"The Menagerie at Twycross", Part 6
- Date: June 12, 3050; 20:22 Local Time
- Location: Salmacis Base, Surface Access Tunnel #B2
Now there was the sound of a hovercraft's drive pushing the Condor hovertank down the incline. She held still, and once the pair of vehicles had made it down into the hangar area she hurried down to join them. One of the crew commanders saw her, and waved her over. "Call for a medic, we need to get her to the infirmary." Two others were carefully helping her daughter, Sofia, looking barely conscious as she flopped over the top of the tank's entry hatch.
The commander was touching her comm earpiece as she kept up her stride. "Medic to vehicle bay one." Sofia's gear was caked in dust, and some spots were visible where the winds had caused her skin to be subject to intense shearing. Yet the smile was there on seeing Olivia hustling over. "Make that urgent."
Sofia's hand gave a vague wave with her left arm, and the tank gunner was wrapping the other hand in gauze. "Commander, I'm sorry I can't salute."
"Stow that."
A nod, and the younger woman's head leaned back as her eyes closed. "I couldn't bring the BattleROM back-" Her voice was weaker now, slurring from fatigue. "Never got shown where it was."
Olivia shook her head, and reached up the side of the hovertank to put a hand on her daughter's ankle. "Stop it, conserve your energy." The medics were hurrying out of one of the access tunnels, and she looked up. "We'll talk after you've been looked over."
The Condor crew commander walked over, and shook his head slowly. "Sorry Commander. Dust storm must have caught her with the edge. If it had been the full storm, we'd never have found her." He looked back up the tunnel. "No sign of anyone else out there. She came back alone."
"She's tough."
A long glance after the medic team, before he started talking again. "Yes, she stayed fully capable until she got into the tank. And given the time the others made it back, she had to run that distance at a marathon pace." His eyes were much more intent as he looked back to the commander. "I've known infantry with less stamina than that."
"Mmm." Olivia declined to comment further, shaking her head. "I'm going to grab a nap, commander. Consider your patrol off standby." She waited for the salute before walking off, and then heard a light skipping of feet behind her. "Kelly. What is it?"
"Heya boss." The shorter woman quickened her pace to fall alongside her. "Heard there was a fight, and I missed it." As the commander gave a noncommittal shrug, the grin was back. "Your girl made it back safe?"
"Safe is relative."
Kelly hastened her pace, now walking backwards in front of Olivia with the broad grin upwards. "Aw, come on, she's still breathing. That's better than some other losers. You ever gonna tell me what's up with her?"
"No."
"Suit yourself, but she's more dangerous than me." A hand brushed back the skunk stripe of hair hanging down along her forehead, as she turned back around. "See, I just make bad decisions. She gets you acting stupid."
Olivia fought down a snarl, and shook her head. "Why are you baiting me, Kelly? I know you don't want a fight." And she knew Kelly had knives which could be in hand quicker than Olivia could draw her sidearm.
"Because, boss, you've let it tire you out." Kelly looked over her shoulder, and for a moment the commander felt like she was being analyzed for weaknesses. "Otto's too nice to tell you. Anyone else is too scared of you. Me? I don't care, I just want to do my thing." She flicked her left hand, a knife sliding into her grip easily for her to spin over a finger and tuck into a reverse grip. "And you left me out of the fight."
Olivia fought down the mixture of dread and anger, instead clenching her right hand twice. Projecting calm, despite the tangle of emotions rippling through her. "I don't need you in a fight like that one. I need you in a fight like the one which is going to come to us."
"See, that's the kinda thing the guy before you would say. And I respected him, because I knew he would step up if I needed him." Kelly spun around, and the pommel of the knife stopped mere centimeters from Olivia's collarbone. "You, on the other hand, I don't know if I should trust." Her tone had gone cold, brittle, but nothing in her body language changed.
She held still, and scowled past that knife to make eye contact. "Twenty years, Kelly. I've run the command seat twenty years, and now you bring this up?"
Those eyes didn't blink, the will behind them hard as steel. "Twenty years you never let yourself get emotional over one of us to the extent you risked the company." Olivia hated it when Kelly made sense, usually it meant someone was going to bleed. "Sofia's got you worried so bad, you're burning yourself out. Don't be a mother, be an officer, and get some sleep." She spun the knife around, the point barely missing Olivia's cheek as the weapon vanished up a sleeve quickly.
