Blood on the Horizon (Battletech SI)

MarkWarrior · May 30, 2022

Marksman Officer Rank Structure

Mechwarrior/Armored/Infantry/Aerospace Wing

O1-Second Lieutenant
O2-First Lieutenant
O3- Captain
O4-Major
O5-Lieutenant Colonel
O6-Colonel
O7-Lieutenant General
O8- Brigadier General
O9- Major General

Black Navy Ranks
O1-Ensign
O2-Lieutenant Junior Grade
O3- Lieutenant
O4-Lieutenant Commander
O5- Commander
O6- Captain
O7- Commodore
O8- Vice Admiral
O9- Admiral

MarkWarrior · May 30, 2022

Force Composition 3003
Jumpships
Invader-King Henry V
Dropships
Leopard CV-Puma
Leopard- Bittersweet
Buccaneer- Vagabond
Pueblo- Messenger
Argo
AeroSpace
2 Thunderbird TRB-D36
2 Lightning LTN-G15
2 Chippewa CHP-W10
Ground Forces
2 Griffin GRF-1N
1 Griffin GRF-1S
1 Warhammer WHM-6Rb
1 Mongoose MON-66
1 Crab CRB-27
2 Platoons of Infantry/Marines

Force Composition 3004
Jumpships
Invader Class-King Henry V
Leviathan Class- Whirlwind
Dropships
Buccaneer class- Vagabond
Pueblo Class- Messenger
Leopard- Bittersweet, Honey Badger
Leopard CV- Puma, Consequences
DroST IIb- Osprey, Pelican
Mule- Jackwagon
Argo- Argo
Aerospace
2 Thunderbird TRB-D36
2 Lightning LTN-G15
2 Chippewa CHP-W10
4 Sabre SB-27
2 Hellcat HCT-213
Ground Forces
1 light/Medium Armored Company with Artillery attached
1 Understrength company of 'Mechs
1 Mechanized Infantry Company
1 Regular Infantry Company
4 VTOLs.

Force Composition 3005
Jumpships
2 Leviathans- Whirlwind, Tornado
1 Invader- King Henry V
Dropships
Buccaneer class- Vagabond
Pueblo Class- Messenger
Leopard- Bittersweet, Honey Badger
Leopard CV- Puma, Consequences
DroST IIb- Osprey, Pelican
Mule- Jackwagon
Argo- Argo
Aerospace
2 Thunderbird TRB-D36
2 Lightning LTN-G15
2 Chippewa CHP-W10
4 Sabre SB-27
2 Hellcat HCT-213
Ground forces
1 light/Medium armored company with attached artillery
1 overstrenth company of 'Mechs (A fireteam is 6 'Mechs a company is 12 we have 16 currently.)
1 Mechanized Infantry Company
1 Regular Infantry Company
4 VTOLs
1 SLDF Mobile HQ

(Force composition same through March 3006)

Force composition 3007
Jumpships
2 Leviathans- Whirlwind, Tornado
1 Invader- King Henry V
Dropships
Union
Triumph
Buccaneer class- Vagabond
Pueblo Class- Messenger
Leopard- Bittersweet, Honey Badger
Leopard CV- Puma, Consequences
DroST IIb- Osprey, Pelican
Mule- Jackwagon
Argo- Argo
Aerospace
2 Thunderbird TRB-D36
2 Lightning LTN-G15
2 Chippewa CHP-W10
4 Sabre SB-27
2 Hellcat HCT-213
Ground forces
1 Medium/Heavy armored company with lots of attached artillery
2 companies of 'Mechs (A fireteam is 6 'Mechs a company is 12)
2 Mithril Power armored companies. (1 company is 108-120 people.)
4 VTOLs

Force Composition 3008 (June Metal, not quite meat yet)
Jumpships
2 Invaders
2 Leviathans
Dropships
1 Colossus
3 Overlords
5 Unions
1 Triumph
2 Buccaneers
1 Pueblo
2 DroST PA refits. (Now colled the Sting class in keeping with the LOTR theme...)
1 Mule
1 Argo
2 Leopards
2 Leopard Cv's
Aerospace:
52 assorted Aerospace fighters featuring SLDF regular, Succession War era, and royal variants
Ground forces
1 Regiment of Mech forces
1 Regiment of Vehicles
1 overstrength Infantry Battalion
Assorted support craft and repair/refit facilities

Force Composition 3009 was the same as 3008

Force Composition 3010
6 Jumpships
Enough lift for more than my forces
2 combined arms regiments
52 aerospace fighters
Repair/refit facilities

Force Composition 3011
Kentares Guard
1 RCT plus supporting elements
Marksman
2 combined arms regiments plus supporting elements
Kentares Militia
2 Vehicle battalions
2 Infantry battalions

3012 was the same as 3011

3013
Kentares Guard
1RCT plus supporting elements
Marksman
1 RCT plus supports
1 Combined Arms regiment
Kentares Militia
1 mixed vehicle/infantry regiment

3014
Kentares Guard
1RCT plus supporting elements
1 Vehicle Battalion
2 Infantry Battalions
Marksman
1 RCT plus supports
1 Combined arms regiment
Training battalion
Kentares militia
1 Mixed Vehicle/Infantry regiment
1 Mech Battalion

Force Composition 3018
Kentares Guard
1 RCT plus supporting elements
1 Combined Arms Regiment
1 Training Battalion
Marksman
1 RCT plus supporting elements
1 overstrength Combined Arms regiment
1 Training Battalion
Kentares Militia
2 'Mech Battalions
1 PA infantry regiment
2 Combat Vehicle battalions
2 Artillery Battalions
Ducal Guard
1 Company of 'Mechs
1 Compaby of Combat Vehicles
2 Companies infantry/bodyguards.

Black Navy Fleet
1 Potemkin
1 Aegis
1 Dante
1 Texas?

MarkWarrior · May 30, 2022

Sharpshooter Industries and Manufacturing Inc
SLIC Captain Williams investments
Taurian Concordat Industry
--PPC Factory partially owned by TTI and the Calderon Family
--LRM/SRM factory partially owned by TTI and the Calderon Family
--Light Battlemech factory partially owned by TTI and the Calderon Family
--Mithril factory
Kentares IV industry
--two Mithril factories
--Dropship repair and refit facility
--Industrial Mech Factory
--Toro Factory
--Two Grasshopper lines
--Two Von Luckner lines
--Brutus factory
--Freezer factory
--Small Endo-Steel facility in orbit
Layover Industry
--three Vengeance lines up and running with more being reactivated
--three Sting lines up and running
--Union and R&D are being reactivated
Markesan Industry
--Highlander factory
Argyle Industry
--Crockett Factory
New Avalon Industry
--Crab Factory
--Champion Factory
Partial ownership of Factories on Loxley/Solaris
Lutyen Industry
— Endo-Steel factory
— ER L Laser Factory
— Freezer Factory
— Gauss Rifle Factory
— Warship Repair Yard
— Mothballed SLIC fleet

MarkWarrior · May 30, 2022

Chapter Fifty-Six: The Unexpected
Markesan, Federated Suns March 21st, 3012

"Leave the Eyepatch on, don't let any moisture anywhere near your eye for two weeks until your next checkup, don't pick up anything that weighs more than five kilos, and do no strenuous activity." I finished the line from the doctor. "Anything I forgot?" I asked myself. "Oh, right. Your depth perception will be off and it will take time for your brain to adapt, so be careful around any sort of traffic." I smiled to myself. "I think that was everything."

The doctor just glared at me. "Take these pills to lower your eye pressure over time." He said. "You just got finished with surgery a day ago and we want to make sure that there's no permanent brain damage."

"Doc," I started. "My eye is gone, and until I manage to get back to my advanced medical facilities I'm not going to be doing anything dumb." I shrugged. "I wonder if finding door knobs will be as hard as it was the first time."

"Just…" The doctor facepalmed. "Just leave, I'll give your bodyguard the prescription and you can do as you will." he walked away. "Bloody Mercs with a noble title…. They never listen."

After the King Henry had jumped in with the wreckage of the Troy still attached, I had been rushed as fast and safely as possible to the nearest hospital, where I was operated on and they removed my eye before an infection or anything else could set in. I just wanted to be able to get back to either Kentares or New Avalon, because I knew that Ian would want a report on what happened. And, I had a bunch of dog tags, and flags to deliver to families. Over half of the Troy's crew had died when the Naval autocannon round had blasted through. While Mithril had helped many of them survive, it didn't do all that much to stop as massive a round as what went through us.

New Avalon, Federated Suns, May 16th, 3012

"That was very fine work." Yvonne told me as I sat across the desk from her. "I'm sorry about some of your people, but with what we managed to pull off of Versailles, we may be able to finish collapsing the Capellan Confederation inside of this decade."

"Thank you." I replied. "I'm going to ask for first refusal rights on some of the factories, but for now; I'm going to go try and get this fixed up." I gestured towards the eye patch over my left eye.

"I'm pretty sure you can have whatever you damn well please after the miracle you just pulled off." Yvonne told me point blank. "You want the first production runs of something and we'll get it for you, you want extra people vetted to help you with your own factories, done." She laughed. "Hull, you're from before the Succession wars era. You just don't quite understand what you just gift-wrapped and handed us on a silver platter."

"No ma'am, I don't think I ever will." I shrugged. "It was such a different time, it's still hard to wrap my head around it sometimes."

"Well, we're going to be charging you with setting up the lines on various planets over the next several years or so." Yvonne told me. "The reward for doing good work is…"

"More work." I sighed. "Any preferences on where to set them up?"

"We're going to want them on heavily defended worlds for the most part." Yvonne told me. "And the Exterminator line is going to Kallon Industries."

"I want one of the extra freezer lines and ERPPC lines for Kentares." I told her, "My people have some ideas on how to improve the standard Grasshopper."

"Done," Yvonne replied. "These lines are going to be allowed to be incorporated into the Sharpshooter Industries envelope as well." She told me.

"I'm going to be talking to the Taurians." I told Yvonne. "I've already purchased a Snowden and Got a license to manufacture at least two more."

"Already anticipated that when the Calderons notified us that a Snowden was moving from Taurus to Kentares a couple of months ago." She replied. "You're not getting out of this." She said, "Now, any other excuses?"

"No, I'll start splitting up some of my teams with new hires so that we can train up more people to run the factories and begin working on getting them set up for now." I replied. "I'll have the Sharpshooter legal team draw up some contracts, and I will personally make sure that the lines are placed on planets that are already under heavy guard."

"That's all I had on the board for this meeting then." Yvonne smiled at me now that the business was finished being discussed. "My grandkids love the cookie recipe by the way."

"I'm glad to hear it." I replied. "Any chance I can try and leave before Banzai or Felsner try and poach some of my people again?"

"Sure, just make sure that you slip out the side entrance." Yvonne laughed. "But Banzai will probably track you down anyway." She snickered. "He's seriously determined to steal some of your people."

"Well, if he wanted them he should have found them first." I said as I left the room. "They're my bunch of Mad scientists and no one else's."
I walked away to peals of laughter echoing from Yvonne's office. And from there, I left the Davion Palace complex and headed for the ports.

Kentares IV, Draconis March Federated Suns, June 8th, 3012

"Hey McCallister!" Natasha called out in the 'Mech repair bay. "I brought it back."

"Ye Stoopid Idjut" McCallister said. "You damn near destroyed the 'Mech. It'll nae a full rebuild now."

"Sorry Mac." Natasha apologized. "Any idea where the Colonel is?"

"He left a while ago." He was still inspecting the Warhammer. "I danno when he'll be back."

"Got it, I'll go check with Sheppard then." She said, and left the 'Mech to the angry chief Astech.

"Sheppard," She knocked on the door to Sheppard's office.

"Come in." Sheppard replied, working on a stack of paperwork. "Nat!" He greeted her. "How was your leave?"

"Could have been better," Nat shrugged in response. "Any Idea where Hull is?"

"Sorry Lieutenant, he's been off planet since the middle of October." Sheppard signed another document. "You'll just have to wait until he gets back if you want to talk to him."

"Alright then." Natasha shrugged in response. "How goes the Kentares Guard Formation?"

"Well, it's taking us a bit to sort through those who want to stick to the Marksman, and those who want to be a part of the Kentares Guard." Sheppard replied. "We're essentially spilling everything evenly between us, the Militia, and the Marksman for now, with Me operating as the XO and general commander for the Kentares Guard, and Peterson taking over the Marksman for now."

"Sounds complicated." Natasha sympathized.

"You have no idea." Sheppard responded. "I need to get back to it for now, I'll see you around Lieutenant."

"Have a good day sir." Natasha saluted and then left, she had some time to kill before Hull would be back on planet, and so she decided to throw herself into helping train the next group of Kentares Guards.

Kentares IV, Draconis March, Federated Suns, August 12th, 3012

"It's good to be home." I said as I stood on the ground of my new homeworld again, and then I began to greet the people that had been taking care of things while I was gone. "Mary, you got everything scheduled meeting wise?" I asked my secretary.

"Yes sir." She replied. "The first meeting is set for tomorrow, and everything is to follow throughout the rest of the week."

"Thanks for all of your help Mary." I said. "I'm just going to take today and relax before diving into the depths of getting more work done."

I left my office, and walked to my house. Making sure to greet and nod to people in order to let them know that I was back. When I reached my small Mansion, I unlocked the door and walked in. Looking around, I checked my house over really quickly, stripped down to a pair of gym shorts, and crawled into my own bed for the first time in almost a year.

August 13th, 3012

"Watson, I've got good news and bad news for you." I told the Sharpshooter manager.

"What's the bad news?" He asked.

"The bad news is that we're expanding massively as a company." I said.

"And what's the good news?" He raised an eyebrow.

"You're getting a promotion." I told him. "You'll be staying here to train people on recovering, repairing and setting up factory lines." I told him.

"We've got a lot of things moving around, and when the Snowden we purchased gets here in October, we'll have access to raw materials to start upgrading production." I told the man.

"Consider it done sir." Watson said. "It'll take time to get them trained up though."

"I know Watson, I'm splitting up your main team into various training groups so as to have a larger pool of trainees." I said.

"That should work." He replied. "It'll still take some time to get them work ready."

"You have eight months to have five teams trained up." I told him. "I can't promise much more time than that."

Hours later…
Was that the last meeting?" I asked Mary.

"Well, that was the last scheduled meeting for the day." She said, "Dr. Hale did send a message saying that you should meet her shortly for her to examine your eye."

"I'll meet with her aboard the Argo tomorrow." I said. "Anything else on the agenda?"

"Hull," Natasha walked into the room. "Nice scar you have there."

"Yeah, turns out a Naval Autocannon to the face can't keep me down." I chuckled. "It would have cost most people and arm and a leg get done what I did." I paused, "It only cost me an eye."

"That was pretty dark there Hull." Natasha told me flatly. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah Nat, I'm fine; just really tired." I replied with a heavy sigh. "How'd everything go with the Dragoons?" I asked.

"It went pretty well." She replied. "The intel you gave me helped save a lot of lives."

"Good thing I sent it with you then." I shrugged tiredly in response. "Nat, I'm tired, can we do this dance another day? Because I'm done with this weird flirting thing we've been doing, just get to the point already." I got up and began to leave my office.

"And just where do you think you're going?" Natasha asked me, standing up and pinning me against the wall. "You are mine Mark Hull, and I'm not letting you go…."

Authors note: Y'all finally get what you wanted. You happy now? Looks sideways at Yuffie...

MarkWarrior · May 30, 2022

Chapter Fifty-Seven: Moving forward
Aboard the Agro, Kentares, Federated Suns August 14th, 3012

"What did you do to yourself while you were gone?" Dr. Hale asked me. "You have some small fractures that were never treated in your back, you're missing an eye, and I see some recently torn muscle tissue."

"I have no idea where the fractures came from." I told Dr. Hale the truth, trying to avoid some uncomfortable answers. "And it's not like Mithril was designed with Naval Autocannon in mind."

"Well, seeing as we started on your eye back in June, it'll be finished in two weeks and we can go in and do surgery to restore your vision." Dr. Hale sighed. "Frankly Hull, you need some anti stress treatments. You've been driving yourself non-stop for too long." She wrote down some notes. "I'm going to recommend that you keep doing whatever it was that lowered your overall blood pressure and other signs of stress recently." I did my best to keep a straight face. "We'll get you under for surgery in two weeks to fix the fractures and your eye."

"Is that everything Doctor?" I asked. " I need to be in top shape come January."

"You'll be fighting fit by November if you actually follow the guidelines we give you." Hale said. "You have subordinates, delegate more and do less work yourself." She gave me a slight glare. "When was the last time you went to the gym? Nevermind, start hitting the gym again, your overall physical condition needs to get back to its peak." She gave me a list of vitamins I needed to start taking.

"Mark, you're not in your twenties anymore." She finally said, "You're nearly Forty and you need to start thinking about settling down and starting a family. Even with longevity treatments you won't live forever after all."

"I'm working on it Doctor, I'm working on it." I stood up to leave. "Is there anything else I need to be wary of?"

"No excess amounts of alcohol, no drugs that aren't prescribed." She sighed, "If you actually had some of those vices your overall stress level might be lower."

"Whatever workout or thing you did this week to release stress, you need to be careful, there were a lot of small muscle tears and we can't fix those." She said, "Now get out of here, I've got other patients to see."

August 28th, 3012

"The surgery went well." Dr. Hale told the assembled senior staff and officials. "Now, I know that he's been delegating a lot more than he used to, but I need someone to step up and keep him from doing anything more strenuous than lifting a pencil for the next three weeks"

"I'll take care of it." Natasha volunteered. "I'm currently on his bodyguard detail anyway."

September 8th, 3012

"I'm not helpless Nat." I told my lover. "I can walk to the mech bay by myself."

"Nope, I've been assigned to your bodyguard detail by Colonel Sheppard." Nat smirked at me. "I told you I was never letting you go."

"Most people don't take it so literally." I said, entering the Mech bay. "Lieutenant." My voice hardened. "What the Hell did you do to my Warhammer?"

"I Used it in a Trial of Refusal against the Wolf Brothers." Natasha said in a tone that was low enough I couldn't make out what she said.

