It’s a Peaceful Life (Battletech AU/SI)

[visus]

So I'm reading this as the original SI is still in custody and they made a clone of him to... observe in the wild I guess.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Of course, the trip to my farm wasn't just about me showing her the work I'd done. So, after the tour and watching her take pictures to show the 'before' and 'after', we ended up on the front porch, Sage and Thyme at our feet while she vented.

"I don't understand why they want me to attend the Nagelring over a Federated Suns Military academy. I mean, Peter already intends to follow in Victor's footsteps and is trying to get good enough grades to attend the academy early. I might not be the most military-minded of my siblings, but I do understand the politics. If all three of the oldest attend military academies in the Lyran portion of the Federated Commonwealth, then it's apparent favoritism. If I go to NAMA or the military branch of NAIS on top of my current degrees, we're bringing the two together more instead of separating them."

She sighed, her chair rocking back and forth while Sage enjoyed the scratches behind her ears.

"I'm just confused. Maybe Dad or Mom are seeing something I'm not, but it doesn't make sense!"

"So," I sipped my glass of sweet tea. "Do you want me to actually talk through it with you? Do you want potential solutions? Or do you just need an outlet?"

"I don't know," she stopped rocking and let Sage jump into her lap. "I feel like I'm just now figuring everything out, and then the rug gets pulled out from underneath me."

"I get that," I laughed. "More than I think anyone else does."

"Right," Kat nodded, finding the right spot on Sage to make her start sticking her tongue out. "So, what do I do? How do I move on from here?"

"Well," I looked out over the farm. "I don't think the Federated Suns crowd really cares what military academy you or your siblings attend as long as one of you attends a military academy on this side of the 'Sphere. But I'm also not as tied into everything as you are. I mean, I don't even have a Tri-Vid out here."

I paused and exhaled, collecting the rest of my thoughts before continuing.

"To be honest, I think that you attending a military academy and diving into logistics or something similar will only help you as you go through life. If Victor ends up biting the dust for any reason, you need enough of a background to know whether your advisors are bullshitting you or not. But, if you want to fight your parents on where they send you, that's your business. I don't think my input matters much to the First Prince or the Archon."

"Fair," Kat agreed. "I suppose it's a little unreasonable to dump all of this on you."

"Nah," I shook my head. "If I were only a friend when it benefited me, I wouldn't be a friend. Good friends stick with you through thick and thin."

The sun began to dip down below the horizon as our conversation drifted to lighter topics, only really drawing to a close as Kat yawned.

"I probably should be getting back to the Mountain," she stood, hugging her arms tightly around herself as a breeze blew through the porch. "I leave for Tharkad in two days, and I've got to sort everything I'm bringing."

"Probably a good idea," I stood as well. "Any chance I can get a mailing address? I'd like to stay in touch."

"Sure," Kat followed me into the house and wrote down what I would need to send a letter to Tharkad. "Keep it secret."

"Keep it safe," I finished the quote with a smile. "I'll see you around, Kat."

I went for a handshake and was surprised by a hug as the young woman squeezed tight.

"You're a good friend," she whispered.

I returned the hug and gently squeezed until she let go.

"I'll see you when I see you," she kissed me on the cheek and left me stunned as the front door opened and shut behind her.

"Huh," I touched my cheek. "That wasn't what I expected."

I walked out the front door and waved goodbye, her car heading down the long road back to the city. But my thoughts remained on what had just happened for the remainder of the night.

---

I didn't write that letter for about a week or so. I didn't know what to say, and I didn't even know how to begin. So, I went through my usual routine before writing the letter and sending it to Tharkad.

"She move on?" Luke asked while we were opening one day.

"I don't know," I shrugged. "She's headed to Tharkad. But you're probably more in the know than I am."

"She'll be back, or she won't," Luke said, flipping the sign on the door to open. You can try to stay in touch, but communication takes both parties."

"I know," I replied. "I've sent a few letters, but they'll probably arrive before she does."

"I wouldn't count on it," Luke snorted. "I've worked with the postal service before. They're not the fastest on the planet. Much less the whole Inner Sphere."