"Noted. Anything else?"
Kelly's eyes blinked slowly, and she stepped aside. "No, Commander." As Olivia moved past, she spoke up again with the same cool tone as earlier. It froze Olivia in mid-stride, with the quiet assurance being spoken in a tone just above a whisper. "I've always unsettled you, and that's good. It means you've not lost your mind. Now don't lose it over her, and we've got a chance of making it through this." As Olivia kept walking, Kelly giggled to herself. "Remember, whatever's coming our way isn't half as bad as I can be! Don't let me down, Commander!"
Olivia knew she was dreaming, sitting in the old briefing room at Minos as the old Commander was speaking about something. Across from her was a brown-haired man with a glower, disapproving of her casual attitude. "Boss, I just have to say this is a dumb plan."
"Albreicht isn't going to be something we can hold with Pegasus Lance." The Commander didn't turn to look at her, as he was instead consulting a datapad in his hand. "We can't get reinforcements there before the enemy, we can arrive in time to sweep them from the rear and bury our dead. So we need to get them out of there."
Olivia shook her head and stood up, pointing. "It can't be that bad, if they stay in place we can hit the attackers from both sides. Hammer and anvil." Her present mind was screaming this was a bad idea, knowing what was coming now. "They can't be bringing enough to cause problems for that plan."
"Olivia." He turned around, and lowered his head before speaking. "It's important to understand something. Our people are not something we can replace, but our equipment is. The best part of Priam Company has always been the people. Us." He met her eyes, only in this dream it was an endless black void staring into hers. Daring her to match his legacy, being the last of the original officer cadre to remain.
"I'm not sure I agree. I mean, Kelly-"
"-is still important." His fingers tightened, now taking the form of bony digits. His voice had an unnatural quality to it, like echoing along a hallway. "Save the meat, fix the metal."
- Date: June 13, 3050; 01:21 Local Time
- Location: Salmacis Base, Commander's Quarters
Jarod's face was visible on the other side. "Incoming message from a DropShip in orbit. I can't find their registry certification anywhere. But they want to talk to, and I quote." He cleared his throat. "Whichever crazy son-of-a-bitch managed to hold off those Clan idiots."
She sighed, straightening out her shirt and brushing at her hair with her hands. "... okay, put them through. And shoot me whatever you can find in the records on these people." A moment later there was an old man with an eyepatch staring through at her, his face creased with many lines. An unlit cigar was in the corner of his mouth as he surveyed her for a long moment. "Hello, sir." She paused. "You have ten minutes before I go back to bed."
He removed the cigar, and frowned, head tilting slightly. "Hey, I'm doin' you a favor here."
"At one in the morning? This had better be a good offer."
He favored her with a thin smile, and leaned back slightly from the camera. This allowed her to see more of where he was, which looked like the control room of a fairly large DropShip. "So let me start over. I'm Lord Commander Mason Garrilac, owner of this Fortress-class DropShip."
"Does it have a name?"
"Of course it does." He pointed the cigar at the video pickup. "Every good ship has to have a name."
She leaned back, folding her arms and giving him a long stare. "Do I get to know it?"
He waved his hand away. "We'll come back to that, it's not important." He leaned in, about to start speaking, until she cleared her throat and got a shocked expression. This man was clearly not used to being interrupted, or being treated as an irritation. Which he was, having interrupted her sleep cycle.
"Your ship registry isn't coming up in our database, and that kind of firepower is too big for a small-time operator. That’s the start of too many questions to give you enough trust to let you hang yourself."
Commander Garrilac seemed to chew on this for a moment, and pointed two fingers at her through the pickup. "I like you. But you got a foul attitude."
"I've been at this job for a while." She cleared her throat. "I'm Commander Olivia Garrido of Priam Company. We're a registered mercenary outfit since 3028, with our Mercenary Review Board records kept on Galatea." She hoped that had given enough time for Jarod to pull up any extra data, and now glanced to her side. "And your name comes up with an old registration with the Eridani Light Horse."
