Battletech: The Ghost Who Walks (Battletech Isekai)

Interlude 9​

Within the ancestral fortress Hanse Davion had gathered his most trusted ministers and aides around him. Obviously in an ideal world any minister should have been trusted, but that was naïve to think, and take that as a given. MIIO and DMI were the swords and shields of the realm against myriad insidious threats. "And?" He asked as the gun camera footage concluded.

... the question was aimed at the analysts, and what did they make of it. Yvonne nodded to let the doctor speak freely, "The most reasonable explanation, your majesty is two years removed from everything else he's known. Collation of subject conversations highlight a normal of abnormalities beyond the already atypical language, dialect usage. In terms of historical cues, and references. The Capellan Confederation only formalized its servitor caste system after the fall of the Star League, and its unlikely that the League would have permitted that kind of acrimonious behavior. We just kind of accept that's how the capellans are but it seems to have come as something of a shock. Relations with the other states are example of this fish out of water situation, because at certain moments in time, the reference to the houses, and states are as if the 27^th century."

"The Colonel doesn't seem to like the Taurians much," Yvonne remarked, "but for things that should be ancient history." The description of the Taurians 'as' an unruly territorial state with a tendency towards nuclear terrorism, and piracy was in the historical context accurate, but hadn't been true for two hundred years when territorial state had stopped being used for anyone seriously in this day and age, "on the other hand,"

The doctor, an AFFS colonel in his own right, resumed speaking, "Its classic dissociative, the zoning out , or layered speaking is a catch of sorts in the mental machinery to prevent him from spinning out of control. You put the colonel behind a battlemech yoke and you end up watching him shoot down dozens of other battlemechs." Which was an achievement, BattleMech aces were rare, most BattleMech pilots had plenty of kill counts in their BattleRoms, but the majority would be Vehicles... pretty much no one had their recorded kill tally as a majority of Enemy Mechs. "You take him out of the cockpit and ask him about the local sports team, or Solaris VII stables and he looks at you like you've grown a second head. Of course its age as well. The name Amaris is culturally coded in our society to prompt revulsion to one degree or another, centuries of cultural encoding and we see that, but we see the same reaction to Rim World Republic in general, and in a more visceral way. As if the coup was months or years ago instead of centuries. You also see it in his response and treatment of Kerensky as if he was a living, and very much imperfect officer, instead of a heroic general from the distant past. Indeed, in some conversations the colonel slips up and refers to General Kerensky in the present tense as if he's alive, and refers to other League General Officers in the same manner."

Hanse Davion nodded, "And what is the best recommendation for our plans in light of this?"

"We should proceed with the operation against Dieron, we're too far committed to the broader operation to change it. If we take the planet we succeed in further diminishing the Combine's ability to wage aggressive war." Yvonne replied, "I think that's our best option, and if the situation bears out on its current course, slow walking recruitment has the very real possibility of if we succeed in bringing the colonel over we will do so with a much larger mech command because, well and I quote 'I don't have a problem with material what I need are soldiers', and given our new insights into Brian Caches, and league materiel policy we could furnish out a new regiment of League era mechs if we we wait a year or two."

... and as for the great external threat to the realm. The images faded replaced by a star map. The hologram of the Inner Sphere showing the movement of precious JumpShips that would reinforce planets with AFFS infantry and armor regiments to offer some measure of protection. Thrusts aimed to conquer Dieron, and potentially Altair, diversion raids that were already underway and preparing to cross the border. The wash of planned activity across the Draconis March's Coreward Combat Theater.
--
The Duke of Robinson was pleased to welcome his peers of the realm to the capital of the Draconis March. He'd been looking forward to this just for the opportunity to celebrate the victory of Elidere, which could easily have gone the another way. The combine's losses aside, their attack in force at all demonstrated the need to take precautions to protect the realm. The Galedon Regulars had been able to raid with impunity before being trapped in pitched battle at Elidere, and several of his fellow lords had suffered losses against the Regulars previous attacks.

The use of the HPG to have a conversation with someone was an extravagance that some of his peers could hold because of their commercial assets but to spend that kind of money seemed absurd. As Field Marshal of the Draconis March Militia Lord Sandoval had professional obligations to his fellow dukes, and in that respect he wanted to make the rulers of Errai, and Elidere, and elsewhere at home.

The Galedon Regulars had hit Errai before, but the Maltex factory that had produced the eighty ton Thug had been destroyed almost two centuries earlier. The assault Mech had entered production in 2572, and had resulted in machines that were LosTech by contemporary standards having been stored away by Terran authorities for a rainy day. Now he would be able to distribute it to PDZs across the border area, bolstering important planets in the march without disrupting existing, and often tenuous, supplies from the broader Federated Suns. He'd of course been assured by the office of the Prince's Champion that the forthcoming counteroffensive against the combine would mean that the Draconis March would mean more supplies coming in.

His counterpart from Errai seemed especially interested in the Thugs presence in the cache... and in the cache find itself. "Errai was a Hegemony world."

"I am not disputing that," He wasn't, the other duke's position was probably right on the money, but there simply wasn't time, "But while its possible the Hegemony would have stowed such hardware away it isn't as if we found a map that would show us where they were."

His counterpart from Errai perhaps sensing that the conversation was going no where fast, prepared to switch tracks. The colonel was absent, Shepherd not being here prevented him from being ambushed with petitions, invitations, requests and so on to come visit ... and Errai had the potential of being viable recruiting grounds for pilots that the mercenary company could use. .. and of course the truth was they were no longer under command that having passed higher up the feudal ladder, and while she was a daughter to a duke the Countess of Kestrel was not yet a duchess, and Lady Yvonne was not here.

