8

After our JumpShip returned from Detroit with enough helium to recharge the repaired Tramp (I was glad that Murad's team had fabricated enough spare parts to repair it, because none had been found on Detroit), we started to fully load all the DropShips with all the useful items recovered from the pirate base and the ruins of the Argo.

Even if we had packed them up to the roof, enough valuable items stayed behind that I decided to organize as soon as we got home another voyage to take what was left, which meant a small team had to stay and guard the remaining booty.

Two months later, we were again in New Vandenberg, with a full cargo, three JumpShips and eight DropShips much to the surprise of the V4RU people that didn't expect us with so many things.

The Liberty was sent back, carrying the two Jumbos and the Buccaneer, while the rest of the ships received a much needed repair / refit (pirates are not known to be good in that area, after all).

While one team worked on the ex-Argo machinery in one of our warehouses, the rest of the booty was sorted out and put to good use. The 3 pirate 'Mechs were repaired and entered the TO&E of the Revenants.

A month after we arrived home, I received a message from the Magistracy Armed Forces with a contract proposal to do a garrison and anti-piracy mission on the world of New Abilene for a full company of 'Mechs with optional ASF support. The contract would last one year and the pay seemed a bit superior to the usual in the Periphery. Someone in the Magistracy must like us, probably a thank you for freeing their diplomatic team.

After talking with Victor Blaise and with Vasseur, I decided to accept the contract. After all, it would pay some of the bills. After negotiating via HPG with the Magistracy Armed Forces representative, we agreed that the Revenants would come as soon as the Liberty returned, that would be in about three months from now.

By that time, Vasseur would have contracted enough personnel to replace our losses but I was sure the ASF would remain a problem. This is why I suggested that we could go via Herotitus trying to contract someone there or that (in the worst case scenario) we could perhaps find someone in the Magistracy. And if we didn't find anyone, the ASF support was optional in the contract. Although Vasseur preferred a Taurian only policy, he agreed in the end.

This time, I wouldn't go with them as I had too much to do in New Vandenberg and this was not one of 'my' missions after all. One of the new 'MechWarriors, piloting the Phoenix Hawk would go instead of me. The two other 'newbies' would stay here with the two Wasps, adding to the security of V4RU.

By then Vasseur's friend had finally arrived. A retired professor, she had worked for the TMI (according to what he had told me in the Bureau of Analysis). After dealing with her, all I could say is that in spite of her smallish, bookish look, she had a keen mind and sharp tongue. While she asked a lot for the necessary hardware and software, I decided to pay the price but not to hire her. I didn't want her reporting back to the TMI, those Taurians are die-hard patriots. This is why I decided to do the decoding myself – after all I had trained with the V4RU tech in using the 'modern' computer systems. By luck, one of the SLDF codes the professor had provided me was the correct one and I decoded the databases as quickly as the software could.

Like I suspected, the database contained a detailed map of many and perhaps of all the bases of the SLDF in the Periphery as well as the blueprints and technical manuals of the very advanced machinery that we had been busy rebuilding in the past month in the V4RU installations. The advanced workshop was very useful for V4RU and it was funny seeing many of the techs drooling around it.

It was going to take some time to figure everything out because for security reasons, I wanted to do this alone and I needed to filter the bases already found / looted. I had already put the Castle Nautilus on top of my research list as everything in my guts said that this base hadn't been found yet.

Before I got any results, the Revenants departed to their destination, the contract in the Magistracy.

I was lucky as I really got a list of several 'nice' places to visit that I remembered from my original life, even if many were very distant.

The final list includes about a dozen of places only defined by a serial of numbers and letters – these were all marked as small caches in not inhabited systems – about half are relatively near the Concordat – Magistracy of Canopus area.

And bingo; Castle Nautilus was marked as a research station (?). The access codes were included and the information that about a battalion of 'Mechs (!) should be there. So, apparently, like in the HBS game, after all.

The others that I recognized were far away – as in, about an year of voyage in each direction – ouch. It was like a Christmas list: Mundo Nublar, weapons and warship testing area; Camelot Command, naval base; Epsilon Pegasus / Columbus, research facility and operations base with an dockyard (!).

One other place that caught my eye was a small cache in the world of Celano, located in the Concordat. I remembered something about some advanced hovers found there. That one was going to be easy to deal with.

As soon as the list of bases was finalized I decided to do a test and try the Celano option. I instructed the law firm to buy a piece of land on this planet at the exact place I showed on the map. After that was done, I sent a recovery team there with precise instructions on what to do. Five months later they returned with the DropShips fully loaded and some good news: they had found a SLDF cache with several high tech weapons and spare parts, along with two dozens of Maultiers in working condition and enough equipment to deploy an infantry battalion – Mauser 960, portable SRM, even some portable PPC and lots of other gear.

I made a deal with VMI where the Revenants would get 20% of the production and I would give them the blueprints of the downgraded version of the Maultier with standard armor and a regular SRM-2. I also sold them samples of the Ferro-Fibrous armor and of the Streak launcher with its ammo. If they wanted, their R&D teams could work on them and I could make some money out of it.

After going through all the database, I decided that instead of going to Castle Nautilus, which was after all located in another nation, the first thing to do was to 'visit' the small bases in the near Periphery. A little calculation showed me that I could visit three in the following year, and none of these had any diplomatic or military problem attached to it. The Recover team was ecstatic, I couldn't blame them for it.