in and power up the mechs.
Once Natasha had sat down in the Warhammer, she once again appreciated the smooth feel and ride that the Colonel's personal mech had to it. It was almost as if she was piloting a clan mech once again. Moving through the security procedures, she took the time to appreciate that McAllister had reset the protocols for her before she had left Kentares.
"Where's the rendezvous Major?" Natasha asked over laser comms to Joshua's Black Knight.
"Navpoint Beta is the LZ." He responded. "Tying you into the system and uploading it now."
The Dragoon's dropships were parked on a field outside of the city, and Natasha's intel had allowed them to quietly pull their dependents off of Carver V and move them to Hephestaus station before the station left. Then, Capellan special forces struck, trying to prevent the Dragoons from leaving in conjunction with the local militia. It had worked on some of them, the dragoons not having expected it this soon. But the majority of them had regrouped around the dropships and were waiting for any stragglers.
"This is Major Joshua Wolf, clear a path for me." He said over comms to the Dragoons' artillery division. "We've got armor and infantry in the way."
Natasha just followed Wolf's lead, not wanting Hull's mech to get too damaged.
The artillery hit at the coordinates Joshua had indicated, and the vehicles and infantry pulled back rather than die from the king of the battlefield. Speeding through the city, they moved to the LZ and joined the rest of the Dragoons as they left the planet.
Kentares IV Draconis March, Federated Suns September 5th, 3011
"Sheppard, Earnest." I greeted the two men in front of me. "We're going to need to talk about force, the mercenary unit, and how we're going to handle the chain of command from here on out."
"We just finished setting up the Brutus factory, and repairs on the Von Luckner, Grasshopper, and the dropship repair and manufacturing lines are moving ahead of schedule thanks to the TTI people that we bought out the contracts of." I said. "With that in mind, we need to establish supply lines, and who gets first rights on war material and everything else."
The two senior officers in front of me just nodded.
"I'm leaning towards the Marksman being a mercenary unit maintained by us. The Kentares Militia Getting first priority for equipment until they are full, and the house unit being temporarily made up of Marksman and eventually expanded upon." I said. "We can decide on force composition later…"
With that, we got to making plans for the future.
Author's note: Can't think up a good name for the house unit… At least not one that fits the theme I've got going on. I almost used something like the Aurelian Guards, but my last name isn't Aurelius here… So, any suggestions will be welcome and one might end up being picked up later.