"Then I better get used to waiting," I chuckled. "Because I don't think I'm moving to Tharkad anytime soon."

"I dunno," Luke stroked his chin in thought. "Tharkad's cold for most of the year. A bakery could do really well there."

"Tempting," I snarked. "But I think I'm set here. "

"Anyway," Luke changed the subject. "My buddy said you ended up picking up that Mauser."

"Sure did," I grinned. "If she weren't so heavy, she'd be perfect. I did have to go in and clean off some of the focusing lenses, but aside from that, I'd have said that she wasn't just in 'good' condition but excellent."

"I'll have to stop by and shoot it some time," Luke matched my grin.

"I'm on your buddy's list if anything else interesting comes in," I started tallying up the last few cake orders and adding them to our calendar. "I hope to add to my 20th and 21st Century collection."

"I'm probably one of the only people in the 'Sphere that would understand your obsession with those," Luke snorted. "I like the way they look, but there are much better options in this day and age."

"I'll outshoot you with my older guns any day, any time," I called him out. "You don't even know how to handle recoil properly, you laser-focused jackass."

"They're the superior weapon," Luke smirked. "Just because you like projectiles better doesn't mean I'm worse."

"No," I laughed. "It just makes me more of a Patriot than you. Where is your pride? Your love for autocannons?"

"I'm not a Mechwarrior. Your point is invalid."

"I think you're lying about that," I raised an eyebrow. "But I have no way to prove it."

"And that's how it will remain for the rest of eternity," Luke winked. "Now get to work. Those cakes won't decorate themselves."

"Sure, boss," I rolled my eyes. "Whatever you say, old man," I muttered the last bit.

"I heard that!" Luke called out. "I may be old, but I still ain't deaf!"

With that, Luke and I settled back into our routine. Life returned to normal, except for me now sending letters to Tharkad once a week to try and keep Kat in the loop on how things were going on New Avalon.

 

[Blazaboi]

So I'm reading this as the original SI is still in custody and they made a clone of him to... observe in the wild I guess.

Click to shrink...

no i think the clone might be to replace Katherine on her way to the Nagelring

 

[Inbredmartian]

Why do o get the feeling he's gonna make a cut down carbine version of the Mauser, put all the survival tools and gear into a backpack and somehow pull a James bind mission to rescue the princess lol

 

[MarkWarrior]

The usual route from New Avalon to Tharkad took around one hundred and ninety days. If your jumpship possessed a lithium-fusion battery, you could cut that time almost in half. If, by chance, you were rotating from jumpship to jumpship via a command circuit, you could make the trip in a month.

I wrote my letters, not expecting Katherine to use a command circuit, though the few letters I did receive from her were sent while she was along her route.

After her jump to Rigil Kentares, the letters stopped arriving. It was as if the constant stream of correspondence had suddenly halted. After examining the dates on the letters, I noted that all of them lined up with the time it would have taken for her to transit with a lithium-battery-capable Jumpship.

"Hey, Luke, take a look at this," I put the envelopes for the letters with the dates in the order I'd received them on the desk in the small office,

"Gimme a minute," he grabbed his glasses and leaned over, examining the letters. "Nah, nothing out of the ordinary there. The transit around Terra often gets the busiest. And letters get lost all the time, only to appear years after they were supposed to arrive. I wouldn't attribute this to anything other than the incompetence of the mailmen and women."

"Why the hatred for the mail carriers?" I asked.

"I'm used to a certain level of efficiency and responsibility," Luke replied, taking off his reading glasses. "The postal service not only lacks the former but never takes responsibility for their own errors. If anyone in intelligence or the military tried that, we would be cashiered out and left with nothing to our name. Instead, the Postal Service gets a helpful and cheerful thank you when your package arrives on time. And isn't penalized for running late."

"Aren't they also having to work with Jumpships and everything else?" I raised an eyebrow.

"I just don't like the postal service," he sighed. "A delayed letter can be a much bigger problem than you'd think."

"Fair enough," I replied. "I just figured I'd get your opinion on these dates. It just felt a bit off."

"Never attribute to malice that which you can attribute to stupidity and sheer incompetence," Luke chuckled. "Idiots exist everywhere. You just have to learn to deal with them."