He suddenly grinned, head tilting back as he leaned in the seat. "Oh, that takes me back." He seemed to suck lightly at his lip before speaking up. "One commander to another, I respect anyone who can keep an outfit together this long and not have it fall apart. But this isn't just a social call. Our JumpShip already hit the road, and there's more invaders inbound. My people tell me anywhere between six and seven days before they arrive, and I'd rather not be in orbit with my pants around my-"
Olivia held up a hand, clicking her tongue to cut that off. "I get the picture. So what can Priam Company do for you? We don't have aerospace assets to assist you with."
"Naw, I got some of those on hand. But what I need is fuel and munitions." He put the cigar back in his mouth, mumbling around it. "Resupply, in other words. And you're the only people probably prepared to offer assistance."
"Nobody else picked up the call."
An amused snort, his left hand came up to rub around his eyepatch. "Nobody else picked up the call. So I need a spot to park my DropShip, refuel, and hang tight until we get an exit. The JumpShip should be back in five days, assuming they didn't keep running."
"And assuming we have the fuel to spare." She folded her fingers in front of her, resting her chin on them. "I feel no need to keep it a secret, we're fueling up to take an exit too. I have a Black Eagle and a Leopard which need to get off the planet, and one of those two doesn't have the best fuel efficiency." Even with the modifications made to some of the cargo area to turn them into more fuel storage, it was always tight to make it to and from planets.
"Where the hell did you get one of those?"
"Leopards aren't hard to come by."
"I meant the other one."
Olivia shrugged a shoulder, keeping her eyes fixed on the console screen. "Buy me a drink, and I'll tell you a story. If it's a good drink, I might even tell you the true story." Then she let out a sigh. "I'm not tempting bad karma by turning you away, and your presence might make any invaders think twice about taking a shot at us."
"And you could use the aerospace cover when you leave."
She rolled her hand dismissively to concede the point. "And we could use the aerospace cover. My comm officer will send you the guidance beacon frequency, and we can discuss finer terms when you land. We welcome you to Salmacis Base, Lord Commander Garrilac." She cut the call, and then quickly switched over to let Jarod know he needed to send the beacon codes.
Damnit, she had been looking forward to some good sleep too.
- 02:33 Local Time
- Location: Salmacis Base, Auxillary DropShip Landing
She snorted and glanced over. "I already know that. What I want to know is how he got one of those, and it's not registered under ComStar's ship records." This class of DropShip was massive, and could carry a full battalion of 'Mechs in it - along with the support crew and materiel necessary. However, from the look of things it wasn't carrying such right now. More interesting was the armaments it had, easily several dozen weapons bristling around the 'waist' of the ship, and Olivia knew there was an artillery cannon located at the 'nose' of the vessel which was capable of fire support when needed.
This was a thing of terrible beauty, a concentration of firepower which could not be ignored, and it had no business being in the hands of a mercenary outfit. It certainly raised her hackles to find it in the hands of people how didn't show a registry for it and lacked credentials which were up to date. 'Who the hell is this guy?'
This thought returned as it became clear this old man was short and slightly hunched over, bearing some of the hallmarks Olivia had recognized among old 'MechWarriors she'd run across. She gave him a vague wave of greeting, a finger near her forehead in the laziest salute she could muster. "Welcome to Twycross." Otto stepped aside, opening the access tunnel for him with a motion.
He grunted as he lowered his arm, showing a full beard and mustache which had gone mostly gray. "What's with all this dust in the air?"
"As I said, welcome to Twycross." Olivia noticed the woman with him scowling some, shaking her jacket. "You said you have aerospace assets-"
"Yeah. We'll discuss that once I see what you're bringing to the table." In person, the intense aura around the shorter man made her bristle a little in response. Her impressions had been correct earlier, he was used to being obeyed and not questioned by equals. "You're called Priam Company, so you got at least a company of 'Mechs to send in?"
"Excuse me!" Kelly piped up, and everyone stopped to look at her as she grinned toothily. "Hi. Yeah, you're not the guy in charge here." She motioned, her fingers lazily rising and falling to indicate Olivia's person. The woman with the Lord Commander tensed on watching how Kelly moved. "She's the one running the show."