Still this was a predictable problem. One he should have suspected would crop up once he disclosed the recent cache discovery, and its contents... but realistically just the MID depot on Elidere might have prompted a basic inquiry if there might not be resources on Errai... but certainly the discovery near Purki in hindsight would warrant the questions regarding Errai.
--
They were sitting in one of the dining halls in the guest wing of Castle Davion, really killing time as the prospect of departure drew nearer. The Davion Guards were doing something. Presumably getting ready, but also going over, presumably, their share of lostech cache they'd been provided with before they were loaded up. So, small talk for what might after Dieron. "The objective is to complete the mission." It probably wasn't the answer Kerston was looking for, but before he could clarify the topic had already changed back to the elusive Minnesota tribe. Abner had shown them the artifacts... it was unfortunate that Abner hadn't had with him on Elidere, because they were high technology.

They were precisely the sort of things that a Royal Command would have been issued either as potentially next generation standards, or testing and evaluation of the latest cutting edge equipment. The BattleMechs which were identified as having fought the combine in the second succession war period that the 'Minnesota tribe' had been active, and their tactics certainly provided credence to the working theory.

Gene adjusted the cuff of his full body suit.

"Do you have transponder data, that would include the IFF?" Kerston suggested.

Abner shook his head, "No, the Tribe forces attack under complete radio silence. They made no attempt to contact the Combine forces. There was no indication electronically of who they were." And that was probably part of the mystery.

... one of Kerston's aides beat them all too it. "Thats insane," He wasn't wrong the whole point of integrated IFF systems capable of being read through battlefield ecm was to insure you didn't accidentally shoot your own men. Launching a planetary assault was reckless in the extreme.

"As I said complete radio silence. Admittedly its possible they could have used advanced ECM but more likely the units involved were drilled to operate in close order that they were relying purely on visual contact." ... which was to reiterate insane. "Jinjiro Kurita was always terrified that Kerensky would return."

... which made sense given that the Coordinator of the present day had known that his ancestor, and Jinjiro's predescessor in the office had collaborated with Amaris, and that Kerensky and Blake had known. That did raise the question of when exactly the combine had found out that the SLDF, and ComSTar had known about minoru's treachery, and how much of Jinjiro's paranoia had been irrational fear of being found out, and it spoiling his ambitions.

... and speaking of the coordinator's paranoia, he tossed a look at Abner, "Has Pasha talked to you about their planned exodus?" ... Pasha hadn't figured a final course but instead of jumping off in Canopian space, which might raise questions, he wanted to leave from somewhere called the Aurigan Reach.

"He has."

"I suppose ... if the Combine is going off the deep end, then the next potential gig will be escort duty, humanitarian convoy looking to avoid being caught up in purges." Purges that seemed to be already underway... but if they did kick the Combine's teeth in on Dieron, Gene was pretty sure that the Coordinator's response would be to start searching around for traitors that didn't' exist, and start lashing out at anything he could put his hands on... and so even though they wouldn't be able to get everyone out, the prospect of doing anything to help in pulling civilians from harms way seemed the next best gig to take up. Not so much on the prospect of the money, but for actually doing something... and of course from the sound of it, actually recruiting was going to be increasingly difficult... and if most of their next round of recruits were azamis, or other ethnic or social group that the Combine was beating on this week... well that was going to be different than hiring at some hall on a hub world... "Anyway, I'll know more when we get to Northwind."

 

Interlude 10​

Her fellow Azami were completing the loading. Without the Triump they had to make do with using a provided transport DropShip, but the massive Alacorn tanks were already loaded into the full size vehicle bays of Sam Houston.

Yusuf was her father's cousin, and the captain of the Colorado was young to be commanding such a large and capable, if date design, Jump Ship. Keeping Colorado on station had been done to insure that if something unfortunate developed, if they had to leave they would b e able to move the greatest volume of material quickly to the front. Unlike Pasha though Yusuf was too junior to really command the respect of more senior members of the community plying the Jump Ship routes. It might have been better had Pasha remained, but that couldn't be helped. There were completely practical reasons they had displaced and divided their forces as they had.


Lebanon and Colorado had both been plying the trade routes while the Combine had invaded Elidere and that had left as the ranking Azami officer since as a Mechwarrior Officer she outranked the junior field grade Armor Branch officers... and that had been before engaging the Galedon regulars. A mechwarrior was defined by the number of other mechs she had downed. With not even a dozen mechwarriors in the company, Elidere had been a truly target rich environment as far as the paperwork was concerned basically everyone in the company had made ace... though not without damage. The duels on the surface of Ander's moon had created impressive, respectable battlerom footage as well.

It was social credit vital to a mechwarrior's standing in the eyes of her peers and others. To that end it had made sense to leave command of the duelist contingent with here... and of course that company would still be her responsibility until they linked back up on Northwind.

"Without Pasha it will be difficult to make decisions on hiring." Yusuf remarked, the JumpShip captain was enjoying the opportunity to be planet side and in greenery surrounded full gravity as it was available, "I think might be best to leave securing supplies to me." He admitted with remarkable patience... the truth was... they weren't in a position where supplies were really a priority now... they needed manpower, but the merchant would go looking for spare parts taht they might need, while her Septim searched for recruits... and hoped that any potential Azami recruits were willing to wait until Pasha arrived in the event they wouldn't deal with 'juniors'. The discovery of the cache really had been to their benefit, but it had also complicated the scheduling beyond existing matters.. the need to take San Saba, and Lebanon off station and to New Avalon had been a hassle.