"What was that Lieutenant?" I asked. "I used it in a duel against the Wolf Brothers Sir!"

"Well, make sure you don't do things like that with my mech too often." I told her, "I mean, you've got a Marauder of your own."

"Yes sir." She replied, still at attention reflexively, and I continued walking deeper into the bay.

"Mac!" I yelled. "Can you have someone bring Natasha's Marauder up to the front for me?"

The big burly Irishman wrapped me up in a bear hug. "It's grae to see yae a gain." He set me down and patted me on the back. "I'll hae somone bring it rae up." He called for tone of the Astech assistants to have Nat's Marauder brought up.

The giant of a man patted me on the back again and zoned in on his next project.

"How can you understand him?" Nat asked me. "His accent is so thick."

"Natasha, he was one of my first hires, and I've been working with him for almost ten years now." I scolded. "If I couldn't understand him anymore I would have a serious problem."

Then, before she could chime in, her Marauder walked up and stopped. An Astech assistant popped open the hatch and climbed down the ladder, seemingly in a hurry to get back to whatever job he was doing before.

"What did you do to my 'Mech?"

"I'm sorry Lieutenant, I think I misheard you." I said.

"What did you do to my Mech Sir?!" Echoed in the mech bay.

"Well, seeing as both of my Highly customized Royal Warhammers are damaged nearly beyond repair…. I needed something to use as my ride."

"What do you mean Both of them?" she asked. And then turned around to see what I was pointing to behind her. "Oh." Her mouth hung open for a second.

The Warhammer I had set up as my backup and brought with me to Versaille/Taussen was intact apart from the Naval Autocannon shell lodged into the cockpit.

"How are you alive?" She asked, after she had recovered her composure.

"By not being in my mech." I shrugged. "The piece of Shrapnel that took out my eye was from the cockpit."

"And you are not angry?" She asked.

"Of course I'm angry." I let some of the rage that was seething beneath the surface bubble to the top. "But there's nothing I can do about it right now." I let the anger subside again. "Now, go take a look at your Marauder."

"What is that?" She asked after several seconds of inspecting and muttering to herself. "It's not an Ultra-AC/5, and there's no way it's a LBX 10…" She stopped walking "Is that al LB5?" She asked incredulously.

"Yep, Mac's personal prototype." I patted the leg of the Marauder. "You can take it out for a test drive when you're off duty later."

November 10th, 3012
"We need to get up." I poked Natasha in the side, only for her to groan and roll over. "We have to load up on the Messenger and go to New Avalon for Hanse's wedding."

"Sleep." She groaned and stole the blankets.

"Nope, the alarm went off and it's time to go." I got up and ripped the blankets off of the bed. "Get up Nat, I know you hate waking up, but if you don't get up now I'm going to have to take drastic measures."

"Fine," She sat up. "I'm up, I'm up." She eased herself out of the bed and got dressed. "We packed everything last night right?" She asked.

"I got everything I needed done, and I think you just threw some clothes in my rucksack." I told her as I dressed in my uniform.

"I am only coming as your plus one." She said, "And I can get a dress made and fitted easier on New Avalon."

"Point, I'm pretty sure the Davions have a whole team dedicated to that sort of thing anyway." I said, and we began to walk out of the house. "I heard that Archon Steiner is invited, so we'll see how everything goes."

We continued discussing the wedding until we had made it onto the Messenger. "We did get Hanse a wedding present right?" Nat asked me as we boarded the Dropship.

"Of course I did, I'm not an idiot." I replied. "I've got plenty of things to offer currently."

November 24th, 3012

Full contact sparring with Natasha Kerensky sucked, even with safety equipment on. She was vicious, and wicked strong. The only thing I was ever able to leverage against her was my weight and height advantages. Grappling was typically where I was best, but she knew all of my tricks by now and squirreled out every time I tried something new.

"Tap Natasha," I finally had her locked into an arm bar. "I don't want to break your arm." After several seconds of me testing her pain levels, she finally tapped.

"That is what? Dead even 20 to 20?" She asked me as she bounced back onto her feet after I let go.

"Sounds about right." I muttered. "I still have the wins in Mech combat and sims though."

"Well, let me try again in the sims." She responded. "I'll get you this next time as long as you're not cheating with that stupid Lostech Bullshit."

"Nat, I beat you last time in an Urbanmech." I told her while laughing. "And you were in an Atlas."

"Shut up and meet me back on the mat." She slugged me in the shoulder. "I'm gonna drag my score up somehow." She wagged her eyebrows at the double entendre.

"I don't share." I told her as I got back on the mat. "You know that."

"Yep, and there's no way I am letting you out of my sight again after the Versailles incident." She responded. "Now lets fight."

MarkWarrior · May 30, 2022

Chapter Fifty-Eight: What Happens on Bachelor night…
Avalon City, New Avalon, Federated Suns

December 25th, 3012

"So, got any thoughts on the bachelor party?" I asked Ian now that we were doing the private Davion Christmas party.

"Honestly, I'm delegating it to you." Ian told me with a straight face.

"No Ian, seriously I need to know what to prep for." I responded.

"Yeah, I'm delegating it to you." Ian shrugged. "You spent the better part of two years with him after all, I'm sure you'll come up with something."

"You better be glad I brought a Union with me." I told the Troll in front of me. "How's the fixed spine treating you?"

"Well, your people do really good work." Ian said in response. "I'll have to negotiate with the Canopians to get some of their people to come work for NAIS."

"It's more than likely worth whatever you end up having to trade for them." I told him. "Having the Helm core will help with the tech, but having people who know how to both build and use it properly is worth its weight in germanium."

"I agree, and I'll have some of my people reach out to the Magistracy soon." Ian told me.

"'I'm heading for bed." I stretched, having finished my sweet tea. "I've got a lot of planning to do."

"Don't let Natasha wear you out too much!" Ian called out as I walked away.

January 12th, 3013

"Alright, we're doing a simulated warfare drop from orbit." I told the assembled groomsmen. "We all have paintball guns and cut down Mithril suits to make sure we survive the drop. Seeing as there are seven of us if you include Hanse and Arthur We'll split up into teams of three with myself as referee. Hanse has the first pick, Ian has second." I made sure they could hear me. "Any questions." The assembled group just shook their heads. "Good, Hanse, you get first pick."

"Ardan," Hanse said with a smirk, and the team picking went from there. Hanse had Ran Felsner and Arden Sortek, and Ian had Arthur and Ben Banzai.

"Teams are locked in?" I asked, and they all gave their affirmatives. "Get your weapons." I handed all six of them identical paintball guns and helped them do safety checks on the two pods we would be using. Instead of the ODST pods from Halo, we had ended up with a design that deployed entire fireteams that had the same size as the 'Mech drop pods. "Now, I'm the Ref, if I call you out and RTB you RTB or you're out." I gave them a brief discussion of the rules and climbed into the pod I would be taking down with a grin. This was going to be fun.

One hour later…

"No Arthur, don't leave me!" Ian cradled the paint splattered Consort. "I can't win this fight without you!" Everyone was struggling to contain our laughter as the drama played out.

"Yes, you can carry on and win, tell Katrina I did my best." And Arthur "Died" in Ian's arms.

"I will have my vengeance, Brother!" Ian roared when I doubled over in laughter not able to contain it anymore. "I can hear you laughing at my misfortune even now!"

Arthur couldn't contain his laughter anymore and his frame vibrated from the laughter.

Then, Hanse's trio surrounded Ian, their paintball guns pointed at his head when Banzai literally swooped in from above on his jump jets and splattered them all with paint. "Hanse's team eliminated Ian has the victory." I announced over the universal comm channel.

"I have to tell you Mark, I didn't think this would be as fun as it has turned out to be." Hanse told me and the rest of the groomsmen plus one nodded. "Well, we can do some team swaps and some other things, but we've got this field rented out for the rest of the day." I told them. "And then, I've got a small hole in the wall that Mathis told me about rented out for the evening when we're done here."

"Well then, let's get back to it." Hanse said, I've got a score to beat."

From there, the rest of the day was a back and forth of wins and losses between the two brothers and various drama plays such as the time we had a Battle Royale style and Ian and Hanse teamed up to kill the rest of the group before turning on each other.

"It's over Ian, I have the high ground!" Hanse yelled from the top of the hill he was standing on.

"You underestimate my power Hanse Davion!" Ian yelled back.

"Don't try it." Hanse told Ian before Ian used his jump jets to try and assault Hanse's position.
"You were the chosen one." Hanse told his brother. "You were supposed to destroy the rest of them, not join them. You were my brother Ian, I loved you." Hanse walked away with his final victory of the day as night started to fall.

"That was fun, what do you have planned next Mark?" Hanse asked with a small grin on his face.

"Just some good old fashioned relaxation." I said, "We could probably all use the break."

That evening…
"This is a nice place." Ran observed. "I'll have to bring the wife here sometime." We were seated at the bar of a small steak house with an attached two lane bowling alley and some pool tables.

"I'll have the twenty ounce Sirloin, medium rare with the side of mashed potatoes." I told the one waiter, and the rest of the group gave their orders. "Pool or Bowling?" I asked the assembled group.

"Ehh, we can start with bowling and finish with pool." Hanse said, easing himself into the surprisingly comfortable chairs by the bowling lanes. "So, you and Natasha Kerensky yeah?" He started with the obvious question.

"I know you paid off some of my people to set me up after Tikonov." I gave him a slight glare. "I forgive you for this." I said magnanimously as I reclined in my chair as if it was a throne. "But you must reaffirm your loyalty to the throne."

"I have just the thing." Hanse grinned as he slipped behind the bar and quickly prepared a drink before setting a single shot glass in front of me.

It was blue, possibly GLOWING but that might have been a trick of the light. "Hanse, is this going to kill me?"

"It's a Coolshot. I know you're not much of a drinker and this has more kick than the one beer you limit yourself to. Peppermint Schnapps and blue Curacao. Mostly." he chimed in with that insufferable grin still there.

"It's the mostly that concerns me." The rest of the guys had surrounded me and begun to softly chant "Drink, Drink, Drink, Drink, Drink…"

"I'm going to regret this aren't I?" I said before manning up and downing the concoction in one gulp.

"Hmm…" I considered for a second. "This drink, I like it. Another!" I slammed down the shot glass upside down to Arthur gaping at me.

"Hanse Davion, you are a miracle worker." Arthur said out loud. "I never saw him have more than one drink when we were a part of the Marksman… Never."

"This servant hears and obeys excellency." Hanse gave a mocking bow and went back behind the bar again, bringing out something Very red instead. "A true liege lord should be able to drink fire, yes?" He played up the ham. "Well, this is said to be concentrated from a pure fireball, and should cleanse your pallet after the Coolshot." He slid the shot glass over to me. "Bottoms up." I downed it to the cheers of the rest of the group, and we took turns bringing out shots for everyone to drink.

"I believe you had the twenty ounce sirloin?" The waiter set his tray down on a small serving table and began to pass out our food. "Yes, thank you."

The room grew silent as we each dug into our food. We had been playing all day, and we were starting to slow down a little bit. After we had eaten our food, we made our way to the bowling lanes and proved just how bad we were at the sport.

"Man, I'm glad that I learned how to bowl. Arthur said as he landed another spare. "I'm proving Lyran superiority even in Davion space."

"Screw you Arthur," Ian said as he took a sip of his beer. "I bet you can't beat us at pool."

"What's the wager?" Arthur asked, rolling his palms together. "I'll put a hundred pounds down that I win."

"I'll take that bet," Ran Felsner replied, and pulled out his own wallet to add to the pot. "Anyone else want in on the action?" The two of them asked. "I'm in, Banzai said as he dug his own wallet out and threw a hundred pounds down. Soon everyone had joined except for me.

"Not joining Mark?" Arthur asked, curious.

"I'm not good at pool anymore." I told them shrugging. "I enjoy the game, but since my first eye injury, I've not been able to see the angle's properly anymore."

"So, I'll play, but I won't join the betting pool tonight." I said, grabbing a pool stick and some chalk. "Let's do this."

Author's note: If you have as much fun and laughter reading this as I did writing it then I will have succeeded as an author... Also, I'm not going to write the bachelorette party. If someone else wants to, that would be fine with me.

MarkWarrior · Jun 5, 2022

This was mostly written before the Wedding Chapter, so probably didn't actually happen.

But you can't deny the power of Smol Weaponized Adorable.

Avalon City, New Avalon, Federated Suns
January 12, 3013

A quiet knock at the door interrupted the conversation as one of Katrina's nursemaids came in with a sleepy toddler in tow.

"Forgive me, My Lady. Her sister woke her and she wanted her father to tell her a story."

"That's all right, Rose, I'll take her." Katrina gathered up her daughter. "Melissa, your father and your Uncle Mark are still out and probably hustling Prince Ian, his brother Hanse and his friends out of every pound they have right now."

Melissa nodded and curtsied as much as she could while sitting in her mother's lap, "Guten Abend."

She then turned to Natasha. "Are you going to get married too, Tante Tasha?" she said with perfect seriousness, as only a two year old Princess could.

"What?"

"You're going to marry Uncle Mark, right? That means you're my Tante Tasha."

"I..." Natasha just sat there stunned, her face going through a host of emotions no Trueborn would have ever shown, She thought about Johnny, who'd become truly happy with his new life with the Marksman, before laying her hands on her stomach.

She got up and kneeled in front of Melissa. "If you had asked me that yesterday, I would have said no. But that was before I saw the doctor this morning." Tears started welling in her eyes. "Before I found out I was pregnant with your cousin. So yes, Melissa, I want to be your Tante Tasha..."

"YAY!" Melissa jumped out and hugged her with all the passion and innocence that only a child could give.

MarkWarrior · Jun 5, 2022

Chapter Fifty-Nine: Reception
Avalon City, New Avalon, Federated Suns January 20th, 3013

The wedding had been a grand affair, lots of exposition by the pope, and an extremely large crowd of people. And I had a terrible time just standing there. I had felt exposed, and I had been forbidden from wearing my normal concealed armor and sidearm. I had managed to sneak a knife into a holster around my left thigh though, and that thought had brought me some comfort.

Thankfully, the reception was a much smaller affair, and was in the much better guarded Davion Palace. While there were obviously plenty of various nobles and other required guests, there wasn't the sheer amount of people that had filled the cathedral and I was able to relax slightly.

"You good Mark?" Hanse asked, I was seated within easy conversation range and the entire wedding party had seen me tense up earlier.

"Yeah," I breathed out. "I'm still working through the aftermath of the Versaille mess." I took a sip of the glass set in front of me. "I'm pretty sure I won't ever be a fan of big crowds like this ever again."

"Well Mark, thank you for sticking it out." Hanse nodded in understanding. "It took a while for things to settle down on Tikonov as well."

The conversation moved on to lighter things from there, and when it came time to do the best man speech, Ian nodded for me to move on and do my part.

"Sometimes, I wonder if Hanse should have been the first born." Ian started, "He's the more responsible one, and just about the only thing I possibly do better than him is piloting a battlemech. He's a serious man, driven and capable, and I'm extremely glad to call him brother. And sometimes, it's fun to watch him cut loose and have some fun for a change." He signaled me to start the massive Tri-Vid projector. "This is what we got up to at the bachelor party put on by our very close friend the Duke of Kentares, Mark Hull."

I pushed play, and a highlight reel of the most hilarious moments of both Ian and Hanse played throughout the room to great roars of laughter at the First Prince and his brother cutting loose and having some fun. No one laughed harder than Hanse and Ian's sister Marie though. She actually had to steal a couple of handkerchiefs to wipe her eyes after laughing so hard that she was crying.

After the Tri-Vid had ended, and the laughter had died down, Ian took the microphone in hand once more and finished his speech. "Dana, I'm glad to call you my sister, and I hope and pray that both you and Hanse give me plenty of nieces and nephews to spoil."

After Ian's speech, Dana's maid of honor stood up and gave her speech and then the floor was opened to the traditional dances. Given that Hanse and Ian's father and father had passed away many years previously, Yvonne took the place of Hanse's mother for the traditional dance between mother and son.

A couple of hours later…

Hanse and Dana were making their way to the armored hover-limo while dodging the massive amounts of petals that they were being showered with.

After they had been loaded up and sent on their way to their honeymoon, Ian walked up to me with a grave expression on his face. "How ready are the Kentares Guards?" He asked me.

"They're a full combined arms regiment at the moment with some extra firepower." I responded, "We've mostly finished ironing out the kinks with logistics and the Militia." I added, "Why? Is there something wrong?"

"Mallory's world just got hit by three battlemech regiments and ten supporting regiments." he confided in me. "I'm pulling the Heavy Guards, and some supporting elements and I'm probably going to need your help as well." He paused. "The Seventeenth Avalon Hussars and Fourth Davion Guards are already on planet, but they're going to need help to throw off the Kuritans."

"I'll send Nat to kick Sheppard's butt into gear." I told Ian, "They'll be on their way to back us up as soon as they can load up."

"You're not going?" He asked me. "No, I do need your help with something really quick though."

I moved through the talking heads to try and find Katrina, Arthur, and Natasha. This was going to need to be done quickly after the information I had gotten from Natasha this week.

"Sorry, I squeezed through a small crowd to get Katrina's and Arthur's attention. Luckily, I didn't need to capture their attention because Melissa had seen me first.

"Uncle Mark!" She said with joy in her bright blue eyes. "Up! Up!" She held up her arms for me to grab her.

"Alright Mel, I'll hold you for a little bit, but I've got to talk to your mom and dad for a minute. Okay?" I told the toddler trying to grab ahold of my beard. "Kat, Arthur, I nodded at the two of them smiling at my interaction with Melissa. "I need the two of you to find Nat for me and bring her to that side room really quick." I indicated which room. "I suspect she's telling bad stories about Tikonov right now."

I put Melissa on my shoulders to her squeals of delight as I weaved my way through the crowd to grab Ian once more. "I need you to head over to that room over there." I pointed at the same side room I had indicated to the Archon and her Consort earlier. "Melissa, you and I have a super important secret mission."

"What is it Uncle Mark?" she asked.

"We need to get to Uncle Mark's bag really fast." I told the toddler currently holding onto my hair. "So we're about to run, are you ready?"

