Chapter Ninety-Four: The More Things Change…
Kentares IV, March 20th, 3019
"Y'all ready for the sims?" I asked the six Bondswomen. "You're facing Natasha and myself today." I told the six of them. "I'll be in my standard Warhammer and you and Natasha will have your personal 'mechs that you have available."
We all climbed into our sim pods, and got ready as everything began to boot up.
"All systems nominal." Bitchin' Betty told me at the end of the boot up cycle. "You ready Nat?" I asked my partner.
"Aff." She said through our comms systems. "What scenario are we in this time?" She asked me.
"Standard Desert, but they've got Clan 'mechs while I've got my WHM-6RM." I told her. "So they'll probably have an advantage in range over me."
"Mark, why did you not program in the Warhammer I brought back with me into the simulators?" Natasha gave a long suffering sigh. "You could have been on an equal playing field."
"Natasha," I said with a chuckle. "You should know by now, I thrive on a challenge."
"Mark, I just spent the last two years training these six the way that you trained me and the Marksman." She facepalmed audibly through the comms system. "We are going to get completely crushed if we don't coordinate this properly."
"This is the last trial before you cut the last bondcord?" I asked as we moved to their area. "At least that's what we discussed a couple of days ago."
"Yes, whether they achieve victory or defeat, it will be how they handle themselves afterwards." Natasha responded. "Thank you for the new 'Mech though." Natasha, laughed. "This should be fun."
As we crested the next hill, we had to separate, a flurry of LRM's and lasers targeting the space we had been in.
"I thought Clanners typically fought alone!" I said to Natasha as I dodged autocannon fire and lasers from three different 'mechs.
"They used to." She laughed as she wrecked one of the six bondswomen's 'mechs with an Alpha strike. "This is fun though!"
"Yeah, if you're a madwoman." I yelled as I dodged a PPC and returned fire, edging away from enemy fire. "And you have more armor than me." I scattered my lasers and LRM's against a Summoner'sarmor. "This sucks."
"You are the one who chose that machine." Natasha said as she tanked a brace of missiles. "Is it not your own fault then?"
"Maybe, but I admit to nothing." I said as I moved at max speed, running away while twisting to fire off PPC shots. "I'll draw off the three after me." I told Natasha. "Have fun with your three."
I turned and ran, alternating my torso rotation in order to make sure that damage was evenly distributed across my 'mech instead of in a couple of critical places. The last thing I needed was to have a XLFE breach in either of my side torsos.
"Come at me, Clanners!" I called on the open Comms. "Catch me if you can!" Famous last words, because all of their 'mechs could match the pace at which my Warhammer moved at.
Coming to a sliding stop in my 'mech, I reversed course and nailed the Summoner's cockpit, causing an immediate burial of the mech as it stopped face first in the sand, continuing on, I used the sand kicked up to try and hide as I crouched behind the wrecked Summoner in order to let it soak up some of the enemy fire. The Next 'mech on the list, a Gargoyle melted armor off of my shoulders and center torso with its ER Large lasers and pulse lasers. Causing me to stand up again and try to go toe to toe with the Assault 'mech.
I ran forwards, hoping the take the enemy off guard and was only partially successful, they recovered and backed up, reversing course in order to continue to lay fire into me. I rushed my 'mech forward, and lashed out with a kick, sending us both sliding around on the sand, and causing the Hellbringer that was the final 'mech to accidentally alpha its teammate. And also causing the Gargoyle to overheat. Allowing me to stomp on it until it was registered "destroyed" by the simulators. Sweating in my cockpit, (We didn't use the Mithril pilot suits in sims) I turned to face the Hellbringer only to see "Simulation ended" across my screen.
Climbing out of the pod, I was greeted by the faces of four of Natasha's bondswomen. Khan Winson, Star Captain Viola, Galaxy Commander Jane Thastus, and Star Colonel Alexandra Mackenzie were all present and waiting.
"Good match." I told them. "Which one of you was in the Summoner?" I asked, accepting a water bottle from a Ducal estate staff member.
"That was me sir." Viola raised her hand. "I don't know how you pulled that headshot off, but I would love to learn how to move like that."
"Well, stick around Viola, and we'll learn you on some of it." I patted the younger woman on the back. "Who did I stomp on in the Gargoyle? I asked.
"Unfortunately, that was me." Winson stated. "I did not expect the sand to slide out from underneath us as it did."
"Well, you nearly had me there for a minute." It was only that slip up that cost you the victory on that one." I raised my water bottle to her in a salute.
"Shall we take bets on whether Natasha takes the other two out?" I asked.