--
Gene glanced out the planet side window as the San Saba departed New Avalon's gravity well, nearby an Overlord in SLDF colors was laid in to a parrell course of the jump point. The Eridani DropShip was going the same place after all. The trip to Northwind had been the thing he'd been looking forward to for months as it had represented a chance to spend the money IE had used as a retainer to get them to come to Elidere in the first place. They would be able to recruit for the company, and allow them to grow. Northwind had been a center of mercenary hiring really since the Scots-irish diaspora had colonized the planet as new colonies were looking for private security options for various reasons. So visiting the biannual highland faire he'd been hoping for the option to do a little bit of shopping, things like bulldog tanks, and more lrm carriers to and of course the chance to hire freelancer ASF pilots before going back out to find a niche on the Magistracy's borders.

All of that had been if not derailed then force to reschedule. It was true that the company treasury was swollen to levels Gene could scarcely contemplate, but that came with the destruction of DropShips, and mechs on the regimental scale. The original plan, besides of course the I.E. Paycheck had been more about expanding the company enough to have a reasonable military force that could operate reliably in the periphery against pirates. He certainly hadn't planned to get involved in the disputes of the successor states on such a scale the money be damned.

They were involved. Davion against Kurita. Federated Suns against Draconis Combine.

Or more involved. .. given the Azami... given the hpg recording indicting Minoru Kurita in collaborating with Amaris... evidence which would humiliated the Combine publicly, and besides potential revolt, also incentive further propaganda against the Combine from the other houses. Was it truly a game changer in the balance of power? Probably not. The combine though in the pursuit to defend their own honor certainly believed it had to be concealed... which raised the question of why it had been floating around in the first place, and who had found it and baited the combine with it.

... and even without that knowledge... they'd certainly have a target on their back since Elidere... to that end was committing Dieron the best option? Probably not, but the best thing they could do was expand their ranks at the Faire and complete the objective... like he'd told Kerston, because it was the only thing he could think to do.

"What's bothering you commander?"

He looked from the window. It was a lot. Everything from his thoughts of New Avalon on Initial Approach... and what seemed to be missing, to the consideration that all the House capitals would have similarly decline... to the realization of what the capellans were doing with their servitor caste, and had been for centuries now as the wars had continued... and back to the matter of the HPG recording and who might have been trying to exploit it... and of course, "I don't understand how gauss rifles became LosTech," Advanced JumpDrive technology either, compact drives and lithium batteries were as old... it didn't seem feasible for him... the capacitor technology shouldn't have just disappeared.

Abner folded his paper, "Ah, well, not to add another mystery to your plate but I'm afraid I must, I looked into your missing warship."

"Missing warship?"

"The SLS Tripitz, she was found derelict in the periphery some years ago."

Gene shrugged, "Not surprising I suppose," Except for how warships seemed to have so completely disappeared from human space.

"No, no, no that's not the mystery. The Taurians attempted to mount a recovery operation, and well it would be easier to show you," The small trivid projector was from the Star League era, the sort of thing that would have been expensive back then, but still available at retail in Lyran space.

The SLS Tirpitz's damage was most likely a misjump, while there appeared to be some battle damage along the hull the battle cruiser's damage control teams looks like they had patched over it... which suggested whatever the reason they had abandoned ship, if they had abandoned ship in good order, was internal. The Black Lion was being crawled over by Taurian teams who didn't seem at all prepared when the first strikes came in, the footage panned to incoming strafing ASF fighters unmarked in Factory White.

If anything Gene was almost willing to bet that someone had dug the ASF out of an automated factory's warehouse and instead of adding appropriate unit insignia, and finishing Terran parade colors and decided that they were good enough in white. Whatever the case was, the Taurians weren't prepared to be facing those kinds of numbers.

"What do you make of it? Of these Vandenburg white wings?"

"Given the," twenty dropships, "the ships they were with, I'd guess whoever they were originally were hoping to recover Tripitz, and with that not being an option prioritized operational security and..." And scuttled the ship into the gas giant's gravity well. He wasn't even sure why he bothered scrambling to scribble the coordinates... in the League's time the navy probably could have brought complex recovery equipment in, drones, and tugs to recover Tripitz... but all that infrastructure was gone, and even if the ship could have been recovered? What then, if the ship had been abandoned in good order then the ship's drives would have been ordered scrubbed by the admiral, or at least the watch commander to prevent exploitation... given the conflict with the rebelling territorial states. "I don't suppose, I suppose my next question is whether or not there was any indication of when Tripitz was lost originally," The Taurians had managed to find her in 2979 which was when the footage was from... footage that he had no idea how Abner had managed to source even if it was almost forty years old now.

Abner didn't have answer. It was unknown exactly how much time the Taurians had spent aboard the derelict only that they had made the decision to try and recover it... and if rumors were right, that the Capellans had thought to try and claim jump them, and then, bam honorable third party intervention in the form of these white wings... but complete details were missing.

The Tripitz was lost.

He plugged the coordinates into his own small hegemony produced computer, and looked at the coordinates... not that there was a point. They didn't have the resources to go fishing for a battlecruiser in a gas giant, "There is no way we could divert for that," If they did got to this Aurigan Reach place with Pasha's refugees the year after.

Abner, perhaps the growing morose feeling, changed subjects, "What do you think of the devastator?"