He took it in stride, holding out his hand palm-up towards her. "And who are you?"
Kelly's eyes glanced down at the palm as if considering something, and Olivia felt tension start in her stomach before there was a giggle. "I'm Kelly. Kelly Sedda."
The woman finally spoke, her tone definitely carrying a wary edge to it. "Are you the executive officer?"
"That's me. Otto Greene." Otto held out his hand, but frowned as the Lord Commander simply turned and started to walk again. "Well, a pleasure to meet you too. But Kelly's right, this is our base and our show. We appreciate the support you can offer, but you're not paying us."
"Do you wanna be paid?"
"Yes." "No." Otto and Olivia exchanged glances as they talked over each other. The commander gave a long look and he shook his head, falling into step behind the group with Kelly. Olivia was the one who started speaking again. "We're planning on abandoning the base. There's no way we can stand against a full invasion-caliber force."
"That's smarter than most." The woman said casually. "Even we've made that mistake, haven't we?" Her gaze turned to the Lord Commander, who mumbled something under his breath and flinched.
"I don't believe you were introduced?" Olivia glanced over, the poise and presence of the other woman feeling like looking in a mirror thirty years gone.
"Leah Adnan. Callsign 'Coryphee'." She did not offer her hand, continuing to walk. Her mind seemed both focused on the company members, and on something else. "So you're planning to run and... we're supposed to help you escape?"
"That's a discussion we need to have in the command center." The commander cleared her throat, and shook her head slowly. "If we need to start negotiations, then I certainly am going to need to discuss what each of us can offer the other."
They exited into the 'Mech bays on one of the upper catwalks, and both of the guests glanced down and around intently. The Victor and Black Knight still sat mid-repair, while there were signs of other 'Mechs being armed and ready. "That's some impressive hardware, but it looks a little dinged up." The Lord Commander glanced past and then looked back before Olivia motioned to keep walking through the catwalks.
Otto waited to speak again until they were into the access across the way, but still kept his voice down. "The Clans. Xiphos Lance took on just three of them and came back badly damaged. Analysis suggests the ones we fought were trying to win at any cost, and I don't think it's safe to plan others will follow the same rules."
There was a sigh out of the Lord Commander, and he turned his head to speak over a shoulder. "They do. Somewhat. It's complicated." Olivia gave him a curious look, but he refused to elaborate further. The five of them were quickly approaching the command center, and Kelly seemed to be focusing almost entirely on Coryphee now. What that meant, Olivia couldn't begin to guess, but she wasn't about to ask just yet.
The control room still had the lights set to dim, and Olivia flipped the switches to turn the lights on full. The Lord Commander's eye lit up at the sight of the table in the center, and he walked to it. His right hand was some sort of mechanical prosthetic and rested on it gently, expression sinking into a nostalgic smile. Coryphee instead was looking around and noticing there was only one other person on duty here, Jarod, who was studiously trying to keep his attention off the guests.
Olivia cleared her throat as she moved to the head of the table and punched in her access codes. "Here's what we know, what we have to work with, and what we have planned." A three-dimensional representation of the area within two kilometers of Salmacis sprang to life, and drew the attention of their guests. Kelly, however, seemed satisfied with whatever she had seen and now perched herself on a stack of cargo boxes against the wall. "There was expected to be a major invasion force, but instead we had a WarShip in orbit land one DropShip and then leave recently. They issued a challenge, took out some militia forces, and left."
"We fought them off." Coryphee leaned her hands on the edge of the table, glancing over it. "The ship took some damage, but it forced them off the planet." She hesitated. "Do you have anyone capable of repairing DropShips?"
Otto shook his head, but waved a hand. "No specialized teams, but Sand's Lot can fix it."
Olivia shook her head slowly, and looked to her executive quietly. "No, Otto, they were on overtime. They're not available." She looked back to Coryphee, and held her hand out vaguely. "Sand's Lot are our premiere techs, they tend to know a lot of tricks about upkeep. They're part of why we have the Black Eagle running on modern hardware."
The other woman nodded slowly, but held up a finger quietly. "But they're not available now."