"There is no point." Galaxy Commander Jane Thastus weighed in. "She is a much superior 'mech pilot."
"Oh ye of little faith." I laughed at her. "Something that you should already know given your experience, is that there is the potential for anything to happen on the battlefield, even a shocking victory." I laughed. "Let me tell you of an old quote, "The greatest swordsman in the world does not fear the second best, but the worst." Do you know why that quote exists?" I asked her.
"No, I am afraid I have never heard of that quote before." She said as she met my eyes.
"The best knows what to expect from the second best." I began to explain. "But no one knows what the worst may draw out." I chuckled a bit. "The best may trip on a rock, or the worst may accidentally do a master move, no one knows, and that is why anything is possible on a battlefield, even in simulations."
As I finished, the rest of the simulator pods popped open to laughter from the remaining three, Natasha laughing the loudest out of the trio.
"That was impressive." Natasha clapped Yvonne on the back. "I have never seen an Atlas II jump before, much less do a superman punch in order to win a battle."
"I'll have to watch that recording." I said as we all relaxed after the simulated desert heat.
"All right." I told the assembled flock of women. "I'm going to go grab the drinks." I left the room so that Natasha could free her bondswomen and find out if they were going to be staying with us as members of the Ducal Guard or not.
Hours later…
"So, what's the verdict?" I asked my wife. "Are we keeping a bunch of vicious Clan Marauders around?"
"I am a vicious Clan Marauder." Nat shoved me into the bed. "Would you like me to prove it to you?"
"Not right this second." I dragged her back into the bed. "Now, who is staying with us Nat?" I pinned her down in this impromptu wrestling match.
"All of them." Natasha said before flipping us over. "When Mathis gets back, we shalll work them into the rotation for the Ducal Guard."
"You did explain to them that I'm not going to sleep with them right?" I questioned my wife with a raised eyebrow.
"I may have." She moved her eyebrows up and down while smirking. "I may have not, I enjoy the joke too much to give in now." She cackled a bit. "I will try to have them keep the attempts at seduction down to a minimum."
"But you won't stop them entirely?" I asked.
"No, I enjoy watching your reactions too much to do that." She laughed a bit.
April 2nd, 3019
"Well, good news?" I asked the two senior officers in front of me.
"Yes sir." They both said. "You can go first." Dunham told Stone. "My report is a bit more classified than yours."
"Understood." Stone nodded at the intelligence chief.
"Duke, we managed to remove the Ironsides factory and all of the feeders from Carver V with little to no issues. When we were packing everything up, a new unit claiming to be a part of the "Free State of Stewart" jumped into the system and tried to prevent us from leaving with the factory." Stone took a sip of water. "We left without any issues due to having them temporarily blinded because of their own atmospheric entry. We got to the jump point without any issues aside from having to clean up a squadron of ASF sent to intercept us. Upon arriving at the Jump point, we boarded and claimed the two Jumpships that the Stewarts had arrived with and used them in conjunction with our own Jumpships to leave the system."
"You did good work, Stone." I told the young officer. "I'll look over your report tomorrow, now you and your people need to go get some R&R."
"Yes sir." Stone saluted and then left the room to myself and the Intelligence chief.
"So Dunham." I raised an eyebrow. "I take it that you had success?"
"Yes we did." Dunham grinned. "Six copies of an HCID core that was updated with all design specs from the Age of War until the end of the Amaris Civil War." He passed over the case full of cores to me. "And, we found 10 DroST IIb's in the same place we found the core, along with a bunch of outdated Sarissa's and Mackies." He laughed a bit. "We also found two lances of Royal grade machines littered throughout the city, but they're going to need a radiation scrub along with repairs." He perked up a bit. "Oh, and before I forget, we found almost a hundred and fifty Merkava Mk. VII tanks in there. Along with 50 Ballista Artillery pieces."
"I'll have some people figure out the cost of refitting the Merkava tanks." I said. "They could be a good addition to the militia at the very least."
"My thoughts as well, Mark." Dunham agreed. "I saw that there was more buildings being restored." He prompted.
"Yeah, Nat returned while you were gone." I shrugged. "And she brought a bunch of family and friends along with her." I raised an eyebrow. "As well as a half dozen jumpships, and a dozen Dropships full of 'mechs and other gear."
"That's quite a bit of gear." Dunham said after a moment of silence. "Was there a reason given as to why she came back with that much gear?"
"Apparently it's her share of some sort of miniature war she fought on her family's behalf or something." I shrugged. "Either way, I'm just glad she's home."