"In all honesty it completely eclipses what I was hoping" Personally"to get out of the Marauder II series." Which shouldn't have been that much of a surprise. The truth was it was much more suited to his engagement style at rangegiven those gauss rifles... that wasn't to say the Marauder II wouldn't work for the company at larger... or for DMM units supporting it would... "I'll admit I don't understand why it took this long for someone to make an assault mech off the Marauder Chassis, I really would have expected given logistics that the SLDF would have done it, but it is what it is."
--
Notes: We may or may not start Highland Faire sunday, there are two other 'scrap' interludes that basically nominally canon that were cut for timing issues but its about four thousand words of content covering Septim's perspective and some of the other characters that I might rework somewhat to include. I won't really be covering the travel time from New Avalon to Northwind, except possibly Kerston and Gene getting a discussion in, but that could basically be done on Northwind, and then a conversation between Gene, and Pasha about Cairo's manifest and computer core which can be covered later since its not going to be dealt with until years down the road, but of course travel time in BT is slow, and even so I'm going to be fudging arrival dates slightly, because thats on me... but anyway this basically gets us through the interludes between Robinson and Northwind.

Highland Faire, Northwind, will effectively be its own standalone chapter somewhat centered on the SLDF remnants and the traditions remaining. It will in the current outline be a full size chapter before jump off into the invasion. Dieron will basically be jump from Northwind launch the invasion, no real travel time because its one jump

 

Highland Faire Prologue
Northwind January 3018
The 12 Jump trip from New Avalon to Northwind had been nearly three months, but it had also been solely through Davion controlled space. Making planet fall though still took time, and it was now early January... it was good to be back in a gravity well... especially one so very close to Earth's gravity.

The Eridani Light Horse certainly knew how to flex. The assembled Regimental Combat Team was gathered on Northwind, and that meant a lot of DropShips, more than that it meant the presence of the ELH's sole surviving Excalibur class. "It was intended as a next generation SLDF transport a successor to the whole Colussus boondoggle." And according to Tristan it hadn't been properly tested... production had been delayed due to the Amaris civil war. The result was of course, yes a cheaper combined arms carrier, but at the cost of significantly less armament... and it was still sixteen thousand tons of DropShip.

... but the Excalibur as it touched down still managed to look impressive surrounded by twenty other Dropships, a mix of Aerodyne and Spheroid, but all in SLDF colors. The Eridani had even gone the extra step of having repainted the entire Regimental Group, including those dropships, for the Temperate forests of Northwind. Gene had to wonder if they had issued forest cammies, but so far it looked like everyone dismounting for inspection was in Regimental Dress Uniforms.

These were the other half of the people they'd be invading Dieron with.... though Gene supposed third might be more accurate. Yvonne Davion had the ability to assume operational control of the Guards... but the Field Marshal wasn't sure that that would be how they would launch the assault.

The plan was to launch the operation in early spring, so they had a minimum of ten weeks. It was interesting how even after nearly a thousand years, nine hundred and change that operations continued to be modelled, timetabled off of the northern hemisphere of Terra's seasons. He tossed a look at Kerston's BattleMaster, and then to his own Marauder. The great expanse of one of the hubs of scotch-irish diaspora of the first Exodus of Terra was Cromarty City... Tara's Castle Northwind.

The Highland Faire was positively medieval in its sprawl, and length. It was only run twice a year because well if you ran four of them in the usual format they'd basically abut against each other... and there was no shortage of stands, temporary camps, and of course rather than walk given the space mechwarriors road their warmachines, and navigated smaller ground and hover cars. That was part of the advantage. On a planet that was currently playing to host to more mechs than... well probably anywhere in the inner sphere the Eridani didn't warrant a second look, and when the Guards arrived in a few weeks, well it was a Davion planet. The arrival of a Davion regiment was hardly something that would attract immediate attention.

"What about the new Mechs?"

"I want them kept in reserve for the time being." The Faire had a melee ... some of mech scale free for all for young 'squires'.... that was more of a translation convention but it was aimed at young untested mechwarriors, and the faire's marshals seemed pretty serious about it. Gene wasn't surprised they hadn't let 'Rio' participate, but Sutton was also apparently ineligible to participate in the festivities. It was still considered a fairly safe event they weren't using real ammunition, but it wasn't one hundred percent either. Bahar had been pretty clear before she had taken off that advertising that they had ... anywhere near as many mechs available as they did. Then on top of that there were other things. "to be honest given the Blackwell order, my focus is on recruiting armor and infantry for those vehicles. Field Marshal Davion," Yvonne, "Says she has volunteer ASF pilots already lined up for us."

"Speaking of that the Countess asked what that was you beamed out?"

"Hmm," He shrugged, it had been a query ... well him and Abner playing a wager, "Its nothing, I didn't get a return signal, but I'm not surprised." The truth was he had kind of hoped that maybe Abner's optimism wasn't misplaced that... some fragment of the system's defenses, maybe something of the SDS had survived and was looking for surviving Terran signatures... but there had been nothing returned to his broadcast interrogative. Gene shoved his hands into his frock coat as the wind picked up, "Kerston promised an introduction to the Highlanders, and given our situation," And the fact that they were their hosts nominally, it seemed a good idea.

Septim tossed a glance towards the gray clouds promising rain and blew out a breath, "Yeah, I'll come with you boss." He glanced to the other Alexander who shrugged his broad shoulders.

"I have everything under control here I'll tell Bubbles." The dervish pilot declared with a wave.



Hanzo tagged along powering his cicada and linking the mech into the tac com without saying much. He doubted anyone realized, as they mounted their mechs that part of what made the faire possible was this broad expanse that so readily, so easily facilitated the presence of so many BattleMechs and allowed them to maneuver dated to the Age of war, but even more than that was the Castle Brian that was underneath the surface. An actual Castle Brian, built by the Hegemony to protect one of the earliest Hegemony worlds Castle Northwind's surface muster space had been built to fit in with the aesthetics of an established hegemony world much like those Castles on Terra had been.

