39

Two jumps later we arrived in the Mantharaka system, at its nadir jump-point. During our burning to the planet, the sensors detected three more JumpShips, two in the zenith jump-point and one in what could only be a pirate point.

In front of us, four DropShips were on an approach route, all ahead of us: two Unions accompanied by a Mule would land in two hours and an Overlord 6 hours later but still 4 hours before us. All these units, both the JumpShips and the DropShips, had their IFF / identification off, never a good sign.

Being this time in command as Vasseur had stayed in command of the forces in Detroit and considering the forces an Overlord and two Union could carry, I thought it best to land a little further away and to regroup my forces before moving towards Baumann's base, the obvious destination of all forces.

Apparently, only one of the groups ahead of us had Aerospace Fighter support, with 6 Light Fighters, most likely for the unit that had landed with Overlord. My forces included a dozen Aerospace Fighters, a mixture of Heavies, Medium and Lights Aerospace Fighters. For the moment these were executing CAP on my forces during our advance. I didn't want to engage any of my forces before knowing who and what was ahead of me.

As soon as we got close to the base location, we began to find wreckage of 'Mechs. Every single 'Mech we met was lacking a distinctive unit insignia or a specific painting, something I expected from Baumann's forces, but unless they were the only ones to have lost 'Mechs, the force that had landed first seemed also eager to remain hidden. Meaning they were either a pirate force or someone that wanted to remain in the shadows.

When we reached the base location, we found out that the base had been destroyed and the noises of the combats were increasing, meaning some heavy action was going on.

The first 'Mech we saw was a jet black Shogun firing at a more distant bright green Archer. Oh shit, I thought, at least one of the forces was the Black Widow Battalion.

Although tremendously proud of my Revenants, I knew perfectly well that they were not playing in the same league as Natasha Kerensky's unit. Even with the support of our mechanized forces, artillery and infantry and twice as many Aerospace Fighters, I had no doubt who would win the fight if we had to fight them. This was not a video game after all.

'Revenants, don't shoot at the 'Mechs painted in black, unless they shoot at us first. The others are fair game.'

Meanwhile, I jumped from one frequency to another, trying to get in touch.

'Major Kerensky?'

Natasha Kerensky's unmistakable voice responded almost immediately.

'Isn't this the prince consort of the tiny Aurigan Nation? What do you want, little prince? I'm busy, withdraw your forces from the battlefield if you don't want to be destroyed.'

Yep, Natasha Kerensky's charm and diplomacy remained the same as I remembered them...

'Major, I have nothing against your presence, my forces are there to eliminate the smuggler Baumann and his forces.'

'First, it's Colonel Kerensky, pup and second that problem has already been solved. I am in the middle of setting up a personal matter. Last warning, withdraw or I open fire on your toys.'

Fortunately I stopped right in time before answering what I would have wanted to say, which would have brought us in combat against one of the deadliest units of this time. Not that it was easy to stay mute. During this time, I had seen the Shogun decapitating the Archer, however I could also see a few more 'Mechs further away exchanging shots, most in black, the few others in green.

Bright green, fighting against the Black Widows, and Natasha said it was personal, why did it ring a bell in me?

…

Crap, the other force must have been the Bounty Hunter group. But Michi Noketsuna was right now the Bounty Hunter, wasn't he ? Either something really wrong had happened or this was another divergence from the story as I knew it.

Not willing to take too much time in case there was no time left, I switched channels again.

'Revenants, cease operations and regroup at Baumann's base coordinates. Let's wait there for these two groups of egomaniacs to settle their disputes.'

A series of nervous laughters was the only answer I got as my forces retreated towards the destroyed base. As my forces began establishing a defensive position, my technicians scoured the wreckage to find something worth scavenging.

While the CAP reported that Natasha's forces were wiping out the last 'Mechs of their opponents, we took control of the destroyed 'Mechs around the base and found the body of Notker Baumann with a card left as a signature, a 7 of Spade...

Damn, I swore. Not only had I forgotten that Natasha had been promoted to Colonel when the Black Widow's Company had been upgraded to a Battalion, but I had also forgotten that the 7th Kommando had been added to it! I quickly ordered our DropShips to execute a short flight and land near the ruins where we were located, adding their firepower to ours and reducing the risk of them being captured or sabotaged by the 7th Kommando, if Natasha decided to focus on us.

Shortly after, our air cover reported that the battle was over and that Natasha's forces as expected had won. After dealing with her "private matter", I was afraid that Natasha would come for us or at least finish destroying Baumann's base. My bet was that she would be eager to destroy everything linked to the Wolverines (she was a good Clanner after all) … that is if she knew what was present there.

To my great amazement and pleasant surprise, the reports I got were that Natasha's forces boarded and left shortly after the end of the battle, taking with them the captured DropShips, without even a word in our direction. Was it possible that she had only come here to settle her dispute with the Bounty Hunter, without knowing what was nearby? Not that I would complain, even if the way we'd been dismissed was humiliating.

Having remained alone in the area, we spent the next few days doing a thorough search of the base and the battle sites. For those, Natasha had taken everything of value, leaving us with not much to loot, with the exception of the 'Mechs destroyed near the base and a lonely green Marauder that had been stripped of anything useful and was left with its cockpit smashed, but we found no body in it. In the base and after several hours of search, we found a carefully hidden entrance to underground levels where we found several hundred tons of hardware, some very advanced, most of it 'normal', although not a single 'Mech. Interestingly enough, we found several data cores with advanced encryption, which we didn't have the material to crack on site. At first, it looked like a variant of the latest versions of those used by the SLDF, meaning that they were either Royal or had to have been used by Clan Wolverine, wich meant they were likely to come from the same place where Baumann had found all his hardware.

Thank God I had talked with Kamea about the need to return for a while to New Vandenberg to manage some business, dispatch some of my responsibilities as I was after all the governor of the system and maybe even going to Taurus to talk with the Calderon, as the only place where I could hope to decrypt the data cores was New Vandenberg.