---

"Luke!" the man stood at the table and embraced the old veteran. "You old dog, how are you?"

"I'm good now that I'm retired, Joe," Luke replied with a wry grin. "What's it like being chained to a desk?"

"Pay's better," Josiah shrugged. "And my knees are much happier with me now that I don't do the crazy shit anymore."

"Fair," Luke laughed. "I have the grandkids to keep me young. Well, that and the bakery.'

"Still can't believe that you retired to do that," Joe shook his head before pausing as a waitress walked by and asked for their order. "Yeah, I'll take the prime rib, medium rare, and the house vegetables for the sides."

"I'll have the salmon, rice, and grilled red peppers," Luke said, allowing her to collect their menus and leave.

"I'll get those put in for you," the waitress replied, then disappeared into a side door.

"So, you don't normally request meetings outside our usual nights out," Joe sipped his red wine. "What's the favor you're about to ask?"

"I want you to take a look at the postal service."

"Goddammit," Josiah swore. "I swear that your vendetta against them has got to end before I lose my everloving mind."

"Hear me out," Luke replied calmly. "I'm not asking for a look into the entirety of the service or what mail's being read this time. I just want you to look into tracking down a friend's mail. See if it got intercepted by MIIO or something. I don't need or want the actual letters. I just want to know if they're being intercepted or not."

"That, I can do," Joe calmed down a bit. "Is this about Three Tango Delta and the Royal?"

"Yeah," Luke sighed. "The kid's not acting worried about it, but it's been six months since he got a letter, and my gut says that there's something else wrong with this beyond just the postal service being assholes like they normally are."

"They're only assholes to you, Luke," Joe laughed. "They don't hate the rest of us. It's just you. That said, if you've got a gut feeling about something, I can at least take a more in-depth look at things."

"That's all I wanted," Luke replied, lifting his water to his lips. "So, how's the wife?"

"Upset that I still can't talk about what I did," Joe sighed. "She seems to have this impression that I always risked my life. I don't know how to tell her I'm an analyst who worked more directly in the field. That's it."

"Might be worth seeing if you can get her clearance, like I did for Cheryl," Luke offered. "Keeping secrets just makes relationships hard. I know that if I hadn't done that for my marriage early on, it'd have wrecked us."

"I guess it's worth a shot," Joe took another sip. "I just never thought I'd need to, y'know? For most of our lives together, it wasn't a big deal that I was in Intel. Now that I'm working a desk instead of being in the field, she's acting all paranoid and worried that some sort of ISF or MASK agent is going to show up and try to kill us."

"Then I'd put in that authorization request if I were you," Luke chuckled. "And soon, before your old lady decides that the "Capellans are at the door" and does something crazy."

"I'll do that and start looking into the mail for the period, of?" Joe raised an eyebrow.

"I'll write it down for you,' Luke grabbed a notepad and pen from his shirt pocket. "It's a three-month focus, so it shouldn't be too difficult."

"I'll tell them you requested it, and the paperwork guys will be all over it," Joe laughed. "For some reason, they think your vendetta against the postal guys is funny."

"Uhuh," Luke crossed his arms across his chest. "They just understand why I have issues with them."

"Sure," Joe snarked as the waitress returned with the food. "You're just the crazy one around here."

"Sometimes, I think I'm the only sane one around," Luke retorted. "Now, how're things at the agency? I'm not asking for anything classified, but did the old broad drop dead yet?"

"Not yet," Joe looked around. "But don't let her hear you call her that. She'll pull you back in just to yell at you."

"She can try," Luke chuckled. "I ain't going back in, and I'll let her and Cheryl fight over it if she tried. I might even be able to sell tickets…."

 

[Jao]

So I'm reading this as the original SI is still in custody and they made a clone of him to... observe in the wild I guess.

Click to shrink...

I read it as someone making a clone of Kat to replace her like what happened to Hanse. Chapter 11 make my theory more likely imo.

 

[Morkail]

wtf is this story lol I keep thinking it's slice of life but things keep happening that make me expect him to lose his shit and get a power up or something.