They moved to the ferrocrete 'foot path' that crisscrossed and spread around the 'camp grounds'. Kerston's battle master waved them in with its left hand, as their trio of mechs joined up. "Colonel Shepherd. Captain, Lieutenant." He added more on formality.

They moved on to the navigation network, a series of beacons that kept them out of traffic per se, in so far as the lookie loos were in a lane on the outside where they could get off quickly and dismount, while Kerston took them in a far side course looking to lead them up towards the looming gothic form of castle northwind's most obvious surface structure.

Gene idly flicked his consoles, but he wasn't expecting anything. He'd read Tristan's report, as well as the history of Northwind that Abner had had handy. Not that he was completely sure of the New Kyoto text being free of bias but regardless it told him enough.

"SO uhm."

"What?" He asked to Septim's start.

"Colonel Cameron is doing his Black Fox rendition at the pub. Just be ready."

Gene rolled his eyes. It was good natured ribbing, and it wasn't as if Bard didn't live up to his call sign, but he was really beating a dead horse... or at least Gene thought so, but for the Draconis March Militia ... celebrating a major combine defeat was... was not gonna get old for them any time soon. "I can sit through it," He muttered as he checked the clock against the dinner plans. Advantage of a small unit it wasn't hard to organize for. Really it was the first night they had everyone back together, and it had been something of a pity that he had missed the holiday festivities, but San Saba hadn't made it planet side until after New Years day 3018.

There was a handshake chirp, and Gene expected it to be a nav beacon from Castle Northwind, instead of the expected N001 SLDF Fortress code his Dalban started returning a Hegemony handshake and unit return. The Terran Hegemony handshake immediately eliminated the possibility that this was Kerston. The Eridani Light Horse used standard SLDF handshakes... and frankly there would have been no point. His machine was already linked to Kerston's battlemaster, and the wider Regimental Combat Teams comms.

His Marauder hand shaked and linked into a Terran Hegemony officer's ninety five mech, and authenticated the man's 191^st Division Credentials. He hit the las com line to the Eridani Assault Mech, "General, do you know a Captain Campbell by chance?"

--
Notes: This is short, I'm going to bed, but this is the opening to Highland Faire, you may recall there was a scrap that covers some of what is about to occur, but this takes place immediately before a version of that. This may see minor adjustments in the morning, but yes short update we're on northwind. Some material from before this may go up at at a later date.

 

Highland Faire​

His marauder trundled slowly steadily forward, at a safe 25 kilometers an hour.

Castle Northwind was even given its age and the service it had endured an impressive structure... he would have felt better if he had a better idea of what they had just walked into. It didn't help that no two castle Brians were identical. This wasn't the periphery, this wasn't the ... wasn't Elidere, where the Combine were willfully firing on civilian homes... he'd been trying to do the right thing in a surrounding that was alien to him. The Castle's bunker access lead into what for all intents and purposes was a massive underground parking garage, if one draped with tartan patterns, battle flags, ensigns and honors...

It was quintessentially Northwind as he had seen it thus far. It very much reflected the great diaspora of earth and gaelic revival that had spawned it and been sustained by hundreds of worlds to colonize, to grow on. At least on Elidere, against the Combine he had had an idea of what to expect, and was in his comfort zone. He was at home in buckled into the armored cockpit of his Marauder... or really any mech he'd run the Mongoose and Locust through their paces, and the revisions to the Cicada had been his idea before they had had Hanzo sign on. This wasn't the same thing, he was comfortable fighting, not contending with this... whatever this was.

He brought the Marauder into a crouch, and nestled down. Kerston had already brought his battlemaster to a kneeling position and dismounted. The Brevet General didn't look alarmed at least. The Highlander was painted with a black tartan pattern badge... that coincided with its IFF. An impossibility of course... or should have been... the captain aboard had dismounted an older man... probably in Kerston's age bracket.

That definitively made him the youngest officer present. The other highlander mechs had authenticated their Hegemony IFFs to his Marauder, there were a number of Highlanders, and he wasn't sure if that was because of the commonness of the assault mech in Hegemony service, or because they were playing games over their shared namesake.

What he wasn't detected were any indication that the subterranean level had any of its defense guns. Defense turrets, even automated, or remote controlled ones should have been technology that even in the decline of the third succession war should have still been feasible to maintain, even replace... but there was no sign of even a passive connection. He had no indicators available to that there were sensors he could have sent a signal to... nothing.

It was possible that the damage to the Castle had been that significant... which was in its own right alarming... especially as they moved deeper into the fortress, and further underground without any sign of the electronics that should have been present in a Castle Brian.

His Marauder was configured into command and control mode. Ordinarily this would have meant nothing. Normally speaking a Marauder's Dalban would parse data down such that he rarely would have had complex pilot data coming through the link unless he specifically wanted it, or if the other mech was sending him a warning that a pilot was injured or otherwise. With only a lance in his chain, and no data coming in from the other 'SLDF' flagged units... his Hegemony software was telling him that Kerston wasn't sure what was going on... "General?"

"I've never been to this part of the Castle before." He replied to the question. "I, Campbell has my complete trust colonel... what he wants to show us," He trailed off as they passed another series of posted battlemechs running 191^st IDCs.