"Yes Uncle Mark." She got as serious as a two year old could ever be before bursting out into laughter as I took off at a decent pace to the room I had put mine and Nat's go bags into.

"Alright Mel, help me look for a small black box." I told the toddler as I set her down. "It's really important." I set one of the smaller bags aside for her to look through.

"Is this it?" Mel said after a few seconds of me frantically searching through my larger rucksack.

"Yes!" I told her. "Great job Mel!" And I scooped her up in my arms and rushed off to the room I had set aside earlier.

I burst through the door, and set Melissa down on the floor in front of my surprised group of friends before turning to Nat.

"Natasha Kerensky?" I asked, going down on one knee, only to realize that Melissa still had the ring box. "Will you marry me?" I gestured for Melissa to hand me the box, but she just replicated what I did by going down on one knee and opening the box like I should have to laughter from my assembled friends.

"Close enough Mel." I ruffled the small princess' hair. "Close enough."

"I think I will Mark, I think I will." Nat responded. "Why the sudden rush though?"

"Ian is taking me to help back him up against a Drac Incursion." I told my lover. "And I need you to go get Sheppard and have him reinforce us." I shrugged, "I figured this was as good a chance as any to do this."

"You better stay alive Mark." Nat told me with a sigh. "You are not allowed to die."

"I'll see what I can do Nat." I met her eyes for a minute before giving the gorgeous redhead a chaste kiss on the lips. "I'll see what I can do."

January 27th, 3013

"I will not ask you to stay safe." Natasha told me. "Just hold out until I get there with reinforcements."

"We'll hold." I told the woman in my arms. "We'll hold."

MarkWarrior · Jun 24, 2022

Comstar Interlude 3010

"So you're telling me that this is an independent development?" Senior Adept Dougless Franklin asked the Acolyte who was inspecting the latest oddity to arise out of the Periphery.

"Yes sir, while it's possible that they found some maintenance logs for a NightHawk somewhere in a cache and used them on some of the development, I can tell you that this is a unique invention." Acolyte Janet Williams said. "What really interests me is the power supply, while we managed to divert this shipment of Mithril along with some fudged paperwork, we don't have the notes on how to refuel or reuse the power source."

"Well, we managed to divert twenty-five of them, so do whatever you need to in order to figure it out." Adept Franklin told Acolyte Williams. "ROM wants us to figure out a way to compare and beat these things soon.

"Well, so far the power on the first suit we captured is still working despite all of the tests and trials we put it through." She responded. "I'll get some of our better engineers focused on the power source though."

"How did it hold up in the durability tests?" Adept Franklin asked, it was one of the reports he hadn't had time to look at yet.

"How about I just show you." She said and led him to a decent sized firing range with a suit of blackened Mithril hanging up in front of the targets. "This is after we had some of the Comguards shooting at it with small arms fire all day." She indicated the blackened suit.

"Damn." Adept Franklin said. "That's gotta be scary to face in a melee."

"Sir, it took two Small Laser hits in order for us to break through and start damaging what was underneath." She told him flatly. "This stuff is decently light in weight, can be manufactured on a world with any decent industrial capacity, and is probably going to change the Inner Sphere as we know it."

"But, we can't replicate the power supply?" the Adept asked.

"Sir, we can examine it and try to reverse engineer it all we want to, without the correct makeup of the fuel cell or whatever it is, we're just going to end up with some crazy versions of it." Williams responded. "We can make our own versions of the Mithril suit all day long. Until we can make our own version of the Fuel Cell, we're going to end up floundering just like the rest of the Successor states will."

"I'll pass the information on up the chain." He told her. "Any ideas on how to potential improve the suits?" Franklin asked.

"Nothing that whoever came up with this isn't probably already moving towards." She shrugged. "Probably trying to boost the Fuel Cell's output and drop some of the speed in order to get some more armor and the ability to mount small Anti Mech and Vehicle weaponry such as a small laser or a MPPC."
"Because they boost strength already, they probably can carry a whole host of SRM's don't they?" the Adept asked.

"I'm not an expert in tactics, but I don't see why they wouldn't mule a lot of extra reloads as well." The acolyte responded. "One of our Comguards is waiting with a review on the suit for you in your office sir."

"Sergeant Adept Lutrell." Senior Adept Franklin shook the Comguard member's hand. "What do you think of the captured samples?"

"Adept Franklin," The enlisted man started. "I would like to know when we are acquiring some suits like this of our own. Because I've never seen anything like this." He got a little amped up and dove into a raving review of the Powered Armor.

"Now, Adept Lutrell, tell me how you would defeat them as regular infantry." Franklin told the other man.

"You wouldn't." Lutrell stated flatly. "It's going to be immune to most of your standard small arms, an Anti-Material rifle will be effective, but only if you manage to hit one of the joints." He paused for breath. "Frankly Senior Adept, you would just retreat and hope that you had some armored vehicle support." He finished.

"Thank you Sergeant Adept, I'll have an acolyte see you out." And Franklin began to file some reports. He would need to be sending this up the chain.

"Primus, Precentor ROM is still working on engineering a civil war in the Free Worlds league." One of the adepts working in the main ROM center told Primus Julian Tiepolo.

"What were the latest reports on that from him anyway?" Tiepolo asked.

"Well Primus, it seems that Janos Mark's brother, while seemingly ambitious and desiring more power, was hesitant to side with Maximillian Liao due to the serious losses they have taken over the last several years." The Adept said. "It would seem that Duncan Marik, Janos' nephew was more susceptible to being pushed to engineer a civil war, and so he is working on ingratiating himself that way."

"Well then," Tiepolo responded. "I'll have to keep an eye on the situation then,"

He turned to walk out, but then Tiepolo remembered something he had intended to ask about and did an about face.
"Yes, one last question, how goes the infiltration of the Marksman Mercenary group?" He inquired. "I know that Colonel Hull has been on our radar for a while as a minor interest while he was about in the periphery due to his origins, but their recent actions have raised my interest. I like the inroads that the Taurian Concordat and the Federated Suns are making towards closer alliances, and I think we could push them to collapse the Capellans together if we engineer it properly. With the Marik's having a civil war, the Capellans on the verge of collapse, all we will need is to push the Lyrans and Combine into a conflict, and we could start seeing the collapse of the successor states."

The adept just nodded, eager to get back to work.

"Right then, I've got some more meetings to get to, thank you Adept." Tiepolo nodded at the younger man and walked out of the room that most of the ROM operations took place in.

"He scares me sometimes." One of the other adepts said to the one that the Primus had been talking to. "All of the Precentors are that way." He responded. "All of them."

MarkWarrior · Jun 24, 2022

Capellan Interlude: 3011 (Romano's story Part one)

"Is that an intelligence brief for father?" Romano Liao asked the Maskirovka agent headed into the Celestial throne room.

"Yes Duchess." The agent bowed and offered the report to her before scurrying away.

"Father, I bring a Maskirovka report to you." She knelt before the celestial throne before rising to hand the report to him.

Maximilian Liaos face darkened the further he got into the report and when he had reached the end of it, his face turned a bright visible shade of red with anger. "Daughter!" He roared, "I have only one Daughter." He stood and drew his sword, at first intending to kill Romano before a better idea came into his head.

Sitting down on his throne once more, he had the guards seize Romano and hold her before him. "Like your brother before you, I consider you a disgrace upon my lineage and upon the Confederation as a whole." He drew in a deep breath. "You are Stripped of your titles, I hereby Disown you, I have only one living heir, and you are Banished, never to again return to the land of your birth. I do not see you, I do not hear you, I turn my face away from you in despair, your voice is as dust in the wind." Max gestured to the guards to carry her out, her legs having ceased to function after what he had said.

"Father," Candace Liao said after a few tense silent moments. "What has happened?"

"We have lost, the Confederation will cease to exist within a couple of generations." Max was strangely introspective and in his right mind for once. "She who has no name has sent the Mask to attempt to kidnap the dependents of the Wolf's Dragoons in order to force them to serve us."

"I believe she must have not learned her lesson from history." Max Liao said. "We have now become barren." He muttered. "No Mercenary unit will work with us once the Dragoons publish what has happened. And with Tikonov denied to us, we are unable to recover our lost forces at a reasonable pace."

"At least the Mariks are in a civil war." Candace tried to inject some hope and life into her father once more.

"Yes, I believe that is the sole reason that we are still a nation, and that will only last for a time." Max observed. "Come Daughter, let us discuss the future of the Confederation, and what you will make of it."

"How dare he do this to me!" Romano Liao raged in the small room she was in. "I will make him pay."

She had managed to secure some funds that only she had access to and boarded a Dropship headed for Marik Space. "I'll return, and you will rue the day that you did this. I will destroy your beloved daughter Candace, and watch your Confederation burn."

Atreus, Free Worlds League sometime 3011

"Sir, we have a Romano Liao here on Atreus here to speak with you." The current head of SAFE told Janos Marik. "We're holding her in a cell until we can confirm that it's actually her."

"Well, let me know when you've confirmed whether it's actually the spawn of Mad Max or not." Janos Marik said sternly, turning to his brother Anton. "We need to bring Duncan and his rebels to heel."

"I agree completely." Anton replied. "I may desire your position brother, but I believe that either you or I should have it. Not one of these younger upstarts."

"Well, if it turns out that it is Romano, I think we should discuss turning her over to the Andurians and seeing what happens." Janos said blaisely. "We're not in a position to make use of any information that she could offer us anyway."

"True," Anton turned to look at a map of the Free Worlds League. "How are the Wolf's Dragoons Settling in?"

"They're doing decently after what Maximillian tried on them." Janos replied. "I'm trying to figure out where to use them currently."

"Could use them on Duncan." Anton offered. "Or, alternatively, loan them to the Andurians and let them loose on the Liao's, they didn't have any clauses against it in their contract after all."

"We'll have to see how it goes over the next couple of months." Janos responded. "Let's continue figuring out how to put Duncan back in his place."

Romano Liao was quietly sobbing in her cell. She was finally coming to realize that she would never have the life she had once had, and that the only value she provided to anyone right now was whatever intelligence she could provide to one of the enemies of the Capellan Confederation.

"I should have gone to the Davions." She muttered to herself. "At least I'd be comfortable there." She rubbed her arms, and wrapped herself in the slim blanket that they had given her. Trying to stay warm in the cold cell.

"You're free to go." Her cell door swung open. "Turns out you're not worth the hassle to the Mariks right now." The SAFE guard told her. "We're giving you enough funds to get off planet and start going somewhere else."

They walked her out of the holding facility, handed her her belongings back, and let her loose once again. "I'm going to the Fedrats." Romano said to herself. "At least they'll do something with my information."

Author's note: May have been a little inspired by the Thor scene where Anthony Hopkins improvised the banishment scene...

MarkWarrior · Jun 24, 2022

Chapter Sixty: To Change Fate
In Orbit around Mallory's World, March 4th, 3013

"Mark, I need you to serve as Ian's bodyguard for this campaign." Field Marshal Felsner told me. "I know you've got your own forces coming as reinforcements, but until they get here, I'm going to need you to make sure that Ian doesn't do anything stupidly heroic."

"Understood." I told Felsner. "I've got something to use as backup if some of the forces don't listen to me."

"Yvonne still hasn't revoked that?" He asked me, being one of the few people let in on what Yvonne Davion had given me before we had left for Versailles.

"Nope, I think she's counting on me using it if I need to." I told him with a shrug. "See you on the ground." I used the gantry to climb into the Bobby B. "And now we wait."

March 5th, 3013

"At least he's staying in the HQ." I said to myself as I stood guard in my Warhammer while Felsner and Ian coordinated with the other units on the planet. The Fourth Guards had been getting hammered by the Second Sword of Light, and the Hussar's were barely holding back the supporting elements. When we had shown up with the Heavy Guards, the tides had turned, at least slightly.

The Heavy Guards had taken the front lines over for the Fourth Davion, allowing them to pull back for some rest and repair in order to rotate the forces back through. I hadn't seen anyone so far, and while this bothered me a bit, I knew my job and wasn't going to grumble about being left out of the fighting for now.

"Colonel Hull," I got a message from the people in the HQ. "We need some input, come down here."

"I've got a tactical computer here." I told them. "I'm not leaving my 'Mech when there's a chance of break through by the SOL at any time." I made my 'Mech shrug it's shoulders. "Send it to my TACOMP and I'll advise from here."

There was some debate before I received a handshake protocol for my TACOMP and it showed a close to real time map of the current battlefields.

"You should pull back the forces on grid G-6 and move H-9 forward, allow some infantry to dig in around that area, and you'll be able to deny the enemy armor access to that point unless they dig out enough Arty to kill the entire area, including their precious mechs." I told them. "Now, I need to get back to bodyguard duty."

March 10th, 3013

"Ian, the plan is working. If we're going to collapse on them, we need to do it now." I told them while watching the tactical readouts generated by my computer.

"Copy that Colonel, the center is close to falling back and needs some temporary reinforcements, you're the only one free to assist." Ian told me. "The second Battalion of the SOL is pushing hard, and we need something to stall them while the hammer drops."

"Understood." I told them in response. "Marksman Actual moving to assist."

I moved my Warhammer up to just under its maximum flank speed, setting my cruise at a solid 72 KM/H and readying myself for combat once more. "Estimated ten Mikes out." I told HQ, "Can they hold that long?"

"They'll hold." HQ responded, "Just get there ASAP to assist."

"Copy." I responded, and kept moving towards the battlefield.

After about five minutes of moving, my sensors started picking up limited chatter from the 2nd SOL and the 4th Davion that were a part of the trap.

"This is Marksman, where do you need me?" I asked the commander on the field.

"Marksman, we need you to move to Nav Point Gamma and assist the lances there. We don't have anyone heavier than forty-five tons over there, and they're close to breaking."

"Moving to Nav Point Gamma." I replied and shifted my speed a touch higher, cresting a hill, I saw a double lance of light 'Mechs led by a heavy. The Davion's were doing their best, but the two Blackjacks and two Vindicators were being ripped to shreds over time by the lighter mechs.

"Hammer Lance this is Marksman, stand by for assistance." I told the lance of mediums before reaching out with my ERPPC's and taking the leg clean off of a Locust.

"Marksman we see you on sensors." the Lance commander responded. "Thanks for the assist."

I kept moving into closer range, stripping armor and weapons off of the lighter mechs from long range with my PPC's and causing them to slowly back away and let the heavy mech take the lead.

"This is Chu-i Nakamura, I challenge you to single combat." a message from the Kuritan Dragon came through on an open channel.

"This is Colonel Hull, I accept your challenge." I said, and moved closer, watching as the lighter battlemechs turned to face me.

Making sure to move at regular Warhammer speed, I got into ERPPC range, and gently squeezed the triggers in my hands. The PPC's struck on either side of his Cockpit, and I saw the slight panic in the way that the Dragon moved at first. But this was a Second Sword of Light Mechwarrior, and they weren't cowards. Pushing his Dragon up to its maximum speed, he decided to try and outmaneuver me. That didn't work though, and I rotated and kept peppering him with PPC's, signaling to the Medium Lance to start attacking the light mechs now that I had the heavy distracted.

The Blackjacks and Vindicators had moved back to long range, and were now starting to hammer the lighter mechs with coordinated strikes. Working on destroying the Sword of Light piecemeal before they could use their speed to close the range advantage and start worrying them again.

The Dragon pilot was good. He kept moving out of the way of my PPC's and was trying to close to melee range. When he got close, I used my medium lasers and SRM's to weaken his armor further. When he backed away out of close range, I turned and sniped at one of the light mechs, coinciding with an AC strike from one of the Blackjack's and causing it to go critical.

"I am your opponent Chu-i" I said. "If you are able to take me." I finally hit his shoulder with another PPC, and his AC/5 ceased working. When he turned to close to Medium Laser range, I focused fire and crippled his mech. Sending it crashing to the ground as something failed.

Turning to engage the lighter mechs, I noted that what had been two lances of mechs was now one, and that both Hammer Lance, and the Sword of Light lance were damaged, some of them limping and others missing weapons and armor. Thankfully, there weren't many light mechs that could stand up to two ERPPC strikes, much less a full alpha from a Royal Warhammer and myself combined with Hammer lance made short work of the Light mechs.

"Hammer Lance, we need to hold until given relief here." I told them. "Stick to the plan."

"Copy that Marksman," the Lance leader responded. "Not sure how long we'll be able to hold out if something else tries to break through though."

"That's what I'm here for." I told them. "Leave any heavier elements to me."

March 11th, 3013

"Fall back Hammer Lance, I'll cover the rear." I told the medium lance as we began to fall back. The bait was working a bit too well. "There's a lot of metal headed our way."

The Second Sword of light was out for payback after we had destroyed two of their lances. And we had been engaged in a running battle ever since then. "HQ, this is Marksman, we've got a lot of enemy mechs chasing us." I twisted and squeezed off a PPC bolt at a light mech. "Please advise."

"Marksman," Ian's voice came over the comms channel. "I need you and Hammer lance to turn and face them, we've got the Heavy guards moving for a flank and we need you to be the Anvil."

"HQ, be advised, we're at armor state red overall, and are near bingo on Ammunition." I told him. "I'm not sure what kind of Anvil you want, but we're not going to be much of one."

"HQ copies Marksman, just stick to the plan." He responded.

"Turning to engage HQ," I said. "You heard the man Hammer Lance, let em have it."

We all fired our long range weapons at faster targets, trying to weaken the forces chasing us.

"This is Hammer Lead, Bingo on Ammo, down to lasers." The leader of Hammer Lance told me and the rest of the lance.

"This is Hammer two, LRM ammo and PPC is gone, down to Short range weapons only." The rest of the lance began to let us know when their long range capability was gone. Eventually, there was only myself and a lone Vindicator with long range weapons left. And so we engaged the enemy at range, while the others moved to support if the enemy reached close range.

"You have fought well for a Davion." Came an accented voice through over my comms systems. "Yet now you stand alone, surrounded."

"Yeah, you can't possibly get away now." I told whomever I was talking to.

"I am Tai-Sa Yorinaga Kurita" He told me and you could tell he was about to go on about honor or some other such nonsense.

