13

By the time I came back to New Vandenberg, the Revenants were also present.

To decide on the next course of action, I met the different heads of department of V4RU.

I talked with John Smith about creating the proper installations for the Revenants that were slowly expanding. My idea was that it would be better for them to be in their own "house" rather than to have to rely on the generosity of another, even if it was family. And I also had plans for V4RU that would make space there a luxury. At first he resisted this idea but in the end accept the extra work ; the new installations were to be build in adjacent land that was still to be bought and for that I knew I had to use my own money as the Revenants were not making any money and I had further plans for V4RU, plans which would need a lot of money.

Next I talked with Bertrand Suchet, asking him to find designs of civilian 'Mechs produced by companies that no longer existed. To his questions, I answered that I planed to start a production of civilian 'Mechs as I thought there was a market for civilian 'Mechs in the Periphery but that I didn't want to pay licenses / royalties to existing companies, which would allow us to improve our margins.

I also talked with Gilbert Leloup to make sure that he could get the specification of as many "advanced" tech as possible so that we could later use the advanced kit obtained in the Argo to bring some of them back into production and make money out of it. He was very interested in that project.

Last but not least, I had a meeting with Lise Bonnel to see how the security of both companies could be improved against spies and sabotage. She already had ideas for improving it and I assured that V4RU would pay for all of it, after all, the Revenants were a sort of security unit for them. She also suggested a false raid/stealth attack to look for weak points. I pitied the poor guys that would be on patrol and surveillance duty when the raid would come.

After launching these projects, it was time again to get back to the Revenants with the recruiting and rebuilding part. Thanks to the tanks, arty and infantry gear obtained in the last mission the unit could even grow substantially. It was around that time that the Fighter pilots recruited from the Outworld Alliance also arrived. Of the six, four came with their own ASFs ; two LTN-G15 Lightnings and two older, barely operational VLC-5N Vulcans; which meant that we needed to perform a comprehensive rebuild and refit before they could be operational. Expensive and time-consuming, but two capable heavy ASFs were always a good thing to have. The last two pilots didn't have personal fighters, so I gave them the two Hammerhead that until now were collecting dust.

Before we had contracted them, we had a sort of dilemma as they formed a unit, making it an all or nothing contract. The problem laid in that we also needed to contract the wife of the leader, a MechWarrior with a Merlin. Apparently she was former test-pilot of Mountain Wolf Battlemechs and when her contract with the firm ended she could get a 'Mech. I wasn't too happy with getting another untested, foreign 'MechWarrior and so was Vasseur too but in the end we needed to strengthen our Aerospace forces and I signed the deal.

During their time on Althea, the Revenants had defeated a pirate incursion but because of the contract, all the captured hardware was taken by the Concordat. The Revenants also 'acquired' a liaison officer, Subaltern Christine Marais; the Cornet I knew from the Ministry of Defense, which had earned a promotion along the way. Since she was a staff officer and not a 'MechWarrior, we didn't have an extra 'Mech to carry with us.

Once that set, it was time to get back to our Star League business but this time, with the Taurians. While Marshall Tharn wanted to go to Epsilon Pegasus and target the dockyard / dry dock that should be there, the realities of logistics, costs and politics forced us to put the raid on Castle Nautilus on top of our list. This target fitted the Taurian agenda as the Protector wanted a confirmation that the big findings in the list were real while sending a message to the Aurigan delegates in the currently stalled negotiations.

So, by the end of 3018 we departed for Artru.

I let the fourth lance, the 2 Wasp, the Phoenix Hawk (that sometimes replaced me) and the Merlin home to 'defend the V4RU facilities' along with the Vulcans, that still needed a comprehensive refit, and one of the Hammerheads, taking with me 4 ASFs.

My Revenants were very happy, not only was a raid more prestigious than garrison / anti-pirate duty, but they were going to fight along one of the most prestigious Taurian units in what was for sure the most significant foreign operation executed by the Concordat in several years.

Three weeks later we arrived around Artru. I had taken with me all our JumpShips and DropShips (this was a big operation after all), while the Concordat had sent two Invader JumpShips loaded with two Jumbos, three Mules and the Iberia, a Fortress class DropShip, the pride of the Concordat Navy (another similarity with the game I had played at home), commanded by Space Master (not yet Commodore) Samuel Ostergaard.

In orbit, we had a last video conference.

'Our plan is to land as near as the cache as possible and crush it… You seem to disagree, Mister Bassot. Care to explain why?' said Subaltern Samamha McGrtnn (the leader of the Taurian ground forces)

'I know that you have plenty of experience in conducting raids but we are talking about a Star League Castle with defenses that might be active and that we might not be able to deactivate from afar. I want to land at a safe distance of the Castle, allowing to deploy in force without having to disembark under fire or losing strength before we head towards the target. If something went wrong with the codes, we will need to buy time for the EW specialists to do their job and since we don't know what we will be facing, I think it is better to play on the safer side. If there is no threat for them, the DropShips and the ASFs can always come to give us a hand

Everybody agreed with my plan and the DropShips headed towards a location some kilometers away from the Castle.