The whole area was decorated in Northwind fashions. Something that he didn't think would have been the case in the Star League era, but it was how things were. Campbell's highlander moved to a dismount point, and the 'Captain' dismounted from his mech after powering down the reactor. His camera caught sight of a kilted man, in his mid or late fifties, which conformed with the piloting credentials that had been relayed from the Highlander. Kerston followed suit, easing his Battlemaster in. Thankfully the gantries had been designed with universality in mind, so after he moved to the dock Septim's merlin didn't have any issue.

Gene powered down the VLAR 300, logging a directive to the MMI before then unsapping his harness. There was a reception party waiting. They didn't seem belligerent, or overtly threatening, but the kilted men wore uniforms that were SLDF... and carried Mauser Las-Rifles. He doubted there was anything ceremonial about their full length dirks sheathed ... but the reception stood at attention to let the Highlander pilot through, who saluted. "General Kerston, welcome back to Northwind." He brogued.

It was something of a marvel, that Gene had a hard time wrapping his head around. The great scotch irish diaspora had departed from the United States, and from the Anglosphere of the western alliance to colonize many worlds. That was an understatement, but Northwind had been one of those worlds that of the great exodus of the golden of stellar colonization which had settled the scotch irish here, and Donegal, and Skye, and countless others. The Gaelic revival of the late 21^st and the 22^nd centuries made those that had happened in America, Canada, and Australia look like a joke. That much was apparent given how many kilted clans dotted Northwind's surface in the year 3017.

"Captain Campbell. This was not quite the reception I was expecting." Kerston replied.

Campbell glanced around at the banners that turned the massive mech ready bay, and briefing area into a majestic scottish hall. "Oh this, think nothing of it. I just thought it appropriate, given our situation, you're our guests." He centered back on them, "Colonel Shepherd."

"Captain Campbell." He returned the salute in as textbook as he could, cognizant that Septim was not thrilled by the development the group had found themselves in... and if Gene were to guess... it was those prophetic dreams again, something here must have clicked. He catalogued it away as the guards allowed an older highlander to come by and hand something off to Campbell. Gene couldn't see what it was but the man signaled that they should follow him, and so they left their mechs behind and into a open archway into what was clearly some kind of checkpoint... or had been before being turned into a great room of sorts with a large table, and stuffed deer mounted on the walls, "Offer any you a drink, water of life anyone."

"We're on duty, Captain." The brevet general said, before Gene could perfunctorily accept the scotch invitation for the sake of being polite. They had managed to reduce the number of highlanders in tow... Kerston seemed to have noticed that.

The kilted man shrugged from the bar, poured himself a healthy glass and sat down, beckoning them to do the same at the long oak table that dominated the room. They all accepted, even the most of the squad of guards, security contingent, other highlanders whatever they were taking seats on a bench, and others remaining by the door they had entered from. He reached down after placing his scotch on the table and placed a case on the table with a tartan insignia and badge, he opened it.

Septim swallowed at the laser pistol in the case that was resting on the table as the highlander reached inside, and plucked what was beside it. "Do you know what this is?" He asked, placing beside it the thistle bloom there.

He had to bit down the juvenile answer that the species name was 'Sillybum'. "The Milk Thistle." Then in practiced, church esque latin, "Nemo me impune lacessit."

"Boss." Septim protested to Hanzo's obvious annoyance as the Cicada pilot tensed.

He ignored the Lyran's complaint, and continued on. "I'm not Black Watch," The highland men started at the comment. "You broadcasted an 191st IFF to the Marauder, that pings back to a Hegemony handshake. The mech and its identification, your machines register as from the Royal Highland Regiment."

Campbell bit his lip and tilted his head, acknowledging the explanation, "Aye, my highlander." He said wistfully, eased and then sipped his scotch. The tension eased out of the room, "You beg my pardon there, but you barely look twenty Lieutenant Colonel," He emphasized the peace time rank not the brevet promotion to full bird... which suggested the handshake had possibly included both, "Shepherd." He produced a silver tin box from within the case. It was decent sized thing, with a reader on it. "Place your hand on it. I'd like to see if we can find out what's inside it, yeah?"

The thing slid over as Gene looked at it. Then, he reached up and pulled the dog tags from his neck, and put it on the reader, and then rested his hand on the space for it to scan. Campbell swallowed as it flashed green, and then he drained the rest of his scotch. Kerston had remained silent, but the brevet general looked to be building to an outburst, and as if stymie that, there was a clink as the glass went down, and Campbell explained. "My ancestor was given that box by Captain Hazel she got it from Colonel Schmitt two hundred and fifty years ago. He was a wee lieutenant in the regiment fresh to it when Amaris attacked."

The silver tin case opened inside on crushed velvet was tablet with the emblem of House Cameron, and the Terran Hegemony. A diary... or maybe some kind of record. Final orders... who knew.

"And you've been white shielded for those two and a half centuries." Campbell blinked at the term, Kerston too, and probably the others. "Your parents passed down a Hegemony log key to enlist their children with their credentials..." Tristan had informed him that, "the dragooning process was common during the war with Amaris, its a program that predates the age of war. It was never intended to authorize for that long." Just so teenagers could fight long enough to receive official acknowledgement from Terra. You could make lieutenants out of it," presumably you could enlist private soldiers, but without an authentication for it, say an AI like Tristan to validate promotions, captain was probably the highest that had been approved in a very long time by a system that was now long dead... given that was what Campbell's rank was.