"Tai-Sa Kurita," An Atlas strolled out of the trees, coring a light mech with a gauss rifle. "You and your battalion are all that remain of the Second Sword of Light, if you retreat now, you may retain your honor, knowing you have done all that you could." The Atlas stopped for a minute seeing as no one was firing on each other at this moment.

"You insult me Davion." Yorinaga told him, as the Heavy Guards emerged from the trees, surrounding the "You do me dishonor by thinking I would retreat. I challenge you, First Prince Davion, mech to mech."

"I refuse your challenge Kurita." Ian responded. "I have you surrounded, and I find you lacking, you will surrender, or face destruction."

"So be it." Yorinaga responded, "So be it." With the words being said, the Heavy guards concentrated fire, shredding almost all of the lighter machines, leaving the heavier mechs to be dealt with.

Meanwhile, I had a personally assigned mission. I was targeting Yorinaga specifically, intending to remove this blight of a person from the Inner Sphere for all time. Closing into the range at which his PPC's no longer worked, I engaged him in melee combat and launched a full alpha strike at his legs. I was going to annihilate this bastard with Superior firepower and stomp on his cockpit.

MarkWarrior · Jun 24, 2022

Chapter Sixty-One: Butterflies
Mallory's World March 30th, 3013

"Mark, why did you stomp on the Tai-sa's Cockpit after you slid his feet out from underneath him? Ian asked me curiously. "I'm not upset by any means, but it felt a little unnecessary."

"Ian, it was a PPC to the face, or a boot." I shrugged. "Kuritans aren't worth the waste of electricity so I chose the boot."

"The Kentares Guard finish off the supporting elements yet?" He asked me. "I know they did an orbital drop onto their holdouts."

"Sheppard hasn't gotten to a place where he can give me an update yet." I told him, "But I suspect that they'll have everything tied off come April." I paused for a minute. "You know what Ian." I said, "I'm proud of you, I thought that you were going to try and duel Yorinaga in one on one combat at first, instead of just taking the Second SOL entirely off of the map."

"Mark," Ian started. "You, Yvonne, and Hanse have hammered it into my head enough that I know better than to do that. I'll still come to the front lines and do what I did today when we are invaded, but I'm not exposing myself like I did on Versailles again."

"Being paralyzed scare you a bit?" I asked.

"Mark, I was almost crippled because I wanted to have an adventure." Ian confided in me, "Hanse was almost left a kingdom to rule because of my stupidity."

April 3rd, 3013

"Sheppard," I greeted as I walked into the Mobile HQ. "How goes finishing off the rest of the Kuritans?" I asked.

"Well, they're trying to dig in over in that area, and since we captured their dropships they're unable to leave." He shrugged. "We've taken some casualties, but mostly injured instead of dead. Right now, I'm sending over terms of surrender and waiting to see what happens."

"Sounds good Sheppard." I told the Colonel. "My Warhammer is being re-armored after the beating we gave the Second SOL and so I'll be managing things from here if you want to move closer to the front."

"I think I can manage things just fine from here." He shrugged. "Even if my Cyclops does have the B2000 computer."

"You made sure that the messenger was armed right?" I asked. "Because they might take it as an insult if they're not."

"Yes Mom." Sheppard replied. "They're in a Von Luckner, one of the first off of the line. And we've got Manticores as long range backups and escorts."

"Alright," I shrugged."I guess we just have to sit and wait for a response."

"That's what I'm doing now." He said, and leaned back in his chair. "So, I do hope you realize that now that we've got the factory lines up and running that we need some aerospace fighter factories as well,"

"I've got Gabriella, the one that we hired for the acquisitions department of Sharpshooter looking into licenses and trying to buy out some older lines that need to be repaired." I replied. "I'm looking at the mothballed Centurion lines. I think there might be something we can do with them, but it's up to acquisitions for now."

April 7th, 3013

"We cannot accept the terms of surrender." the Tai-sa told us over the open channel. "We must fight as honor demands."

"Damn idiots!" Sheppard slammed his hand against the HQ's wall. "I didn't want to have to slaughter them."

"None of us wanted to." I said in response. "Is the Arty in position?" I asked him.

"Yes, we've had them sighted in for the past week." He replied and then turned to the comms specialist. "Issue command Gulf Sierra Romeo."

"Copy sir, issuing Gulf Sierra Romeo." She said, "May God have mercy on their souls."

When the command had gone through the chain, all of the artillery batteries began to fire in a practiced pattern. Beginning what we had termed as "Grid Square Removal." The destruction of everything in a set square of the grid and to not cease the bombardment until we had a surrender or no more enemies left in the square.

April 10th, 3013

"We seized their colors right?" Ian asked when Sheppard and I walked into the room set aside for debriefing. "Any Sword of Light regiment being utterly destroyed is something to be celebrated."

"Yes sir, their colors were on their dropships, and when we seized all but the one Union that lifted off they still had their colors aboard." Sheppard replied. "And the new Mithril Battle armor proved its worth by being able to destroy two lances of Mechs with MPPC's after digging in."

"That's good to hear." Ian said with a grin. "Despite Mallory's world being invaded and some of the foodstuffs destroyed, I believe we came out ahead." He paused and thought for a second. "The Fourth will need some time on R&R before being deployed again, but defeating two regiments of battlemechs and supporting elements is something that we can claim as a success."

"Yes sir," Sheppard responded. "We didn't get here in time to do more than pin down the remnants, but we did manage to finish them off on arrival."
"Colonel Sheppard, you don't give yourself or your people enough credit, the dropships being seized is what allowed us to call this a major victory." Ian shrugged. "While I would have been just as happy with a retreat versus a slaughter, I am happy that we have bled the Dracs on this one."

"Something to add to our playbook as it were." I brought up a suggestion. "Seeing as the Sword of Light Regiments will almost always prefer to be aggressive instead of retreat, we should try and goad them into chases, make them angry and then destroy them with better arms and strategy. They may all be Extremely good mech pilots, but they have the fatal flaw of believing that the Battlemech is superior over everything else in combat." I shook my head at that thought. "We're going to have to work on working Mithril to our advantage before the Combine awakens to the fact that infantry can now stall and remove battlemechs and heavy armor from a fight in a battle."

"That's something for Hanse, Yvonne, and the DMI people to work on for us." Ian waved his hand, "They'll figure out some way to make it work, and probably far better than anything I would have thought up."

With that, we dove into the guts and boring parts of debriefing, the discussions what we did in the battle of Mallory's world, and why we made those decisions."

Kentares IV, Draconis March, Federated Suns May 1st, 3013

"Mark, I look and feel like an Atlas right now." Natasha complained to me. "This is strange, and new and I am not sure I like it."

"Well Nat, if you feel that way, we only have to have one." I said. "But, I would like you to wait to make that decision until this one is born." We were sitting on the couch in the evening just spending time together. Natasha was now around six months pregnant, and wasn't handling it very well.

"Just so you know, I'm going to kick your ass after I give birth." She told me. "Now rub my feet, my ankles are killing me."

MarkWarrior · Jun 24, 2022

Chapter Sixty-Two: Full Disclosure

Kentares IV, Draconis March, Federated Suns May 9th, 3013

"Natasha." I sat down on the couch next to her. "There's something I need to show you." I told her, struggling to keep my composure. Leading her to my library/study I moved to a safe that was hidden underneath my desk and entered a six digit code. Withdrawing the items I kept in there, I sat down on the sofa in said study and thought for a second.

"So, if we're going to truly be partners in every sense of the word, then there's some things that you need to know." She just looked at me strangely, like I was speaking a different language.

"Natasha, these are my most important possessions in the galaxy aside from you and our child." I started, and handed her my wallet with my ID's dating back to 2015.

She just flipped through everything silently, without any major facial expressions and simply waited for me to finish saying what I had to say. After handing her my ID's, I handed her my Iphone and Apple Watch and showed her how to open and navigate through them. I showed her the date that was saved, and everything that I had saved on my phone. Then, I waited for her to speak.

"Why are you showing me all of this?" She finally asked after several tense minutes of silence. "What even is all of this?"

"I somehow traveled from the year two thousand and twenty two to the year three thousand. I went from being a regular old security guard to someone who had to learn engineering, math, and science on a whole different level than I had ever even attempted before." I paused for breath. "I ended up stranded, in a world that was entirely different from my own. You see, tech like what I just showed you is the norm for people in my world. Battlemechs were a thing of Science fiction and all of the neo-feudalism is something that was never considered where I'm from." I expanded on the explanation and even gave a detailed description of what my life had been like.

I Just breathed for a bit and then continued. "All of the things I told you when I was in the hospital bed are true." I said, "I was just surviving at first, and now I feel like I'm beginning to thrive." I looked Natasha in the eyes. "I know it is a lot to take in Natasha, but I'm telling you all of this in the hope that you trust me, and what you do with all of this information is up to you."

"I'll let you think it over." I said. "But whatever you decide, whether it is to leave the Marksman, to leave me where I stand, whatever it is I will honor it." And I walked out of the study, leaving her with everything that I had left of the past.

After I had left the study, I leaned my back against the door and sank to my knees. I had already crossed that threshold that men have to hold back tears, and so I let them flow. Burying my head in my hands hoping that at the end of all of this I would still have someone to hold and walk beside me in this uncertain universe I had found myself in.

After I had released the decade of pent up emotions, I stood up, dusted myself off, and sat against the wall across from the study door. And then I went to sleep.

Natasha just sat, she had no frame of reference to comprehend what she had just been told and shown. She thought she had already known all of the mysteries that Mark Hull had, but it turns out he had one more secret, one that beat all of the others. Everyone who made it to Lieutenant in the Marksman had been told that Mark Hull was a time traveler, it was common knowledge even. But to know that he not only was a time traveler, but from a universe entirely unknown to her was hard to wrap her mind around.

Natasha had no idea how to even process her current emotions. She was a Trueborn Clan Wolf Mechwarrior after all and hadn't known what being free was truly like until she had joined up with the Marksman, and the one she usually relied on to help her understand and process emotions was the one who had just dropped this emotional bomb on her.

After a while of sitting there and thinking, she realized that she heard something. Standing up, and quietly walking over to the door she realized that she heard crying. Mark was sitting against the door weeping steadily. Easing herself down against the other side of the door, she rested her head against it and just listened.

Natasha still sat against the door long after the crying had ceased. Still trying to get a handle on both the unfamiliar emotions, and the pregnancy hormones raging through her system at the moment. Finally, after what seemed like hours had gone by, she made her decision.

Standing up, she opened the door and peered out to find that Mark was asleep against the wall. Leaving the door open, she went back over to the sofa and grabbed the strange communications device that he had shown her and navigated to the pictures of his previous family. He looked so different then, younger, and while he still had the same beard, there wasn't any of the wisdom that twinkled in his eye now or the hardness that showed sometimes when he had to get serious and deal with something that he didn't enjoy. He definitely looked soft, like someone who had only ever read about combat instead of experiencing it. And it was this that had finally helped her make up her mind.

While Mark Hull had once been this other man that she could clearly see on the screen, he was now someone different. Someone who had helped her become who she was today and the man that she had fallen in love with and had agreed to marry.

"It doesn't really matter that he came from somewhere different." She said to herself. "It's who he is now and who he will be in the future that matters." With her mind made up, she went to wake up her idiot of a man.

Author's note:You replied to the thread almost exactly as I finished writing this. Not exactly the same, seeing as I did cover some emotional stuff there, but close enough to what I ended up with. Even if I did use a lot more words...

MarkWarrior · Jun 24, 2022

Chapter Sixty-Three: The Wings of Progress

Kentares IV, June 7th 3013

"Watson!" I greeted the man. "How are the factory relocations going?"

"Well sir," He replied, taking strength from the cup of coffee I had Mary bring him. "The Highlander, Crockett, and Crab Factories are relocated to their respective planets, and they've begun manufacturing." He paused. "The Champion lines are still giving us a bit of trouble but we aren't responsible for the Exterminator lines and that's a big help."

"Thank you for all of the hard work you and your team have been doing." I told him. "I'm authorizing a massive bonus regardless of whether the Champion factory is finished on time or not." I took a sip of coffee and smiled at him. "And make sure y'all get some leave, we're moving into aerospace next."

"Yes sir." Watson stood up and shook my hand. "The wife will be grateful for the extra funds that's for sure."

Watson left my office and the person scheduled to meet me next walked into my office.

"Sir, I've got a list of companies that Acquisitions would like to start buying some stock of or trying to license some designs out of to begin production locally." Gabriella just dropped a file onto my desk and started talking. "While we have expanded and are continuing to do so, we caution against trying to acquire more assets in the Federated Suns until we've finished getting everything set up here."

"And expanding into the Lyran Commonwealth?" I asked. "What are the ideas on that?"

"We believe that an expansion into the Commonwealth should be underneath a separate corporate entity." She started. "Look into hiring some good executive officers over in Lyran space, give them some cash flow to work with and tell them your goals, they'll be able to work through and with the Commonwealth regs better than we can."

"So, consolidate what we have here, and devote some excess funding into establishing a Lyran branch of Sharpshooter." I summarized. "Thank you for your time Gabriella, have a good rest of your day." She got up from her chair and left.

"Mary." I called my secretary. "Was that everyone scheduled for before lunch?"

"Yes sir." She responded. "Your next meeting isn't until two in the afternoon local time."

"Thanks Mary, take a good lunch break and I'll see you back around two alright?"
"Of course." She packed up and went to go get lunch.

June 15th, 3013

"So, now that I know everything, what is your plan?" Natasha asked me while we were enjoying the evening. "You told me about the future that will likely never happen now, but what is your overall plan?" She took a bite of the pizza I had made for dinner.

"I'm trying to swing things into a direction that should be for the better." I told her. "By getting manufacturing and research and development back up and running I'm not only getting the Inner Sphere ready for when the Clans potentially invade, but also for if the Jihad ever happens." I took a bite of my own, chewed it and swallowed before continuing. "Also, I like being able to help people, and by having Sharpshooter industries setting up centers of learning and advanced hospitals all over, we're not only helping the big guys like Hanse, Ian or Katrina, but we're able to assist in the development of some of the backwaters into potential powerhouses of their own."

"Okay," She said. "What is your plan for the three Warships that you told me you have access to?"

"I'm going to be bringing the Manassas over here to Kentares at some point." I told her. "I've got enough favors built up with both the FedSuns and the people that rule it that we can swing having at the very least the Manassas covering the manufacturing centers here." I took a sip of water. "The Potemkin and Texas I'm going to be sending one of our Snowdens over to get the raw materials needed put into repairing them." I shrugged. "I'm leaning towards gifting the Potemkin and the rest of the Unions attached to the Federated Suns until they can get Warship manufacture back up and running, and one of the things that I wrote Katrina in that sealed letter I handed her was a mothballed yard closer to her borders that she could snag to get her own production up and running."

"And the Taurians?" She leaned forward, interested in hearing out and offering some advice if she thought it was a bad idea. "What is the plan for uplifting them to the level of the rest of the Sphere?"

"Well, Peterson is fairly certain that Menke is going to be captured relatively intact, and I know they've been boosting manufacturing to entirely new levels. With the TCS Vandenberg making a reappearance I suspect they've some sort of Warship repairing or manufacture facilities hidden away. And if they don't have them, I'm sure that they'll be pushing to build some."

"Plan for when the Clans invade?" She asked, curious to see how I would handle it if the Clans invaded.

"Depends on when they invade." I told her. "If they were to invade in the next couple of years or so, I would have no choice but to take advantage of the Batchall system in order to hold them off until we could get things set up with the Suns and Taurians manning frontlines while the Steiners focus on getting their manufacturing capacity to peak efficiency in order to get logistics chains up and running." I took a drink. "If we managed to hold them off for long enough, I would take the Manassas and the Texas class and move to stop the advance in space, taking advantage of the Sting refits and turning them into escorts for the two Warships."

"And if the Invasion is in twenty to thirty years?" She asked.

"By that point, we should have enough years of the Concordat, Commonwealth, and Suns being at the very least nominal allies that they should be able to join forces and probably push back the Clans in sheer numbers alone. Not to mention the fact that there will be independent research done by then that could make massived differences."

"I'm not seeing anything wrong with any of the plans yet." Nat told me after finishing her pizza. "But I will take some time to go over them." She shrugged. "It is strange, I was never a long term thinker before Sheppard and your drill instructors hammered it into my head."

"Long term and short term." I told her. "If you focus too much on one, then the other sneaks up behind you with a shovel and clobbers you."

"That is a unique way of putting that." She laughed a bit. "Come up with that one on your own?" She teased.

"Why yes, I did in fact come up with that analogy." I responded, fake puffing myself up. "I spent all of fifteen seconds coming up with it." I kept playing it up for the laughs for a bit and then finished my dinner.

"What do you want to do next?" I asked her. "It's Tuesday, and I already told them I'm taking the day off tomorrow."

"Well, I did some time in the sims with you." She responded with a smirk. "I still need to get you back for crushing the skull of my Atlas with an Urbanmech that time."

"Look Nat," I raised my hand with my palms open and slowly backed away. "You gave me enough time to set up on top of that skyscraper, you and everyone else should know by now that giving me prep time is akin to handing the fight over for me to win."

"I just suppose we will have to find out." She had a mischievous grin on her face and a twinkle in her eye. "So come face me Mark." She stood up and walked to the front door. "If you dare."

"Oh, you are so on." I said as I hurried out the door behind her. "Loser has to make dinner next week."

Author's note: The Slice of Life chapters are going to be a touch shorter in overall length. I've found it to be easier to write them as smaller snippets than the fully dedicated to one thing chapters. We'll be moving onto a time skip here in the next couple of chapters unless I cover the elopement of Mark/Nat and the breaking of a hand in childbirth…

MarkWarrior · Jun 24, 2022

Chapter Sixty-Four: Snippets
Kentares IV, Draconis March, Federated Suns June 20th, 3013

"Why did you have me go to the livingroom?" Natasha asked me.

"Because it has only now come to my attention that no one that I know has seen the best movie ever, of all time." I said excitedly. "I'm surprised it even survived until this day and age."

"What movie is this?" Natasha asked me as I ran around the kitchen getting movie snacks together.

