Chapter Seventy-Five: Challenging
Kentares IV, Draconis March, Federated Suns August 10, 3016
"Where is David?" Dana asked me. "I was hoping to introduce Jonathon to him."
"I sent him to Spend some time with the Steiners." I told her and Hanse. "I figured it would be better if he weren't here in case of any retaliation from Comstar."
"Speaking of which." Hanse looked me in the eye. "You haven't shown me the spoils of your raid against Comstar."
"That's because I was waiting until we were finished with some minor details before sharing some of them with you and Ian." I said with a smirk. "But I suppose it wouldn't ruin it to show you now." I got up, and we headed towards the spaceport.
Later that day…
"I notice you have more civilians present than you had before." Hanse said as we waited to arrive in the place we had hidden the Warships. "I don't recall the immigration numbers being so high."
"That's because they weren't." I told him bluntly. "Colonel Wolf arrived with a hundred thousand refugees from where they came from a couple of months ago, and entrusted me with their care." I shrugged, "They're productive, and are seemingly happy to not be under threat, I'm working on naturalizing them, but it's going to be a work in progress." I stroked my beard. "I have to schedule a meeting between Ian, Thomas Calderon, and Katrina sooner rather than later." I confided in Hanse. "I'll need your help to facilitate it, I believe it could be important."
"Still keeping your secrets Mark?" Hanse asked with a slightly sad look on his face. "I'd have thought that you trusted me and Ian by now."
"I do trust you though." I said bluntly. "It's not my secret to share though, and I keep my word, always."
"Yes, I know that you keep your word." Hanse said. "And that is one of the things that Ian and I like about you." He stated. "You don't try and play the political games, you just get to work and you say what you mean." He shrugged. "But sometimes it's damned irritating to have someone who won't tell you things."
"Hey now," I responded, "I was giving you plausible deniability in case Comstar had any reasons to suspect you."
"Fair point." Hanse agreed, "But I don't think that will be a problem for much longer if the Reports I've seen from Allard are correct."
"What do you mean?" I inquired with a raised eyebrow. "What reports?"
"I forgot you were out of the loop due to not having an HPG." Hanse sighed. "This room is secure?"
"Hanse." I said., "This is the SLIC dropship Messenger. I don't let people on it unless they've proven their loyalty beyond doubt."
"Alright then." Hanse stopped to collect his thoughts. "Chatter from all of the Intelligence groups across the Sphere indicates that Comstar is undergoing some sort of internal division." He shrugged. "But that seems to just be the surface, MIIO assets inside of various Comstar stations are reporting that Terra isn't communicating with the individual HPG's anymore and that it's sheer momentum that is holding Comstar together at this point."
"Wait." I said after he elaborated further. "You're saying that there is a multi factioned civil war happening within Comstar's ranks?"
"That is what appears to be happening, yes." Hanse agreed. "So we are moving rapidly to have some troops in position to seize HPGs if a civil war becomes public knowledge."
"Seriously?" I asked. "What happened while I was gone on that raid?"
"The Primus, Tiepolo died of a heart attack." Hanse responded. "And it seems like there is a massive disagreement on who should be in charge, and that is causing the internal divisions we are seeing now."
"Hmm." I said in response. "Something to map out later I guess we're coming up on the spoils of war now."
"Damn." Hanse said, "I didn't realize that Comstar might be hiding this amount of hardware away, are those two Yardships?." He asked a slightly incredulously.
"Yes Hanse, it's two Yardships." I responded. "Only one is operational though, our tech people are still working at unbricking the computer systems."
"How many of these are operational?" Hanse asked, looking at the amount of ships we had stolen from Comstar. "This could change the face of the Inner Sphere."
"There are three that are crewed and fully operational right at this time." I said. "The Manassas," I indicated the modified Aegis cruiser. "The Age of Discovery," I highlighted the Potemkin, "And the Comstar built Narbonne." I said. "The Narbonne is being crewed by our Marines until we train up a second crew for it." I paused and grabbed the list that I had of the ships that should be able to move. "The battlecruiser, the transport, and two of the destroyers were in the final stages of being made ready by Comstar when we stole them. They need a small amount of time, and to be rearmed and they will be ready to go."
"And the rest of them?" Hanse asked. "How long until they are ready to be activated and used?"
"Two years minimum work for many of them." I said. "Some of them will take longer than others, Comstar thought that they had more time than they did, Luckily, we stole all of the parts that were needed for the repairs and so we don't have to manufacture them in house."
"Any chance we can borrow the second Yardship when it's up and running?" Hanse asked me. "We've got some Warships in Mothballs that could use the help restoring them." He paused. "Assuming you have the data to build the parts that will be needed."
"We pulled every piece of data that they had on their station and one of the Yardships." I told him. "Considering the station was a Terran Hegemony repair depot and station, I think we can find what we need, we may need to get NAIS on some of it though." I said. "My people are kinda focused on manufacturing and ground based stuff aside from the select group that are working on the Warships we stole."
"I'll bring Ian in on this and we can work something out." Hanse told me. "Now, you said something about giving us some of these vessels?"
"Yeah," I replied. "I'm sending you back to New Avalon or somewhere hidden with the Battlecruiser, the transport and a Destroyer."
"Why?" He asked me. "You have the opportunity here to carve out your own Kingdom if you wished."
"That's way too much work." I laughed. "I'm already swamped with paperwork and other things as is." I said. "And, the Battlecruiser is harder to maintain than the other ones I have for now so I'm going to need you to take it with you so I can ease some of the financial burdens off of Sharpshooter." I shrugged. "While we're still in the black, we already have a couple of money sinks for right now until we can get some of them up and running, short term losses for long term profits."
"I understand." Hanse said. "You're trying to foist some of your work onto me." He held a serious face for a bit and then started laughing, the serious atmosphere now broken. "You're becoming just like Ian, I thought I could trust you but instead you've betrayed me."
"Boo hoo." I responded with a laugh. "I'm giving you a small squadron of Warships and all you can do is complain, looks like someone doesn't really want to go on adventures with me."
"No, you're taking me on the next adventure or raid." Hanse told me bluntly. "You run into trouble and profit everywhere you go, it's about time that I get to go do something fun instead of Ian."
"Fine, I'll let you know when we go on our next expedition." I told him. "But it's not all fun and games, I end up doing a lot of work to get everything ready before and settled afterwards."