"If you have a crew with you who can do repairs, we can do our best to allow you access to tools and workspace. But we don't often run our DropShips in a way to risk damaging them." Olivia looked to the older man, who seemed to be talking to himself in a subvocal tone. Similar to how she'd watched the previous commander use his comm. "Sorry, did you have to take a call?"
"No, just trying to crunch some numbers." The Lord Commander straightened up and motioned with his prosthetic hand. "So you can't do much to fix the ship, but you can top off the fuel tanks?"
"If it takes standard fuel?" As he nodded, Olivia let out a sigh. "Small graces. Yes, we can help with that. You said you had aerospace assets, and we have ground assets." She glanced to Otto before meeting the Lord Commander's gaze quietly. "I'll have you know, this is a lot of trust I'm giving you. If it turns out this is a cross-"
He let out a short chuckle. "Ma'am, if this was going to be a cross, I'd have come in firing. Don't insult my tactical genius." For some reason this made Coryphee smile, and Kelly even giggled a little. "What?"
Kelly had a small stiletto out, and was using it to trim her fingernails quietly. "Our old commander liked to call himself that too. Think everyone who has the big seat likes to think they're capable of it." She pointed the handle at the guests, and tilted her head. "You can back it up?"
He drew himself up as straight as he could, and scowled through his beard. "I'm Lord Commander Mason Garrilac, and I've been doing 'Mech combat since before you were alive, kid. I rode with the Eridani Light Horse, and fought odds worse than you would ever have seen."
Kelly grinned, with all her teeth showing, before she giggled. "I'll take that bet."
Olivia knocked on the edge of the table with her knuckles. "We're not having a pissing contest here. We're planning an evacuation defense." Inwardly she winced at the choice of words, and glanced down. 'Damn, I sound just like him, trying to herd cats.'
"If I might impose?" Otto cleared his throat, joining the conversation again. "I can call up our other Lance Commanders if you want to start shaping the plan, Lord Commander."
"How many've you got?"
"Five dedicated Lances. We're working on rearranging the 'Mechs to put Xiphos Lance back to full strength, but that shouldn't be an issue." The executive tapped controls, bringing up five cubes hovering over the landscape. "Tentatively, we have a Battle Lance, a Fire Lance, a Pursuit Lance-"
"Whoa. Hold your horses." The Lord Commander quietly pulled a flask from inside his jacket to take a swig from it. "You organize your people that way?" As Olivia and Otto exchanged looks, he continued. "That sounds like House Military jargon."
"Yeah. I served." The commander shook her head. "And our previous commander thought it would be solid training to organize in formations which were readily understandable."
"I haven't seen a small merc outfit organized like this. Ever." Lord Commander Garrilac frowned in thought. "Who was your old commander? Where did he come from?"
Olivia motioned to the image of the five cubes. "Not important right now. What's important is what we've got to work with. We also have some vehicle assets, but we are short on skilled crews. A Manticore, two Condors, and a Long-Range Missile Carrier. As for what we have to work with?" She quickly danced her fingers along the controls, bringing up a listing of the 'Mech models for the visitors to look at. They leaned in, glancing through the names and taking it all in quietly.
"Hey boss?" Kelly stood up and stood at the end of the table across from Olivia, leaning over it. "Maybe we should all get some sleep? Before we are too tired to make good decisions?"
The Lord Commander waved his right hand as if to dismiss the objection. "Nah. I just need some coffee." He paused. "You do have coffee here, right? Please tell me you have coffee."
"We have coffee, and my friend is right. We have a handful of days, and if we rush this it could be a disaster. I'm not rushing this." Olivia straightened up, glancing to the guests. "I can get you some quarters so you can sleep on the ground, unless you want to stick to your DropShip. We can reconvene with the Lance Commanders later this morning, to make a more solid plan of defense.
"Last time we had to rush a defense, we almost lost." Kelly chimed in. "It was a mess for days. Good news, this time we don't have to worry about the mess we leave behind!" Three-and-a-half sets of eyes stared at her and she shrugged. "What? It's true, ask Olivia! She was there."
The eyes now turned to look at the commander, who let out a long sigh, before muttering several curses under her breath. 'I do not need this right now,' she thought to herself. "I'm more than willing to trade old war stories later. When we're outbound. For now, can we get some sleep so we can focus on the task ahead of us?"
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