"The Princess Bride!" I exclaimed. "It's the only movie ever made that appeals to pretty much everyone." I started making some popcorn on the stove.

"Why does this movie appeal to so many?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Because it has true love, revenge, duels, wit, there's just so much packed into the movie that you can't unravel it all at once." I made sure butter and salt were set aside in the proper amounts for the popcorn. "Go wait in the living room, I'll bring all of the snacks out in a minute."

An hour and forty minutes later…

"Well," I bounced a little excitedly. "What did you think?"

"That was an…" Natasha paused, thinking about the right words to say. "Entertaining piece of fiction, I particularly enjoyed the sections where Westley faced all of the enemies and beat them at their own challenges." She smirked at the end there, knowing she was pushing some of my buttons.

"Well, at least you liked it." I said, with a smile on my face. "That's all I can ask for now"

August 10th, 3013

"Okay Natasha," The doctor told her. "Your body knows how to do this, and we are just here to help everything go smoothly." He had me standing by the bedside. "We're going to just give minor updates and encourage the process along."

After three hours of labor, and many fractured bones in my hand, we had a newborn on our hands.

"Here Nat," I handed our newborn to her. "Here's our son."
She took him into her arms with a look of awe and wonder on her face. Amazed at the small human being in her arms.

"He needs a name." She said with no small sense of urgency in her voice. "Mark, he needs to have a name right now."

"How does David Alexander sound?" I asked.

"David Alexander?," She hummed to herself while staring at the baby boy in front of her. "I very much like that."

Kentares IV, November 10th, 3013

"So, you and Natasha are finally tying the knot huh?" I was surrounded by a group of my closest friends.

"Yeah, I guess we finally are." I said with a smile on my face. "You're gonna be the next one Jack." I told my longtime XO. "I mean, you and Lamb have been together for how long now?"

"Long enough." Jack Sheppard grunted.

"Well, Ian and Hanse are supposed to be here sometime this week." I changed the subject for Jack. "And I'm pretty sure that Arthur and Melissa are going to be coming sometime the week after that."

"No Archon this time?" Jack asked.

"She wants to be here, but she's at a critical point in the restructuring of the LCAF." I responded. "She tried to poach Peterson from the Concordat, but they were already halfway to Menke by the time that she broached the contract."

"Peterson would have taken the Concordat contract anyway." Jack replied. "He is dead set on removing the Capellan Confederation from existence as a nation state."

"He'll probably get his wish in less than a decade." I told the group around me. "Dunham here has been hearing some likely rumors that the Anduriens are going to be carving some chunks out of the CapCon, and that Pavel Ridzik might break off into his own state."

"And with Candace being the only remaining Liao Heir." Jack finished. "Max only has a few options if he wants to keep any sort of power for his family."

Kentares IV, November 21st, 3013

"Uncle Mark!" Melissa moved as fast as her little legs could carry me. "Where is Tante Tasha?" She asked as I picked her up.

"She's with little David at our house right now." I told the three year old. "Do you want to meet David?"

Arthur just casually strolled up and shook my hand. "I always enjoy seeing her like this." he told me. "She's always asking after you and Nat you know?"

"I know Arthur, I try to respond to her letters as soon as I get them." I said with a sad shake of my head. "It's hard enough managing a planet like I'm doing, I can't imagine what Katrina must go through on a daily basis."

"Well, it helps that she did get some training for the job from Alessandro before we deposed him." He offered. "I don't think you had anyone to teach you about the ins and outs of the nobility and politics."

"No, Ian and Hanse did give me some pretty good advisors though." I shrugged, casually throwing Mel over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes to her laughter. "Hey Arthur, side question. Have you seen Melissa anywhere?" I asked with the three year old slung over my shoulder. "She's about this tall." I held my hand down by my thighs. "And has blonde hair and blue eyes."
"I'm right here Uncle Mark!" She laughed from behind my shoulder. "Behind you!"

"Behind me?" I asked and spun around. "I don't see you Melissa, are you sure you're behind me?"

After a couple of minutes of playing, I set the three year old down and we made our way to my (small) Mansion where the guests would be staying.

"He's so small." Melissa whispered to Natasha as she held the currently asleep two month old.

"You were that small once upon a time too." I said from the doorway I was leaning on. "We all start out that little, and then as we get older, we start to get bigger." I made my way over to the bed and knelt down to eye level with both my lover and the three year old. "It's the job of Mommys, Daddy's, and uncles and Aunties to make sure you learn and one day grow up to be as big as we are." I ruffled her blonde head full of hair. "Now, David and Tante Tasha need their rest, okay?"

"Okay." She responded, handing the small baby to Nat and leaving the room. "I'll go play with Andrew for a little bit."

"Sorry for that." I sat down next to Natasha. "I can take him for a bit if you need to get some rest." I offered.

"I feel like that is all that I do," She said. "Rest, I am not even on bed rest anymore and yet I still feel so tired."

"I'll take care of David for a little bit." I picked up our two month old. "You go to sleep and I'll get some food set up for you when you wake up."

November 28th, 3013

"You may kiss the bride." I leaned over and gave Natasha a kiss on the lips, intending it to be chaste, but she grabbed the back of my head and pulled me in for a far deeper and breathtaking kiss.

"Whoooo!" The crowd cheered and clapped, for a while before stopping.

After the ceremony was over, we dispersed to go to a small reception where some of our closest friends and family would gather.

"I am glad that you found someone." Joshua Wolf said to Natasha as he looked at the small child held in her hands. "And I think I am closer to understanding what you were trying to tell me before."

"Good." Natasha smiled. "Would you like to hold him?"

Joshua Wolf just got this look of fear and worry in his eyes and he backed away slowly. "No thank you, I will go enjoy something from the dessert table now."

"The Wolf Brothers." I snarked in Nat's ear. "Unafraid of death, terrified of tiny humans."

"Only Joshua is that way I believe." She laughed. "Jaime has children, remember?"

"I suppose you're right." I shrugged while chuckling. "Now, I think we should finish making our rounds."

We started talking to all of the people at the reception. Laughing with Hanse and Dana (Who was now pregnant) and picking on Ian for still being single before moving on.

"Melissa, you looked so cute in your little Flower girl dress." I told her. "Thank you for doing such a good job." I knelt down and gave her a big hug.

Kentares IV, November 31st, 3013

"Go back to sleep Nat." I told my wife. "I'll get David back to sleep." I got up and walked over to his crib, picking him up and sitting down in the rocking chair next to it.

"Shhh, Shhhh." I rubbed his back softly while checking his diaper to make sure it didn't need to be changed. "It's okay little man. It's okay." After around thirty minutes, he had gone back to sleep and so I put him back down in his crib and crawled back into bed.

Author's note: Something dark in Romano's story, and something lighthearted to balance it out properly. Hope y'all enjoyed this little set of scenes...

MarkWarrior · Oct 4, 2022

Chapter Sixty-Five: Triumphant Return

Unknown location, May 5th, 3014

"So this is where you parked it?" Natasha asked me as we took the Messenger over to the hidden repair and supply depot.

"This is where the Manassas and the Age of Discovery are located, yes." I answered. "The Snowden I had Rook bring over here has been feeding resources to the repair part of the facility in order to get the Age of Discovery repaired again."

"It'll take us about a day or so to get to the facility proper." I told Natasha.

"Meet you on the mat?" Natasha asked me.

"Yeah, I'll bring David in his chair so he can watch." I replied and grabbed our son. "He might as well get used to watching us spar early."

"They really did automate a lot of this ship." Natasha observed the internals of the Manassas. "I would say it seems like an SDS drone, but I have not seen one of them before."

"Well, I've seen a disassembled drone, there's actually one in one of the cargo bays on this station." I told her. "I think they took some inspiration from the Caspars, but didn't want it to be left to the AI on its own. I mean, it still takes at the very least a bridge crew to make this thing run properly."

"And yet you did it on your own?" She questioned. "That seems like an unlikely tale."

"I actually forced a lot of systems to reroute their programs to the navigation console." I told her. "After I got here, I did end up putting everything back where it is supposed to be."

"I take it you took careful notes?" Natasha asked while the bridge crew we had gotten together began to familiarize themselves with the Manassas' controls.

"Yes, I did." I said in response. "I didn't want to screw up something and get myself killed."

"Sir, we're ready to take her out." Commodore Frye told me. "Awaiting your command."

"Open the bay doors Commodore." I told her. "We're taking this old girl home."

May 15th, 3014

"Looking over the reports Bruce handed you?" Natasha asked me as she walked into my office, little David babbling at us.

"Yeah, looks like the Age of Discovery will need another five months before she's completely fixed." I responded. "Jewel and Bruce think that they might be able to accelerate it up to three if they assist the automated repairs with some of their own, but they caution against it because while they're good with Jumpship and Dropship repair, they only know how to monitor the Warships for now."

"And the bridge crew for the Manassas?" Nat asked me. "No one knows how to pilot a Warship currently."

"I know that, but we were able to program some simulators and get it set up so that they could at least get close to the experience." I replied. "It's not perfect, but Frye picked some good trustworthy people to train up, and I know that they'll do just fine."

Kentares IV, Federated Suns May 14th, 3014

"So, you're stepping down when Hull gets back?" Packer asked Sheppard.

"Yeah, I got authorization from Hull, and First Prince Davion to start our own military academy." Sheppard replied. "And with Peterson taking over for the Mercenary side of things."

"There needs to be someone taking over the Kentares Guard." Packer finished. "I'll accept the position, but I just have one question…"

"What?" Sheppard replied.

"Why training?" Packer asked. "I mean, most of us don't like that part of the job."

"I actually really enjoy the teaching aspect." Sheppard said with a small smile. "It makes me happy to see visible improvement over both the short term and the long."

"Alright then, I take it you'll be starting to get me used to the Kentares Guard paperwork and such for the transition?" Packer asked.

"Yep, starting next week we'll be working on beginning the transition process and making things fluid in the transfer of command." Sheppard said. "They're going to be breaking ground on the new facility in the next month and the rough estimate is a year to get everything set up for the academy."

"What're we going to call it?" Packer asked, curious to see what Sheppard and Hull had come up with.

"Marksman School of Hard Knocks." Sheppard said with a serious look on his face.

"You're kidding right?" Packer asked.

"Nope." Sheppard grinned. "It's so ridiculous that no one will take us seriously. Until we stomp them flat into the ground that is."

"I've played poker with you too many times for that to work on me Sheppard." Packer replied with a similar grin. "Something simpler, I take it."

"We're sticking with Marksman Military Academy," Sheppard shrugged. "It's simple, and not something that sounds pretentious. We're keeping the "School of Hard Knocks" bit as our catchphrase though."

"That I can roll with." Parker grinned. "On another note, any news from Peterson?"

"Menke was taken by the Concordat last month." Sheppard replied. "We're sending some Sharpshooter people over to help get the industries at Menke and Victoria up and running at peak efficiency again."

"Calderon still chomping at the bit to take more Capellan worlds?" Packer asked.

"Not as far as we can tell." Sheppard said in response. "Seems like they're doing what we and the Fedsuns are doing. Consolidating and rebuilding for one final push. I have heard that the Anduriens are carving out a few chunks of the Capcon themselves though."

"I'm less worried about the Capellans and more focused on the Combine currently." Packer said. "I'm worried that by assisting in taking out the 2nd SOL that there will be some sort of reprisal aimed at us."

"Nothing has shown up lately via our intel people." Sheppard shrugged. "But we're keeping watch anyway. We have a lot of Aerospace assets and Sting's as our first line of defense. And then what Hull is bringing will be there in case of an emergency."

"Point." Packer said. "Very good point."

The Triad, Tharkad, Lyran Commonwealth June 30th, 3014

"So, I take it Loki has a final report on the shopping list Hull sent us three years ago?" Katrina asked Simon Johnson.

"Yes ma'am, our techs and engineers have estimated another year or so until the Dry dock is relocated to a favorable system." He glanced down at his sheet of paper. "And we managed to find a decent amount of Lostech data in the facility, along with an HPG facility and a Battalion of 'mechs. The dropship repair facility is already in the process of being relocated."

"And the rest of the list?" Katrina raised her eyebrow.

"The underwater factory complex was located and while in need of some repairs, some of the Defiance people who we brought with us estimate that within two years it will be back up to full production."

"And the investigation into the Odessa system?" She asked.

"We managed to embed a few very good agents in with the local Comstar facility." Simon responded with a slight grin. "I believe that we will be able to locate and begin to bring them into the Commonwealth given time."

"And the last two items?" Katrina asked.

"We managed to point Sharpshooter Industries in the right direction insofar as buying out the Henderson Jumpship facility, they rehired all of the old crew back, and started making repairs as soon as they got the people in. And we still have not located the Colossus mentioned, but we're confident in finding it soon."

"Thanks for the briefing Simon." Katrina dismissed him as Melissa ran in to give her a hug.

"Mel!" She picked up her daughter. "How was Uncle Mark and Aunt Natasha's wedding?"

"It was SO much fun!" Melissa squealed. "Little David is very cute." Melissa and Katrina talked about the wedding and some of the fun things that happened for a bit. "Mom." Melissa asked after a minute of being silent. "When am I getting another little brother or sister?"

"You want more of them?" Katrina asked, faking sarcasm. "I thought Elena was enough siblings for you."

"No!" Melissa squirmed as Katrina began to tickle her. "I want more of them, I need a little brother!" She kept giggling as she said that.

"Well," Katrina looked up at her husband and gave him the look. "I'll just have to see about talking your father into it now won't I?"

Taurian Concordat, July 4th, 3014
"Are you sure about retiring mom?" Thomas asked his mother.

"I'm sure." Zarantha replied. "I'm taking a vacation to Canopus for a little bit and then I'm going exploring, with your father having passed away and most of my grandchildren grown, I want to go see what the rest of the galaxy is like."

"Okay mom." Thomas hugged his mother. "I'll make sure we stick to the plan you and I worked out."

"You do that son." She replied. "I'll make the announcement tonight, and leave sometime next week."

Thomas and Zarantha just held on to the hug for a little bit longer. And when Edward and the rest of Thomas' family showed up they joined in.

Authors note: Katrina rolled a 15 on the "shinies" left on the Columbus. And a 10 on the Kwanjong plant. I wasn't removing the Dropship repair yard or the dry dock. So those were staying. This was the roll for what was in the R&D facility.

MarkWarrior · Oct 4, 2022

Draconis Combine Interlude 3014

Luthien, Sometime in January…

"Coordinator, we have no way of recovering the colors of the Second Sword of Light." One of Takeshi Kurita's aides told his liege lord.

"I know this." Takeshi responded. "I do not wish to reform them at this time." He paused in thought. "I need some time alone to consider what our response to this will be."

Takeshi considered a map of the Davion/Kuritan border in front of himself, humming in thought.

"Bring me Tai-Sho Palmer Conti and Warlord Dieron." Takeshi eventually called a servant in to bring him the two of them as soon as was reasonable.

February…

"Tai-Sho I need you to bring the Fifth Sword of Light, and coordinate with Tai-Sho Kingsley and bring the Davion dogs on Northwind to heel." Takeshi told the two military commanders before him. "We have intelligence that the Northwind Highlanders are back on their homeworld." Takeshi drew in a breath. "Show them the might of the Dragon and wipe them from the planet."

"What support will we have?" Kingsley asked. "There will not only be the Highlanders there, and Coordinator, while the Fifth Sword of Light and the Eighteenth Dieron Regulars are elite units, we will still be outnumbered."

"Worry not." Takeshi told him. "I will send supporting elements with you in order to deprive the Davions of yet another elite group."

Dieron, Late March…

"We must decide how we are to conduct this campaign." Kingsley told the other two Tai-Sho with him. "We will face three Regiments of the Highlanders for certain, and it is not certain what other forces will be present on the world."

"We shall crush them through our prowess." Tai-Sho Conti replied. "None can stand against the Sword of Light."

"The Davions will not care about who faces them in combat, and neither will the Highlanders." Tai-Sho Eastmoreland replied. "We must prepare as well as we can, for this offensive must succeed." She sighed. "With the Second Sword of Light destroyed on Mallory's World, along with the supporting elements, we are going to be stretched thin, this will be our only chance at both vengeance and to hold off any potential Davion Invaders."

"Agreed." Kingsley said. "So we must find a way to dictate this battle with as few losses as possible." Kingsley sighed. "The Coordinator has issued a command of force preservation over destruction. If we are in danger of being overrun, we must withdraw rather than face what happened to the Second Sword of Light."

Northwind, Late May…

"Colonel Senn!" A junior officer ran up to him hurriedly. "We just had an invasion force appear at the jumpoint."

Colonel Senn just sat there for a moment processing and then calmly asked for the junior officer to assemble the rest of the regimental commanders of the Northwind Highlanders.

"We have what looks like a minimum of ten Regiments inbound." Colonel Senn briefed the assembled officers. "The dropships have Combine markings, and this is clearly not a mere raiding force."

"They must know that we are the only forces on Northwind until the Davions can bring about reinforcements." One of the other officers brought up.

"We believe this is retaliation for the destruction of the Second SOL and the supporting elements they brought with them last year." Senn continued. "We have asked for assistance from the Davions, but it will take at least a month or two before they can bring anything to assist." Colonel Senn sighed. "We are going to be on our own aside from the local militia for a while…."

Authors note: I find myself not very good at writing the Combine. I can do the combat scenes, I can write the way that they speak (At least I think I can...) But I can't figure out how to get inside their heads the way I can in the other Interludes. It's sad to say I can write the Liao's better than the Kurita's, but I can at least understand the Liao's kind of madness, they're just crazy and they typically know it. The Combine Don't think that they're crazy and I just can't wrap my head around it...

MarkWarrior · Oct 4, 2022

Late January, 3012 Graham IV FWLM

"Thud, thud, thud," The footsteps echoed behind the young woman running, and when she thought she was out of energy, the footsteps drove her to run away even faster. But she was tiring, and she could tell the man was gaining on her and so she screamed when she tripped and fell sprawled out on the ground. Rolling over to face her attacker she drove her boot into his crotch when he tried to pin her down and rolled over on top of him to try and strangle him while he was temporarily immobilized.