"Come with me, colonel." Campbell stood up, the fifty something year old man collected the diary that had been in the locked box his ancestor had been entrusted. "Your friends, and General Kerston will be fine... just a jaunt something else to show you. There is another door we cannot open." He lead him deeper inside the Castle, modern furnishings gave way to Star League era reinforcings laid bare. Gene glanced at the blue circle on the floor, and the recessed laser cannons mounted in the ceilings... but he supposed the hallway was big enough for light vehicles... probably a tramway on the other side... might have linked to a Port complex if he had to guess. "Can ye open it?"
--
Notes: Kerston gets less dialogue here than I would like, but we're moving relatively quickly as they dismount and move into the Castle Northwind. This and the previous segment are all taking place within basically the same afternoon, Kerston is going to find out about the castle, and the rest probably in part four.
--

 

Highland Faire​

He looked at the circle again, wondering if the reader worked, but really as soon as Campbell had finished his question things started to happen. There was a change in the air, a kind of draft. The N001 complex was old. In a way that Tristian's outpost castle wasn't. There were differences also in scale. Castle Northwind was a castle Brian that at least its original foundations predated the Star League. It was original a 23rd century Hegemony facility built... the fact didn't escape him... from the strategic concerns of the Hegemony, and Brian Cameron of Kuritan ambition, and aggression.

Gene exhaled the breath and watched the ceiling move.

A speaker crackled to life, and synthetic voice initiated. He was cognizant that the others had started to follow, no one had apparently in the access office, side room, lobby whatever it had been, had stopped Kerston from decided he was curious to. "Authorized user detected." The voice declared. Unlike with Tristan, the turrets had activated dropping down, or raising from their floor housings to cover the hallway's approach.

"Tell them to stay back." He grunted as the guns oriented, ignoring Campbell, and himself and pointing down the hall towards the others. Gene stepped up into the blue ring on the floor and placed his chit on the reader and hand on the scanner and felt the prick of the machine taking a blood sample.

The speakers shifted again, possibly signifying that the initial synthetic voice has simply been an automated smart system. "Standby." The new artificial voice ordered in a brogue tone, similar but distinct enough from the locals... say two hundred years out of date. "Authenticated. Welcome lieutenant colonel Shepherd, I am Dante." The Hegemony AI stated introducing himself, "It has been 177 years since an officer of the Central Intelligence Directorate has accessed this facility."

He blanched as the massive doors opened. Gene was stepping out of the circle snagging his keys as he went from where they sat on the green illuminated reader and marking a hard line for the inside and the myriad of consoles, and projectors that he could see within, "I understand, can you prepare a briefing of this facility, its actions and evaluations."

"Wait, Colonel Shepherd." Another brogue voice, Campbell had been staring around at the ceiling looking for the speakers, or maybe looking at the Laser Cannons as the AI had introduced himself. The Black Watch descendant stumbled a bit and followed him as he cleared the threshold of the doorway.

He threw a look back over his shoulder, The turrets didn't move to track him.. but he was also unsure how they would respond if the others saw the doorway and decided to try and come down the hall to follow... he'd need to see to that... but, there was the math to consider. "A hundred and seventy seven years ago would have been fifty five years after Kerensky's Operation Exodus." He snapped striding through the inner armored bulkhead... a further redundancy against biological or chemical weapons being used against this part of the Castle.

"Yeah I can do math." Campbell was following slower looking. "And yeah, so you know that was also the year the Davion's took the planet."

"Colonel." The AI inquired. He wasn't sure if Dante was asking about his and Campbell's exchange, but...

"I want a catalog report of any CID data transmissions, and accesses to any facilities in system, and any confirmed communiques coming in after the Liberation of Terra, most recent first." holograms snapped up in the air. He looked at them, and specifically highlighted as priority.

Shortly before the AFFS had launched their attack a Rear Admiral of the Hegemony, apparently promoted twice since the fall of the Star League by time in grade, had arrived with a retinue of picked men and accessed the castle.

Northwind was two jumps from Sol, they had been put here because Hanse Davion wanted to hit Dieron and make the Combine bleed, but... one of the files added in 2841 was...

Campbell came to a stop by the command terminal, and rested a hand on the railing, "Colonel, you look white as a ghost-,"

"According to Admiral Clancy's log, the one he left here, Fortress Dieron is intact." He'd read about it in Tristan's files on SLDF facilities operated by the Hegemony that were now inside the combine, but he'd assumed it had either been destroyed by Amaris or looted. That expectation had been supported by Pasha's report that Dieron had been brutally savaged by 'the Satan Amaris'.

That raised questions. Dieron was a castle. The Fortress was equipped equipped with a massive suite of orbital to surface capital weapons... it was possible that the SDS override had disabled those but he couldn't be sure.

"That is correct colonel. The facility should be securely locked down, with access to sensitive sections prohibited to unauthorized personnel." That was to say that the automated turrets would shoot first, assuming they got past the drone combat vehicles, or anti infantry drones...

Shepherd pulled a data chit from his jacket pocket and placed it into a holographic projector. "Verify, authenticate data and credentials." He ordered.

"Authenticated." Dante replied as a hologram appeared showing the contents of the data storage device.

"Play HPG recording."

Minoru Kurita, and Stefan Amaris appeared to give Dante, and Campbell the shock of their respective lives. While he stared at the specifications of Fortress Dieron as of its last reported status the world he and the Eridani Light Horse, along with some Davion regulars had been planning to invade with the intended goal of proving the combine to not be invincible... per the briefing from Hanse Davion's number two man... err woman... Prince's champion

Dante's sudden string of invectives startled him out of staring at the topographic display and the holographic onion map of Fortress Dieron's layers as it spread out in front of him. Dante no longer had an HPG uplink it had been destroyed in order to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Republic forces, but not before it had received and transferred other updates and a backlog of movements and orders.