Unfortunately for her, she couldn't maintain a solid grip while he was writhing around and she ended up being slammed against an alley wall until she let go.

"You Bitch!" The man yelled out. "I was just gonna have some fun with ya, but now… Bang!"

The woman lowered the small concealed weapon she had stolen from him in the middle of the fight before going to his body and rifling through the pockets, looking for anything that she might be able to use. She had thought getting to the Federated Suns would be easy, but instead she had discovered that her father had frozen all of the funds that she thought she had squirelled away in secret. This left her with nothing but what she had on her back and that was not all that much.

"Bastard" she swore in Chinese while spitting on the dead man's face. She kept the weapon she had stolen and all of the things that might be useful to her, like both the pocketknife and the Marik Eagles that he had in his wallet.

Walking away, she found a small convenience store and walked in, asking to use their restroom where she sat on the toilet and began to cry. Big heaving sobs echoed in the bathroom while she tried to calm herself down. After fifteen minutes, she put herself back together enough to apply some makeup to cover up the worst of the bruises on her face and neck. When she left, she made sure to buy a bottle of water and a couple of meal replacement bars. Who knew when she was going to be able to eat again.

Early February 3012 Graham IV FWLM

"How much for passage?" She asked the man in charge of passengers for this dropship.

"Well, we'll take a hundred and fifty M-Bills or around one hundred C-bills." The man started the negotiating process.

"I'll give you seventy-five M-Bills or fifty C-Bills." She countered.

"A hundred and twenty M-Bills or Seventy-Five C-Bills." He continued

"A hundred M-Bills or Seventy C-Bills, and not a bit more." She stated.

"You got yourself a deal there." They shook on it and signed a standard passenger contract. "We leave on Monday, so make sure you're here before departure or you'll forfeit any funds paid."

"Don't worry, I'll be here." She said.

MarkWarrior · Oct 4, 2022

Romano's story: Chapter Three
Northwind, FS Early May 3012

She had never felt so weak in her life. After getting passage to the Federated Suns, she had thought that her troubles would cease, but no one who would be able to help her get a semblance of her life back would even see her. And so she was reduced to this, starving in an empty alleyway and struggling to keep warm.

"Frank, come here." Echoed through the alleyway, and two decently dressed young men and a woman came to where she was. "She needs help." They gently tried to coax her out of the small overhang she was using for shelter to no avail.

"Miss, my brother and Sister-in-law only want to help you." One of the men said. "We can see that you're not eating well and that you're homeless, we run a shelter and soup kitchen to provide aid for that sort of thing."

The woman just snarled at them and retreated back into herself until she had fallen asleep.

"Joe, I'm going to go grab the car and see if we have any coats that will fit her." Frank told his brother. "Callie, I think she might be a rape victim, I can see some of the bruises on her face and neck."

"So I need to be present, and Callie needs to help coax her out of her shell." Joe sighed. "I'll back off a bit Callie." He retreated to a spot where he was barely in sight, but was able to help Callie out if she needed it.

Callie waited until Frank brought over a thick jacket before approaching the woman.

"Honey, I need you to wake up." She said, "I've got this coat that will help you warm up." She shook the woman awake and helped her put the coat on while she was still slightly out of it. "Come on, we'll get you someplace warm and get some food into you."

The young woman didn't resist as they helped her into the warm car, and was silent during the entire drive to the shelter that they ran.

"Here," Joe handed the woman a towel. "The shower is in the first room on the left, and we'll have some fresh clothes for you when you get out."

"Joe, I'm going to need you to keep an eye on her until we can get her an appointment with Nancy." Frank told his brother. "She's got the same look that the Gentleman we helped out last year had before he committed suicide."

"I know Frank," Joe sighed in response. "I'm going to do what I can to make sure she lives, I'm not sure I would be able to handle another suicide like that one."

"I'll have Callie call Nancy and try and have her come over." Frank told his brother. "If she doesn't shy away from you anymore, see if you can get some of her wounds treated and some food set out for her."

"I know the drill Frank," Joe rolled his eyes at his brother. "It's not like I'm the one who started this nonprofit after all."

"I'm just helping you out bro." Frank drove a fist into his little brother's shoulder. "If I don't do it, then you know mom will just send dad over."

"I got it Frank, go get things set up for the medical side please." Joe said while making his way to the shelter's kitchen. "Thanks for your help though."

She was warm, and she was full again. She wasn't quite sure why these people were even helping her. She wasn't valuable anymore. Any information that she had once had was by now too far out of date, and she wasn't a worthwhile hostage either. She had no money, the last of her money had been spent on food weeks ago, and the trash had barely kept her able to survive.

But now she was warm and fed, and she didn't know what to do, or how to respond.

"Hey," One of the men who had helped her said. "We've got someone who specializes in care, and we think you could use some help." She hadn't let him come close enough to treat some of her wounds.

"This is Nancy, She's a doctor, and she'll be able to help you with some of those bruises." He said as the woman stepped forward.

"Hello there," The woman greeted her with a medical kit opened in her hands. "I'm Dr. Nancy Davis, and I'm a practicing Physician and licensed mental health care provider." She explained. "I can help you take care of those if you'd like." She indicated the bruises on her neck and shoulders.

"I will allow it." She told the doctor. "But I'm not letting him out of my sight. "She pointed to the man who had first helped her.

"That's perfectly fine," Nancy told her. "I just need to see what I'm working with."

"Joe, you got your work cut out for you on this one." Nancy told her friend. "She's clearly an almost rape victim, I didn't see any of the signs of the actual rape being done, but it definitely messed her up, and I can see signs of some sort of untreated mental illness."

"I'm not doing this because I enjoy it." Joe told her for what felt like the thousandth time. "I do this because I think it's the right thing to do, and because I feel like this is what I'm supposed to do."

"I know." Nancy smiled at her friend. "I'm just letting you know that she's going to need more time than most of the people you help."

"And that's perfectly fine," Joe responded confidently. "I've never put a time limit on helping people, they can stay as long as they need in order to get back on their feet."

"You know that Frank worries about you right?" Nancy asked. "He thinks that you'll never settle down because you're married to doing what he thinks is an impossible mission."

"It may be impossible." Joe shrugged in response. "But that just makes it even more worthwhile to try."

Author's note: I've now reached over 100k words in a little under five weeks. What started as an attempt to get my writing kickstarted back up again has turned into something quite a bit more massive then originally intended, with almost 500 people watching the fic, and a lot of you offering advice and helping me improve on my writing. Thank y'all for that. I plan to end the regular fic after the clan invasion. (I've got some ideas for a pretty cool crossover.)

MarkWarrior · Oct 4, 2022

Romano's Story: Chapter Four

Northwind, FS Early August 3012

"I am not crazy!" The woman snarled at Joe and his brother. "I have no need for a psychiatrist or therapist."

"Roma, we're not saying that you're crazy, we're trying to help you deal with the trauma of almost being raped." Joe said calmly. "We've made such good progress recently, please, just talk to her. Nancy is the one who recommended you talk to her, remember?" Joe asked. "Nancy, Callie, Frank, and I are all trying to help you here Roma, please just speak to her." Joe coaxed.

"Fine." She responded after his pleas." I will speak to this therapist that Nancy recommended, but do not expect any significant changes." And she finally entered the room as Joe sagged against the wall in relief.

"Whew." Joe wiped some imaginary sweat off of his brow. "At least it's a step in the right direction."

After a couple of hours….

"Well?" Joe asked as he pulled up to the building in his car and Roma got in. "Was it as bad as you feared?"

"No, it was not." The woman answered. "I will be returning next week."

"See, I'm just trying to help you." Joe said earnestly. "It's something I do."

"Yes, I know that you help people." The young woman responded. "I do not understand you and why you do this, nor do I trust you."

"That's fine." Joe shrugged. "Lots of people don't understand me or what I do at first." He chuckled. "Especially those who knew me and my brother in our childhood, but eventually, they understand it." He pulled back into the parking lot of the shelter. "Or they never do, and it doesn't bother me either way."

"What do you get out of it?" The woman seated behind him in the car finally asked. "What do you get that makes you continue to do this?"

"I don't get material wealth if that's what you mean." Joe replied. "In fact, I barely make ends meet some months, but I get the satisfaction of helping a fellow human being stay alive, and I have the goal of ending homelessness on Northwind for good."

Late December 3012

"Thank you for continuing to come to your appointments." Dr. Jennifer Gump said. "I'm very proud of the progress we have made."

"Thank you for the prescription." The woman smiled slightly. "I feel like I can think straight for the first time ever."

"It's more than just the meds dear." Dr. Gump replied. "It's being consistent in working through the things that we cover here, and both coming to terms with and dealing with previous trauma and the chemical imbalances that you had." Dr. Gump got up and fixed some tea. "I'm hoping that over time, we'll be able to not only lower the dosage, but that eventually we'll be able to take you off of the meds entirely."

"I'm not certain that is a good idea." The young woman replied. "I don't think I am capable of overcoming the issues by myself yet."

"That's the point." Dr. Gump said. "The operative word that you used there is yet. There's still time to work through things. For now though, we can change the subject." Dr. Gump took a sip of her tea. "How goes the job with the Militia?"

"Oh!" The woman responded, "It's actually going really well, and Joe was extremely helpful in finding a small apartment to rent."

January 3013

"Frank, Callie." The young woman greeted two of the people who rescued her. "Welcome, can I get you anything to drink?"

"Not today Roma." Callie answered for the two of them. "We come bearing bad news."

"What happened?" She brought them in and they sat around her small table. "It's Joe isn't it?"

"Yes," Frank hung his head as he answered her. "He was shot three times while helping someone and is in critical condition at the hospital."

"I have a training shift for the rest of the day and then I can go visit." She replied. "I still haven't paid him back for all of his help."

"He wouldn't want you to pay him back with anything but getting better." Callie said with a sad smile. "He loves seeing people step out and get their lives back together."

"I'm still going to go visit him." The woman replied. "I'll try and get some time off to make sure that he gets properly taken care of."

Next day…

"There's a line of how many people to see Joe?" Callie asked her husband Frank. "I never knew he had helped that many."

"Apparently he did, because there's two hundred people from over the years that have sent money to both keep the shelter up and running and to help cover his medical bills." Frank shook his head. "One of the people he helped is a local millionaire that is donating half of his wealth to the shelter and to help build more of them."

"Poor Roma," Callie sighed sadly. "She's going to have to wait in line for an hour in order to see Joe." She snickered a bit. "I don't even think she realizes that she's smitten with him."

"Well, I think that won't be a problem soon." Frank smirked, "I'm pretty sure Roma is the kind of person who doesn't let life knock her around anymore."

MarkWarrior · Oct 4, 2022

Romano's Story: Chapter Five
July 10th, 3014 Northwind

"Just hold on a little bit longer, Militia." The comms system said. "We've got reinforcements coming but it'll take a bit to get them there."

"Fucking Bullshit." The young NCO swore and tossed the receiver back to the militiaman manning it. "Looks like we're holding here." She told the rest of the infantry company she now commanded. "I estimate we have about two hours before the Drac armor and infantry get here." She picked up her trenching shovel in one hand and a set of explosives in the other. "Let's get to work."

In two hours, they had dug a minefield and a decent set of trenches that were manned by nothing. They had left their crew manned autocannon and PPC tied to a couple of traps and pre-sighted in. Meanwhile, she had taken the company and swung wide, hoping to flank them and pin them against the trap and her company.

While they might have been issued slightly out of date equipment, Romano had made sure that they had the best explosives she could find. And when the crew mounted guns started firing and the IED's started going off she gave a wicked smile. "Let's hit em." She said as they came out of the woods out of sight of the column of tanks and infantry that were assaulting the empty position. When her company had everything sighted in and set, they let loose with their rifles and shoulder fired SRM's. They decimated the Infantry part of the Drac Column and bolted into the woods, taking comfort in the fact that they had at least knocked the treads off of some of the heavier Tanks and mission killed some of the hovercraft

July 15th, 3014

"We're going to have to give that woman a promotion." Colonel Graham told his XO. "That's the second column of Armor and Infantry she's held off with a short company in two weeks."

"Yes sir." His XO replied. "She managed to buy us time to help out the Highlanders."

"And don't forget that lance of the 5th SOL she vanished in the woods." A staff officer chimed in. "I'm pretty sure that Lance had the XO for the 5th SOL among them."

"All we heard from that area was chatter and explosions." The XO said with some fear in her voice. "A mixed lance gone in a fireball."

"There was some good salvage too," The staff officer offered again. "The Highlanders were able to get them back into the fight nary a week later."

"What was her name though?" Graham said. "Roma Lee is what is listed on her file, but she was a homeless vagrant refugee a couple of years ago according to the Joe Hardy Foundation."

"But doesn't she look like Romano Liao?" The XO said, taking a sold look at the picture from the file. "We've all heard of her banishment by now, could she have been hiding here?"

"Doesn't matter." Graham said after a minute. "Right now, we need to fight off the Dracs before we do anything else. Besides, she's been a model citizen of Northwind for almost a year and a half, that makes her a Fedsuns citizen regardless of how we feel."

"Come on people, move it move it!" Romano yelled at her short company. "We are right in the path for the 5th SoL, and we need to evac before they hit us." She picked up a limping soldier, threw him over her shoulder and sprinted over to the nearest APC. "Load him in there." She commanded them. "We don't exactly have a lot of time left."

After she said that, a Locust made an appearance.

"Hammer it!" She yelled to the QRF she had on standby. "We need that thing down before it gives away our position." A fireteam fired some SRM's at the Locust, causing it to stumble a bit. "Hit the cockpit!" Romano yelled, and a trio of SRM's impacted the cockpit, dropping the Locust on its back. "Go go go!" Romano climbed into the APC and they rolled away.

August 12th, 3014
"Hello Miss Romano." Colonel Timothy Senn greeted the banished daughter of Maximillian Liao. "I'd say it's a pleasure seeing you again, but we seem to be fighting some Dracs at the moment."

"Colonel." Romano replied. "I've got an infantry company to command, so can we make this quick?"

"Sure." Senn replied. "Militia are transfering you and your company to the Highlanders for the rest of the campaign, and we're giving you priority for anything you need insofar as explosives and other things are concerned."

"Give me three days, and two lances of fire support 'Mechs." Romano replied. "I'm going to hurt the 5th SoL and make them retreat from the battlefield."

"I can give you two Catapults, Two Trebuchet, and an Archer." Senn replied, "That's all we have left to spare at the moment that you could use."

"I'll make it work." Romano replied. "Permission to go set a trap sir?"

"Permission granted." Colonel Senn replied. "I look forward to seeing what you come up with."

MarkWarrior · Oct 4, 2022

Romano's Story: Chapter Six
August 15th, Northwind

"Captain, the 5th SoL is approaching our position." her new XO told Romano. "Do you think it'll work?"

"If it doesn't work Lieutenant, you won't need to worry about it anymore." She told him a little coldly. "None of us will, because we will be dead." She cocked her head to the side a bit and let out a dark chuckle. "If it does work, we'll be the heroes of Northwind and the destroyers of most of the Fifth Sword of light." She gave a small shrug. "Either way, it'll be hell."

"Sargeant! She called one of the senior NCO's over. "We got everything buried?"

"Yes Ma'am, everything is rigged to this detonator." He replied. "There's a lot of volatile stuff in there ma'am."

"I know Sarge, that's what I'm counting on." She smirked. "Get the nonessentials out of here, and bring me the APC's, we're going to need a speedy getaway."

A locust rounded the bend in the trees that she and her men had created. It was in Highlander colors and was broadcasting insults to the Samurai that would have made a sailor blush in embarrassment.

"Please let it be a whole battalion." Romano whispered to herself under her breath. When two Companies of mechs showed up chasing the Locust, she decided that would have to be good enough. "Hit it with the Narc!" She called out on the Comms. And a Narc beacon tagged the lead Dragon. "Get us out of here!" She yelled to the APC driver as she triggered the buried explosives, scattering Inferno Gel throughout the trees and starting a localized wildfire.

Most of the Mechs were covered in flames, and very few of them managed to prevent themselves from overheating. But that didn't make one lick of difference as they started to get hammered with LRM's while they couldn't move. And within minutes, there were two companies of mechs lying on the forest floor covered in flames and Inferno Gel.

"What did Conti drive again?" Romano asked. "Because I'm not sure if we got him or not."

"Conti pilots a Banshee." Came the response, "We've only seen two of them in the 5th SoL ranks."

"Then we got one of them." Romano said. "We'll have to learn whether it was Conti or not."

August 20th, 3014
"Colonel, the remnants of the 5th SoL are withdrawing." An aide brought Senn a readout. "The 18th Dieron have mauled the 2nd Kearny, but are beginning to withdraw as well."

"Good man." Senn replied. "And the 9th Benjamin Regulars, are they pulling back as well?"

"Yes sir, they're just going about it in a more orderly fashion." The aide said. "The 5th SoL is down to a battalion, the 18th Dieron are still mostly intact, but the 9th Benjamin are down to two Battalions."

"And their support elements?" Senn asked. "What about them?"

"Supporting elements have been reduced to three mixed infantry and Vehicle regiments." The aide reported.

"Well, we'll let them withdraw, we need to start salvage and recovery operations though, so keep an eye on anything that they might try at the last minute."

"Aye sir." The aide said. "I'll pass it along the chain."

October 15th, 3014

"Captain Romano Liao." Hanse Davion said on the stage. "For efforts well above and beyond in service to the Federated Suns and Northwind we award you the Badge of Valor and the Federated Suns Star for your exceptional leadership abilities demonstrated. We also grant you the full rank of Captain of the Armed Forces of the Federated Suns, and entrust you with all the duties inherent thereof."

"Thank you sir." Romano saluted Hanse Davion when he saluted her. "I expect to have a thorough debriefing later?"

"You got that right, Captain." Hanse chuckled. "I'll be seeing you later."

"Wait?!" Frank yelled at the Tri-Vid at the expense of his wife's ears. "She was The Banished Princess, Romano Liao?!"

Sian, Capellan Confederation, October 16th, 3014

"I should have executed her when I had the chance!" Max snarled and hurled the small Tri-Vid screen away from himself. "Bring me Candace and the head of the Maskirovka, I want her dead and her head at my feet."

"What is it Father?" Candace asked as she walked in only to stop when she saw what was being displayed on the Comstar News Network. "Oh."

"Whatever you need, father it shall be done." Candace knelt at her fathers feet, hoping to be spared some of his current wrath. "It shall be done."

"Ian, that's your second bottle of Glengary Black Label today." Dana said as she maneuvered around her brother in law. "I'm cutting you off."

"Fine, it won't fix the headache anyway." Ian replied.

Author's note: Now, I can finally move on with the main story now that most of my muse for the Romano bit is gone. She'll make appearances throughout from now on, but I don't think I am going to focus on her exclusively like this again.

MarkWarrior · Oct 4, 2022

Romano's Story: The Debriefing
October 15th, Northwind

"The last confirmable report MIIO had on you was that you were on Atreus, presumably in Janos and Anton's hands. If they weren't going to kill you, the logical thing would be to put you in a hole somewhere until you could be used as a bargaining chip. SAFE obviously didn't do that, which sort of speaks for itself. So, why are you here?"

"I have asked myself that very question many times of late. After House Marik saw fit to discard me like errant trash, I chose to make my way to the Suns, presuming that if I could not ally myself to one of my Father's enemies, another would happily take me in."

"I managed to book passage to Northwind, for long have the Highlanders served my family. I believed that they would not idly dismiss me. But, after being turned away as delusional several times, I realized my folly. If Janos Marik saw no use of me, what possible reason could Ian Davion have to trust me? I quickly found myself destitute on the streets, languishing in self-loathing. I... do not remember much of that."

"That was when Joseph and his family found me, cold and starving, and chose to take me in. To give me shelter, food and comfort during my darkest hour. Not for some higher agenda, but out of simple compassion and charity. They gave me the succor I needed to rebuild my shattered mind and a reason to not leap headlong into oblivion. That... is a debt that I can never fully repay, even if I were to sit upon the Celestial Throne. My joining the militia and fighting to defend my comrades, what I now think of as my HOME, against the Combine is the least that my obligation to them demanded."

"What do you think, Quintus?"

"It's my job to be paranoid, Hanse. So yes, I still think she's crazy. But, how many of us are truly sane?"

By YuffieK on Spacebattles

MarkWarrior · Oct 4, 2022

Romano's Story: Finale
October 20th, 3014 Northwind

"You did it Joe." Romano said. "Aside from some few holdouts who refuse to accept help you solved homelessness on Northwind." She knelt by his gravesite as tears flowed freely down her face.

"Thank you," She said. "I never told you that while you were alive, but thanks to you and your family, I was able to get the help I needed to be human instead of a monster." At this point she was openly weeping.

"I will never be able to repay the debt I owe to you, Frank, and Callie." She finally said after standing up and wiping her eyes. "But I'm going to do the best that I can to defend your legacy, one of helping everyone that needs it to get a second chance."

October 25th, 3014 Northwind

"You ready to go Ms. Romano?" Hanse asked the banished princess. "We have some more things we thought we should discuss."

"I already said all of my goodbyes." She said with an expressionless face. "I have closure, now I just want to help the rest of the Confederation find the freedom that I have." She met Hanse Davion's eyes. "My father and sister are going to be sending people after me. I want the Hardy family and everyone I interacted with protected for the rest of their lives."

"We can do that." Hanse said without hesitation. "I'll have MIIO put people on it immediately."

"Then let's get this over with." Romano said. "I have an infantry company to break in."

MarkWarrior · Oct 4, 2022

Wolf's Dragoons interlude 3014

"How was the wedding?" Jaime Wolf asked his brother. "It is strange to think about Kerensky ever settling down."

"It was short." Joshua replied. "While I did not understand why she stayed with the Marksman at first I think I am beginning to grasp it."

"Indeed." Jaime replied, stroking his beard. "I find myself feeling more at home in the Inner Sphere than I did back in the Clans."

"Been spending too much time with Snord?" Joshua asked. "Do not let him get into your head like that."

"He is…" Jaime paused. "Useful, he offers a good perspective of how the enemy might think." Jaime sighed. "I am promoting him to Captain, and giving him the command of our misfits."

"Are you sure that is a good idea?" Joshua asked his brother. "Our bunch of criminals and misfits are not for the faint of heart."

"He is the only one who I believe can handle them and potentially transform them into a proper fighting force." Jaime responded. "Now, we need to discuss the reveal of the Elemental in a few months."

"We need to put them into action sooner rather than later." Joshua told his brother. "At the rate that the Marksman are developing new armor types under the umbrella of Mithril, I fear they may soon be obsolete."

"Why is that?" Jaime asked curiously. "I would have thought that the Elemental would remain superior for some time."

"It is, in certain areas." Joshua offered. "The elementals are going to perform better against enemy 'Mechs and armor, whereas the Mithril is more easily produced en masse and can be scaled up and down for whatever task you need." Joshua sighed. "It's a much more versatile powered armor than the Elemental, and anyone with a minimum amount of training can use it."

"That does not bode well." Jaime responded to his brother's spiel. "We will have to see about adapting the Elemental in some way."

"Or," Joshua offered. "Purchase some Mithril if the Marksman will sell it to us, and see if there are any improvements we can gain for either the Elemental or the Mithril suits." Joshua thought out loud. "There are advantages to both powered armors, if we wish to maintain an edge, we should try and see what can be gained from having both in the field at the same time."

"That is a good point." Jaime told his brother. "And you said that it can be scaled down? What did you mean by that?"

"I saw some of their Combat Vehicle crews wearing a smaller version of it, and the man that Blake sent with me was able to obtain some of their data." Joshua said. "They managed to improve survival rates by nearly seventy five percent by implementing them across all of their forces."

"We're going to need to return for reinforcements." Jaime told his brother. "Hesperus II was disastrous for us."

"I know." Joshua replied. "Most of Alpha and Beta Regiments are gone, along with half of Zeta."

"We will have to collect better intelligence and maps for the next raid that we conduct." Jaime said. "There would have been far fewer losses if we had known that most of the planet was a jungle and that many teams had gone missing exploring it in the past."

"Shall we collect Kerensky and bring her with us this time?" Joshua asked. "Khan Ward will be asking after her location and I am not certain he will be satisfied with a response this time."

"I am sure that we can convince her that it will be necessary." Jaime said. "We are not enemies after all, and it could even help her remain where she is, provided she has a good justification for it."

"Who should we send?" Joshua asked. "While I would go to convince her, I feel that you should go and persuade her to return temporarily with us." Joshua sighed. "It is you who has a family and will be better able to understand her after all. And, you should be able to get Mackenzie treated at Kentares."

"They do have the medical facilities and personnel." Jaime thought out loud. "It is decided then."

"You're leaving?" The Dragoons Marik Liaison asked. "You're still under contract though."

"We're going to replenish our forces." Jaime told him flat out. "We will be leaving Cranston Snord and his Irregulars here to support whatever you need."

"I'll let the Captain-General know." The Liaison said. "But he doesn't particularly like that group of troublemakers."

"It does not matter whether he likes them or not," Joshua Wolf responded. "They are the only full strength unit we have available currently."

MarkWarrior · Oct 4, 2022

Chapter Sixty-Six: Departure

Kentares IV, Draconis March, Federated Suns December 10th, 3014

"Colonel Wolf," I greeted the man as he walked into my office. "What can I do for you?"

"I am in need of your services." He said as he sat down. "I need to speak to Kerensky, and I would like to bargain for the use of some of your medical experts and facilities for my son Mackenzie."

"Alright then." I replied. "Natasha is probably going to walk in on the meeting in a few minutes anyway, and if you need to speak to her you can find her yourself." I shrugged. "Heaven knows I'm not controlling that woman."

"And as for the medical facilities?" The man asked. "What would it cost?"

"Honestly." I said, "Whatever it is that the specialists on the Argo want to charge you." I gave a small shake of my head. "I'm not going to hold your son hostage or anything like that, I don't really have any need to do that."

"You are certain?" Wolf asked curiously. "You could extract a favor or anything else within reason and you will not?"

"Nope." I replied, popping the "p" sound. "If I ever happen to need the Wolf's Dragoons services, I will purchase them myself." I shrugged. "I've got my Marksman for Mercenary needs anyway."

When I finished that sentence, Natasha came in the door with a wailing David.

"He will not stop crying." She said, handing him to me. "Work whatever wizardry you normally use." Then she noticed Jaime Wolf sitting across the desk from me. "Colonel Wolf." Natasha greeted him. "I was not expecting a visit from the Dragoons anytime soon."

"We have need of resupply." Jaime Wolf replied. "And I think you need to be there this time." He carefully didn't mention the Clans. "It could be important to your remaining in the Inner Sphere without issue."

"Give me a day to think about it." She told Wolf. "I assume you will not be departing within the day?"

"No, we will be here for a week." Wolf replied. "I am attempting to see if there is any way we can negotiate purchase of some of these "Mithril" powered armor suits while I am here."

"While I am not currently open to selling to mercenaries that I may fight one day." I shrugged. "Maybe there are some things we can negotiate over." I offered. "While I personally don't like the Marauder II that you and Blackwell have developed together. My techs wanted to take a look at it and see what they might be able to do with the chassis."

"We shall have to see what we agree to in negotiations." Wolf agreed.

Later that day…

"I think you need to go Natasha." I told my wife. "Given what you've told me about Khan Ward, and what I know from my past this could be absolutely critical." I pulled her in for a hug. "You going with Wolf this time could mean the difference between the Clans invading in the next couple of years, and the clans invading after our preparations." I confided. "That being said, I'm not going to force you to go, and if you do go I will just ask you to be cautious."

"Let me sleep on it." Nat replied. "I will need some time to come to a decision on the matter."

December 13th, 3014

"Say goodbye to momma. " I told David. "She's going to be on a long trip."

"Bye Mom'ma" David said his first stumbling words.

Natasha pointedly didn't cry, but she did hold David and just looked at him for a while before handing him to me and giving me a searing kiss and boarding one of the Dropships that Wolf had brought with him.

I on the other hand was one step away from full fledged tears. Only the fact that Wolf was still standing there prevented me from crying. I wasn't one to show weakness in front of a potential enemy unless it gave me an advantage after all.

December 14th, 3014

"Time to catch up on the news." I said to myself. We still didn't have an HPG on planet officially and so I had to get news via jumpships as they came by for trading.

"What the fuck?" I said as I browsed through the equivalent of the Federated Suns big newspaper. I rubbed my eyes and then asked Mary if this was indeed the latest edition. "And Bring me a beer please. I think I might need it for this."

"Of all the things to butterfly, I never expected this." I said as I took a sip from my beer with my door closed and the white noise generators on. "I don't even know whether to be scared, or excited at the changes that have happened…" I finished off my beer. And continued reading the documentation of what was being called "Romano's Story".

"Of all of the people to have a bout of sanity…" I chuckled to myself as I read different parts of her story. "I'll have to send her company some Mithril, if she can do that with regular infantry I can't wait to see what she comes up with when she has mobility and more options."

January 1st, 3015

"Sheppard, how goes the academy construction?" I asked the man as he sat in front of me. "I liked your recommendations for new senior staff, and will be approving most of them."

"Construction is moving at a decent rate." Sheppard said, " our people having experience with the base has helped speed some areas of it up." He shrugged, "and it was either Packer or Paige, and Paige is sticking with the Marksman as Peterson's XO so Packer had seniority for this."

"I would have thought Mathis would be up for promotion, but he requested a transfer to my physical bodyguard unit." I said with a nod at my doorway where the massive man was dressed in Mithril and alert for any possible threats.

"He likes the bodyguard work, remember?" Sheppard said with a smirk. "He'll probably start a family tradition of being Hull family bodyguards too."

"I forgot that was a thing." My facepalm echoed throughout the room. "He probably sees me as the last remnant of the Terran Hegemony or something doesn't he?"

"Something like that, yes." Sheppard replied. "You forget his family is from Towne, and that they have a lineage dating back to some of the last known SLDF members." He shrugged. "The ELH had to medically discharge him, and he couldn't afford the bills. So you taking him in and helping his family out…. You have a loyal infantryman and bodyguard for life."

Authors note: Wrote most of this on my phone, so I may have to go back and reformat some of it. Natasha going back to the Clans with Jaime will be a separate side story.

MarkWarrior · Oct 6, 2022

Chapter Sixty-Seven: Urban Development
February 1st, 3015

"Alright, let's look over some of these plans." I said to the architect that Hanse and Ian had recommended to me. "I really need something that's not super glamorous, but rather is functional and is easily defended."

"I have this." He rolled out a set of plans, and grabbed a pencil. "If you don't want something super ornate, I can get rid of the fany pieces here, here, and here." He drew circles around parts of it. "Unfortunately, as a noble you are not going to be able to go minimalist."

"I actually have an idea about that." I said, and withdrew some stuff that I had drawn up myself. "Now, I'm not an architect, but I do have practical building experience and that lent itself to some of this." I pointed out the various materials, and what I was thinking. "I know it's not a usual thing, but I think it would fit the aesthetic that I tend to work with."

"Yes, and if we added walls here and sheathed them in the same outer material then it would end up looking both minimalist and wealthy at the same time." He grew excited. "In fact, if we get the right craftsman then people will be able to tell that you had this done very professionally."

"So it can be done?" I asked.

"With some minor modifications." The man said. "Give me three months to get in contact with some experts, and I'm going to need some of the people that you have working on the Academy for some consulting work." He inhaled. "But honestly, this is brilliant, you said you drew this up yourself?"

"Yeah, I used to watch my dad do it, and It's mostly plotting. I also used to do general contracting, and measurements and materials are something I know a little bit about." I shrugged, "It's nothing to brag about, but I think that you could potentially make something really great out of this."

February 15th, 3015

"This is an interesting mansion you've cooked up." Sheppard said as he helped me break ground on the new mansion complex just outside of Davisbury, the capital city of Kentares IV. There was a small mountain range just outside of the city limits and I was helping out with some of the beginning stages of construction as a little bit of a vacation.

"I know, I just felt inspired by a couple of things I read in a book a long time ago." I replied with a small smirk, remembering exactly which book I remembered it from. "I think it will come out well." I began to use the excavator as instructed to by the foreman on site, David sitting in my lap giggling away as we began the construction of our new home. "You having fun there?" I asked the toddler, laughing with him as he did what all boys do when they have massive power tools at their grasp. "Careful, don't pull that one too hard." I cautioned him. And together, we continued to work until he fell asleep. At which point, I got out of the excavator, and went to the pre fab we were living in until we were done with the living quarters.

February 20th, 3015

"I'm sorry, can you repeat that?" I asked Packer, "I didn't catch it the first time."

"We're setting aside a company specifically for your protection." He said, "While Mathis is a good at the close bodyguard detail, and decent at platoon or smaller sized formations, you're going to need something quite a bit heavier in order to cover you."

"And I have a tendency to throw myself at the poor bastards that are trying to kill my people." I agreed. "Making it harder to keep me alive in the middle of combat."

"Exactly, I'm having a mixed company of mechs and combat vehicles moved here to both protect you, and to escort you into combat." Packer said. (AN: I distinctly remember writing a scene where I had Mendoza taking over the company of Ducal Guards, but I can't find it anywhere…)

"I take it they will be a separate command from the Kentares Guard?" I asked him. "Because if they're going to be an independent force then we'll need a separate chain of command for them."

"Get the paperwork together, and I'll sign it." I told the newly promoted CO of the 1st Kentares Guards. "I'm still working out the kinks in the Militia currently"

March 1st, 3015

"Mary," I said. "Can you come confirm these numbers for me please?"

"Sure thing." The woman said and she maneuvered to take a look at the numbers I was talking about. "Yes sir, those are the most accurate recent numbers."

"That's a pretty large population boom." I said. "How many of them are from local families having babies, and how many are from immigration?"

"It's currently about a 50/50 split." She replied. "Part of our population boom is youngsters looking for a place to settle down with a good chance of gainful employment."
"And because we are restoring the cities over time, the price of land and of living quarters is steadily decreasing." I finished for her. "And with the Land grant system that I put in place for those who serve in the Kentares Guard or the Militia, people are going to surge here in order to receive their own plots of land."

"That is true," Mary agreed. "And considering that Sharpshooter manufacturing is the largest employer in the system and is constantly hiring not only people in the Kentares System, but is also engaged in hiring for plants and factories in other areas, you have a series of booms."

"Your next step will need to be deciding on a system of government." She said. "I have some recommendations for you, but I will leave it up to you."

"I'm leaving the Planetary government alone." I said. "I'll handle military and diplomatic matters with Duke Sandoval, or the Davions, but I'm not touching local politics with a hundred meter pole. It's not my place to weigh in on that." I stated. "They can decide how they want to be governed on their own, as long as there is good representation."

March 15th, 3015

"Mr. Hull," Mary said with a knock on my office door. "You have someone here to see you."

"Huh?" I questioned, having been spending my lunch hour with David, trying to teach him to say some more words. "Well, send whoever it is in will you?"

"Yes sir." Mary said, "He'll be right up."

"Duke Sandoval." I stood up to greet him but was told to sit down. "What brings you here sir?"

"I wanted to meet my new nobleman." He replied, a small smile on his grizzled face. "I apologize for coming unannounced, but I find that people respond more accurately when surprised."

"It's perfectly fine." I said, "I was actually taking my lunch break with my son here." I helped little David wave at Duke Sandoval.

"Well, you seem to be doing good work here on Kentares," Sandoval said with some approval. "It's about time we started recovering from some of the monstrosities the Dracs visited upon us." He paused. "I'll set up a regular meeting with your secretary for some time later this week, And I'll leave you to your son." He smiled sadly. "Enjoy them at this age, they only get older from here on out."

"I will sir." I shook his hand as he made to leave. "I'll have Mary clear up some time." I told him, "I think there's someone I can bump further down the list tomorrow."

"No." Sandoval shook his head. "I know how hard it is to manage your time as a nobleman, much less a businessman and a Mercenary company owner. I'll see you at whatever time your lovely Secretary puts me down for. Have a good day Hull."