Dante had probably been curating them, splitting his attention as he processed the HPG recording, because a series of orders signed by Kerensky appeared ... and being countermanded by local Terran militia forces, and CID personnel. Not just here, but on other worlds, including New Dallas.

... he thought about the data slate in the lockbox that had gotten them this far... the las pistol was functionally identical to the one he was wearing... the device that Campbell had carried. "Dante if you would inform the of personnel in the access pathway to remain there, and standby." He waited for acknowledgement, as the AI's voice echoed faintly from the hallway to the others. Then as an additional precaution, and hoping that AI wouldn't override the order directed that Dante shouldn't fire on them without being fired upon. He received no protest, with that out of the way, "Captain Campbell I need the data slate, I want to access it." It was probably encrypted, but presumably either his credentials or Dante's would be able to open it.

... and he wasn't quite sure what he was going to find.

Campbell handed him the slate, which he placed on the console interface, but it seemed it was going to take a minute. "Dante can you confirm Taurian ASF footage is the SLS Triptiz?" He questioned referring to another saved file on the data chit bearing the damning footage of Kurita and Amaris.

The footage played showing the hulk as it floundered pulled into the gravity well of a gas giant somewhere in the periphery near or in Taurian space.

Data markers appeared on the hologram as the AI cross referenced details. "This footage is valid, Colonel." The date of 2979 held on the projection, "I can confirm further that the SLDF fighters in use are not broadcasting properly configured SLDF IFF, they are neither regular army, nor Hegemony forces. "

He hadn't had the resources to process those signatures from the recording, but the latter also strongly implied that the strike mission wasn't being carried out by Hegemony in Exile forces.... so who then?

Dante resumed speaking, "Colonel, as ranking Terran officer present I am required to inform you this material is sensitive to the Hegemony." He acknowledged the statement, and the recognition that Dante was going to seal the bulkheads, when he did so, "Additionally, the package from Colonel Schmitt contradicts my orders from General Marlborough."

... that was a problem. He glanced at the report... tapped the stainless steel console's backlit keyboard in acknowledgement. "There is a secure file on the data chit, please review it. I'm authorizing its release."

"Standby."

... and so another recording played... he should have ordered Dante to review it without playing it. Tristian's outpost's wildfire protocol... and the AI's attendant report. "This data would validate General Marlborough's orders."

That was all well and good for the long dead Duke of the defunct Hegemony, but that wasn't the point. "What portion of Schmitt's data contradicts the General's orders?"

"SLS Tripitz successfully ran the republican blockade of terra. The encrypted material was to be delivered to then Commanding General Kerensky ordering him to commence an immediate counter attack."

"The SDS would have cut him to pieces." Gene felt the need to point out.

"That had been taken to account. Schmitt's data package includes the command override code to release all M Series drones to autonomous. Any Caspar series or other drone starfleet unit would have begun direct attacks against rim world forces and all ground based control systems would be rendered useless by the signal."

Caspars didn't really have the same scope of sentience, sapience, which ever it really as ... since AI weren't his specialty and he wasn't sure just how much thinking a drone dropship or lola did... and well the space stations had as much thinking power as Dante or Tristan and the personality quirks. They'd be left with the primary directive of defending the hegemony... against an enemy had been committing atrocities left right and center since Christmas.

He could guess even without the projective modelling of the battle. Caspars in autonomous would likely prove completely willing to mount what crewed ships would have considered suicidal death rides... and yet manage to have the fine motor control to outshoot entire flotillas of Rim world ships.

"And Tripitz?"

and that was the delivery.. the shock... that Kerensky was supposed to kill Amaris and then report that success to the heirs of the Star League. The Tripitz had run the blockade carrying the last remnants of the Terran branch of House Cameron under the watch of another splinter of the Black Watch that had made it off Terra.

... the problem was those orders had never been delivered. Kerensky hadn't received it either 2767 or after the liberation of Terra in the following decade... and it had been two hundred years... and Dante's previous command officer of the facility, who had held it as the Republicans had been besieging Northwind had indicted Kersenky as derelict in his duties, and potentially even a traitor for ordering Hegemony forces to permit garrisoning of Rim World forces in sensitive hegemony positions... and the subsequent coup.

... "Do we have coordinates for Tripitz's final destination in the deep periphery?"

"We do not. They are not included." The black lion was supposed to rendezvous with a portion of the 'secret fleet' the hegemony maintained, and an anchorage with a connection to the SLCOMNET but one that was otherwise a second shadow network separate from the Ministry of Communication that chained out into deep space that supposedly Kerensky would be able to signal when Amaris had been defeated.

... which at least suggested to Gene that House Cameron hadn't seeded an entire empire in the black of space rimward. Not one big enough that she planned had been to deploy some fleet sufficent to throw Amaris out on their own... but then that made sense... AI needed to be asleep... basically disconnected or offline in order to make Jump Travel for whatever reason... there was something out there... but the question was who, what, how big many?

"Could they be alive?" Came the croaking question.

"They'd probably be dead of old age by this point. Even if they were children, the projected lifespan for a Terran citizen with the best medical care was estimated to be a lucky two centuries," Outliers not withstanding, and he wasn't aware of any records from the league era of Hegemony citizens living to 250... but, "Could House Cameron's Terran branch potentially survived, yes. It is possible that they could have made it to a bolt hold, and there is a remnant... but if the plan was for Kerensky to reestablish contact, and without the Tripitz's logs... thats a slim chance based on what we know right now."

--
Notes: Kerston gets told in most likely the tail end of the next segment when he gets brought down into the complex.