"You too sir." I said with a dip of my head as he walked out my office door. "Well, that was unexpected." I muttered to myself after the door had shut. "I knew he was on the planet, I just didn't know he was headed to meet with me so soon."

I picked up my comms device and called Dunham. "Hey, you might want to put some more people on VIP duty, or replace them, Duke Sandoval just walked into my office without so much as a "by your leave". Yeah, I know it was harmless this time, but we can't get lax even with people that we trust, MASK and the ISF are really good at their jobs, and if we slip up people will die." I finished the conversation with Dunham, happy that he would be dealing with the lax intel people.

MarkWarrior · Oct 6, 2022

Chapter Sixty-Eight: Meetings
Kentares IV, Draconis March, Federated Suns March 17th, 3015

"Duke Sandoval." I shook the hand of my immediate superior insofar as nobility went. "Now that we are able to have a proper meeting." I sat down and he did as well. "What is it you came here to discuss?"

"I wanted to meet the new noble who has yet to show his face in my court." Sandoval got straight to the point. "You've been galavanting all across the galaxy, and interacting with the Davions, and yet I have never even seen your face aside from some tri-vids." He crossed his arms. "Why is that?"

"Because I forgot that there was a court to appear at." I replied bluntly and honestly. "Until a couple of years ago, I was managing the executive decisions for the nobility, Sharpshooter Inc, and both the Marksman and Kentares Guard." I sighed, "I didn't even have a proper bureaucracy until last year. And now you see the fruits of that." I gestured to the much smaller stack of papers on my desk. "I don't have nearly as much to do paperwork wise, and I can delegate to people that I can trust to do their jobs. I had intended to drop by Robinson in a few months, but you preempted me by a good bit."

Duke Sandoval just sat there for a while, taking in the perfectly valid reasons that I had to avoid the politics for the past few years.

"While I understand that you are a new noble, one of the very few that made such a massive jump in recent history, I do think that you should have at the very least made the attempt." He waved off any response that I was about to make. "With that being said, I am grateful that you have managed to help in destroying some of the forces that face us in the Draconis March." He grinned. "Now that the serious stuff is over, I want to hear about the First Prince's and your battle against the 2nd SoL first hand."

March 31st, 3015

"Shhh." I rubbed David's back as he cried out for Natasha. "It's okay, Daddy's here." I said, trying to lull him back to sleep to no avail. "I know you miss momma, I do too." I kept speaking softly and rocking him until he went back to sleep.

After I had gotten David to fall back asleep I looked at the clock. "Ugh… So much for going back to sleep." I muttered under my breath. "Might as well be productive." I went and did some sim training and hit the gym before getting an early start on the paperwork for the day.

"Morning Mary." I greeted my secretary as she walked in for the day. "Ready to get started?"

"Huh?" She just rubbed her eyes, still half asleep. "Yeah, I guess I'm ready."

"Sorry." I apologized, handing her a cup of coffee. "David woke me up and I've been going ever since."

"Uhuh." She just glared at me. "I forgot that you are a morning person." Mary reached for a pen and threw it at me. "Leave me in peace you inhuman monster."

"Fine." I surrendered, raising my hands and moving to my office. "I already got most of the paperwork done, so expect a light work day."

April 19th, 3015

"Alright, I'm here for training day." I clapped my hands together as I greeted and joined some of the new militia recruits. "Let's get started." I was filling in as an additional instructor and to take a break. So I led the militia through some exercises that would have made the pre dimension hopping me throw up and quit halfway through.

"Come on!" My current drill instructor partner yelled at them. "I've seen children move faster than that!" The DI pointed at David who was in a carrier on my back. "See, there goes one right now!" I ran faster.

A few hours later…

"Shovel the food in your mouth, chew and swallow!" I screamed at the recruits in the chow hall. "My son is eating faster than you!" I fed David another spoonful of mashed potatoes. "Clean up your plates!" I yelled, "Hurry up!"

"Charlie Platoon!" I screamed as I left the chow hall, "Fall in! Recruit Maxwell, you're platoon leader for the day."

"Aye Sir!" She yelled.

"I can't hear you recruit Maxwell." I said and held up my hand to my ear. "AYE SIR!" She let out a bellow.

"That's what I like to hear." I said with a frown on my face. "Get up here Maxwell and show them how it's done."

April 20th, 3015

"You better not be thinking about stealing some of my recruits." The Kentares Militia commander, Colonel James Earnest said to me. "I appreciate you spending some time here and designating funds over to us for acquisitions, but I don't want any poaching."

"I just want one." I told him. "I think she has great potential as a battlefield commander."

"Then she can put in a transfer request when she's done with her training and her four years." Earnest said, not budging an inch. "We all get the same training anyway Hull." He looked me in the eye. "You'll just have to wait and see what becomes of her here."

"That's fine with me." I said. "I wasn't trying to poach anyway." I shrugged. "If she has the potential for battlefield command, she can apply those same skills elsewhere, and we need those types of skills everywhere on Kentares, not just in the military commands."

"Thanks for not poaching." Earnest's shoulders sagged a bit. "It's hard enough to get people to join the militia as is with the massive paychecks coming in from Sharpshooter and the Marksman."

"I'll set aside more funding for competitive rates, but a Militia unit isn't supposed to be full time anyway Earnest." I reminded him. "You're going to get some people who only join for the little bit of extra money they get every month, but you're also getting a lot of weekend warriors here."

"I know." Earnest sighed. "It's just such a different experience compared to serving in the Hussars like I used to."

"Well, it takes time." I reminded him, "Just don't expect perfection to take place overnight." I smiled. "I mean, you already give them a longer boot camp than any other militia in the Suns anyway."

"And we give them additional specialist training as well." Earnest said. "Thanks for making sure we got the Mithril priority by the way, we managed to gear everyone up already with some spares set aside in case of emergency."

"Not a problem, I'm sorry they're the old hand me downs from the Marksman, but the older generation will still function pretty well, it's just not quite as comfortable and up to date as the newer suits we've been producing lately." I replied with a shrug.

"It's the way of the world." Earnest said. "Frontline units get the fancy new gear, and the Militia get the slightly outdated stuff." He shrugged. "I assume you're going to move some of the new gear our way anyway though.

"You suspect right," I told him. "I'm approving the transfer of some of the Grasshoppers, Von Luckners, and Brutus' fresh from the plants to you."

May 5th, 3015

"Gabriella, what's the data on the current lines we hold?" I asked the man for some hard numbers.

"Well sir, the two Grasshopper lines are running at peak efficiency and producing Six 'Mechs a month combined, the Brutus is producing eight vehicles a month, and our two Von Luckner lines are matching it in production. The freezer factory is churning them out as fast as we can get the Endo-Steel used in their production, and we've got two hundred Mithril 11(A) suits rolling off of the lines every month, The Toro Factory is outproducing all of the other 'mech factories due to simplicity and even when we up teched it with Freezers and ERPPC's, it's still manufacturing around 15 'mechs per month." Gabriella grabbed another folder. "As far as the assets we have in other systems, the last reports i have are on the Layover and Markesan systems."

"And what are they reporting?" I asked, I had a burning need to know just how much material we were producing currently.

"Three Stings and three Mule class dropships are rolling off of the lines at Layover every month along with 3 Vengeance a year. The R&D areas have been reactivated, and so has a Union CV line. Our people are working on an upteched escort variant of the Sting and report that they should have something in a couple of years." She paused and reviewed her report. "The Highlander factory is producing four 'Mechs a month currently, and I don't have any up to date information on the other areas Sharpshooter is into right now."

"Thanks for that." I gave Gabriella a nod. "Get some sleep and try and get me some of those reports if at all possible."

"Yes sir." She said as she gathered her files and left. Leaving me to consider everything in peace.

MarkWarrior · Oct 6, 2022

Comstar Interlude: 3015

"What is the status on Operation Monarch?" Primus Tiepolo asked the current Precentor Rom, Vesar Kristofur.

"We have infiltrated some people into what was previously Salvatore Incorporated, now owned by Sharpshooter Inc." Kristofur reported. "Their output is above average, and any sabotage we attempt is quickly fixed and noted, our Agents are waiting for an opportune time to gut the Vengeance lines, while we would attempt to removed the new Sting class DroST from production, they would simply spool up another line in its place. It is an easily manufactured dropship, and could be manufactured even on a periphery world, there is nothing truly unique in its tooling."

"Understandable." Tiepolo said. "Now, the rest of the operation?"

"We are one hundred percent certain that the Davions are onto us." Kristofur started. "After extensive debriefings of the few higher ups we managed to acquire from Taussen we realized that they had been there and stripped a number of 'Mech lines as well as some data from the HPG station." He shrugged. "At this point, we have no idea if they have shared any of this information, or if they are waiting for us to make a move before exposing us."

Kristofur paused for a minute, taking several gulps of his now lukewarm tea before starting up again. "We have lost almost all of our agents in the TMI and MIIO." He said. "We are still able to read their mail of course, but back in 3006 the Taurians started a massive house cleaning of their intelligence apparatus. They removed, fired, or shifted most of their personnel to other areas with a new focus on the TMI being accurate and able to provide verifiable intelligence, we have not been able to get any new agents in, and neither have MASK, MIIO, or any of the other agencies. We are all in the dark as far as the Concordat is concerned. That is why we didn't know about their Warship until it arrived in orbit around Taurus."

Kristofur got up and collected his thoughts, beginning to pace a bit. "All of this began with that damned mercenary unit." He said. "The Marksman and their leader, this Mark Hull person who is a supposed time traveler, has managed to destabilize a massive amount of our plans." He ranted a bit before sitting back down. "I apologize, that was uncalled for. Where was I? Ahh yes, well, we have got some people infiltrated into the lower ranks of the Marksman and the Kentares Guard as well as Sharpshooter Inc, but whoever their intel people are, they are very good, and they have managed to avoid placing any of our people in high up positions where they might have access to any data that might prove useful to us, we have managed to get some people inside of the Grasshopper and Von Luckner lines that they are using to manufacture those designs, and are attempting to sabotage them. We shall have to see if they are successful or not. Our lack of an HPG on Kentares IV is both a blessing and a curse as far as this kind of work goes."

"I see." Primus Tiepolo said. "How goes the effort to assist the Combine and the Capellan Confederation?"

"The Confederation is not going to be able to be saved at this point." Precentor Rom pointed out. "It is in its death throes and we should just try and salvage what we can from the corpse." He said bluntly. "The Mariks are in the midst of the civil war that I enflamed, and should be fighting for a period of several more years. And to be blunt, Precentor Taussen was an idiot of the highest measure, we would have lost much more than gained if he had managed to succeed at dropping those nukes on Kentares IV." He said as a side note. "While it may have been useful in the short term, the Damage done to the Capcon meant that there wouldn't be any interference on their end, and the Davions would have been able to focus on the Draconis Combine and at the very least make them bleed for a good long while."

"Our efforts to ensure that the Draconis Combine are able to resupply are proceeding fairly smoothly, we haven't been providing them with Lostech, but we did leak the locations of several old factory lines and are letting them do with it as they may." Kristofur said. "We also have made several experts "Available" for hire in order for them to get those factories up and running as soon as possible."

"And any plans to stall the Lyran Commonwealth?" Tiepolo folded his hands into the sleeves of his robes. "I have not heard anything in that vein yet."

"The LIC is good." Kristofur started, "Very good, so we are not as privy to as many secrets as we might hope as far as they are concerned, we have seen some movements, but nothing aside from Katrina's reforms. And while we at first attempted to widen the gap between her and Frederick Steiner, that seems to have backfired, seeing as he is now firmly cemented with her in restoring parts of the Commonwealth military with the unveiling of the rebuilding of the Fourth Royal Guards with him at the helm. We have had luck in assisting the Free Skye movement and Duke Lestrade though, he had been radically opposed to the Archon, and doesn't care for much from power. We are currently trying to assist him in his bid for the control of Skye, and will be attempting to install him as regent or something similar in order to potentially break it away and cause more chaos between the Lyran Commonwealth and the Draconis Combine."

"Why had we not done any of this sooner?" Tiepolo asked. "I assume we have had this capability for a while."

"Unfortunately, good agents take time to train and get in the right place at the right time for infiltration, and one wrong step or move could spell disaster, and that is a place that we have never wanted to be in previously." Kristofur shrugged. "If not for the discovery of the Taussen system, I doubt we would be moving as fast as we are currently. But with the danger of discovery slightly less because the Davions already know, we are pushing a little harder and faster."

Omega Division, Hilton Head Island.

"I fucking hate this place!" The head researcher assigned to the Mithril powered armor screamed. "Why can't we fucking figure this power source out? We have had it for five years!"

"Sir." One of the junior scientists timidly raised their hands.

"What?!" He raged. "That was a rhetorical question!" He screamed, "I don't want a fucking answer, I want this thing to work!"

The researcher just lowered her hand and slunk as low as she could to try and avoid the wrath.

At a bar outside the Hilton Head Complex

"I'm quitting." Miranda told her friend. "This was fun five years ago when I was recruited to study this new battery pack idea thing, but the head is a perv and a raging psycho."

"Where do you plan on going?" Her friend asked. "It's not like they'll let you leave the planet."

"Why not?" She asked, with a shrug. "It's not like I know anything classified, every single nation in the Inner Sphere has a Mithril suit somewhere being dismantled, the problem is no one can figure out the stupid power source aside from the people who made it."

"Well, good luck to you then." Her friend raised her beer in a toast. "May the odds be ever in your favor."

MarkWarrior · Oct 8, 2022

Chapter Sixty-Nine: Nice!

Robinson, Draconis March, Federated Suns, September 13th, 3015

"What do you think David?" I asked my son as I got dressed in a simplified Marksman/Kentares Guard uniform, properly tailored to suit the environment I was about to find myself in. "Do I look good?" I gave my Son a thumbs up and got one in return, along with a fist bump. "See, I don't need to look too good, gotta keep the women away after all."

Mathis was chuckling in the background.

"Hey!" I said pointing at my bodyguard and friend. "No comments from the peanut gallery."

"But, it's funny." Mathis said, still laughing. "It's not the clothes that keep women away from you." He was doubled over at this point. "It's that you wouldn't notice unless they dragged you to a bedroom and tied you up."

"I'm better about it now." I said while crossing my arms. "I am married after all."

"Yeah, no." He said as he finally contained his laughter. "You're just not on the market anymore and so don't have to notice anything."

"Just shut up and help me wrangle a two year old." I told him, grabbing David who was in a miniature version of my uniform. "We need to get going."

Later that day…

"Mathis," I told my bodyguard through the small mic attached to my collar. "I need an exfil plan, if another woman comes and tries to pick up my son I will shoot somebody."

"Sorry sir, but you haven't been able to meet the Sandoval's yet." Mathis told me. "If you manage to get in and have a small discussion with him and some other important nobles, we will be able to exfil."

Grabbing David and slinging him onto my hip, I politely slipped through the crowd. After gently making my way through, I managed to find the area I needed to be in.

"Duke Sandoval." I shook his hand. "A pleasure to meet you again."

"Duke Hull." He responded. "A pleasure to finally have your presence grace the court here on Robinson. Have you met my children?"

"I am afraid I have not had the chance to meet any of them as of yet." I responded. "I'm pleased to meet you." His four children all introduced themselves to me going from oldest to youngest.

"Colonel Hull." James Sandoval got my attention after being introduced to me. "Would you care to have a discussion on combined arms tactics? I have just graduated from the Academy and while my father has had very good advice, there is always something new to be learned."

"Of course." I responded. "What area of combined arms tactics do you want to discuss? I personally favor asymmetrical warfare and overwhelming firepower whenever possible." I said. "The new Sting class makes for an incredible CAP gunship and is able to support infantry and Vehicles in a way that current Aerospace does not."

"I saw the Sting" Duke Sandoval weighed in. "We are currently on the purchase list from the Layover facility."

"There are a lot of people on the purchase list." I replied. "We are rolling them out and getting more lines set up as fast as we can vet and hire people. I think the overall goal was to have a minimum of three per world, with as many as six or more for critical infrastructure worlds."

"Yes," James agreed. "I think that stopping an invasion force before it arrives is something that could become critical, but why would you waste something so valuable as a close support craft?"

"Because a dropship can be replaced." I told the two of them. "There is no Lostech involved in their construction, and the licenses that we sold to the Taurian Concordat and the Lyran Commonwealth will help curb and/or end piracy as we know it."

"Is that your overall goal?" Duke Sandoval asked. "To end piracy?"

"No, my goal is to have secured a permanent place for my family, and to make the Inner Sphere a better place." I said, shifting the now sleeping David to my other arm. "And I would like peace, but I know that peace is something that is hard to come by."

September 15th, 3015

"We are finally leaving." I said with no small amount of cheer. "Done with the politics, and back to the things I actually understand."

"And where there is less of a security risk to yourself and David." Mathis weighed in. "The armored car is here."
We had purchased a small convoy that we used, with an armored hover-limo as a decoy and the armored sedan as the actual vehicle that we used to get to our destination. We were on our way to the spaceport, where the Messenger and some of the Sting gunships we had brought as escorts waited for us when the hover limo exploded in inferno gel and explosions.

"Stay down." Mathis told the two of us as he moved the sedan out of the way and accelerated towards the spaceport. "I'm pretty sure we just got hit by some sort of cell trying to kill the both of you."

I just drew my sidearm, and put David down on the floorboard. "Anything bigger than my pistol?" I asked Mathis who simply pushed a button on the front dash of the car. "Thanks." I said as I grabbed the rifle that was stored behind the rear seat. "Let me know if I need to provide supporting fire."

"We're two mikes out from the Spaceport, and the Messenger and her escorts are prepped to lift off as soon as we are aboard." Mathis reported to me. "It seems that whoever it was took the bait for now."

"Stay cautious though." I told him. "We've pissed off enough people that it could be ROM, ISF, or MASK trying to kill us."

"Or it could be all three." Mathis shrugged. "At this point it doesn't matter who is trying to kill you, only that they don't succeed."

Blood on the Horizon (Battletech SI)

Not too sore, are you?

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Not too sore, are you?

Not too sore, are you?

Not too sore, are you?

Not too sore, are you?

Not too sore, are you?

Not too sore, are you?

Not too sore, are you?