26

Just before the return of the expeditionary force to the Aurigan Directorate under Ostergaard's command, some news arrived that completely changed the scenario.

Fred of having to deal with Concordat forces, Kamea got her hands on the Madeira files and obtained the proof that the Perdition Massacre had been planned by Santiago Espinosa and executed by his daughter Victoria. Unfortunately, I heard that Alexander Madeira hadn't survived the extraction mission.

Saying that Thomas Calderon took these new badly was the king of understatements. He went ballistic and sent the already ready force under Ostergaard to the Aurigan territory, but this time to defeat and capture the Espinosas. To support the Guards, he wanted to recruit a mercenary force and I accepted the job, securing the Revenants participation, which not only help me improve my relations with the Calderon family but also allowed me to play my part in the end of the Espinosa regime, AKA the Aurigan Directorate.

At the same time, Edward Calderon was tasked with fixing the relations with the Federated Suns, a difficult job, but if anyone could do that it was him.

Coordinating our actions with Kamea, through the good offices of Anne-Marie Centrella, we managed to make all the forces converge towards Coromodir for the final showdown.

Coromodir, February 23, 3027

This time the Taurian forces were much bigger than the early expedition (that one only included the Iberia), with one Fortress, the Iberia, two Unions, two Leopards and one Triumph transporting a full 'Mech battalion of the Taurian Guards and support forces.

The few Directorate ASFs, four in total, were quickly swept away by the combined Guards and Revenants escorts, opening the way for the capital of the Arano Directorate. Kamea's forces, wanting to be the first to land, pushed their DropShips to 2g moving ahead of us and messing with the approved plan for the sake of 'honor' or pride..,

Four days later, near the planet capital.

Like the Revenants, the Taurian Guards were firm believers in combined arms operations. Thanks to superior training and better coordination, the resistance of the Directorate forces against us had been so far rather weak. To be honest, they were also busy with the more numerous but poorly equipped Restoration units that had arrived earlier.

Advancing with my Command Lance, with my Nightstar, Georgina's Merlin, Ruben's Thunderbolt (that was earlier Vasseur's own) and Pauline's Marauder, against a detected enemy presence ahead of us, I suddenly saw Kamea and Victoria fighting.

'That Catapult K2 is mine, engage the rest!' I ordered on the mic, advancing against Victoria's 'Mech that had just destroyed the left leg of Kamea's Kintaro and was getting ready to deliver the final blow.

An interesting consequence of me mixing with everything was that both had their original 'Mechs. Kamea had never received the Atlas II from Nautilus and Victoria never lost the Catapult nor received the King Crab. I had always thought that Periphery small lords getting her hands on such a 'Mech outside of a SLDF cache was impossible, but game mechanics… Reality was different.

Taking advantage of Victoria's focus on Kamea, I carefully aligned my shots and let loose with all the weapons available at that range, both Gauss Riffles and the ER PPC.

I got lucky as all the shots hit, the ER PPC and one of the Gauss hitting on the right side, destroying one of the K2 main weapons while the other Gauss round hit in the center, causing damage to the gyro and putting Victoria in serious trouble.

Showing just what a good Mechwarrior she was, she turned my way and fired all of her weapons, while I tried to move sideways and out of the line of fire.

Her PPC barely missed but both Medium Lasers hit my 'Mech in the center, making two deep scars in my pristine armor, but not penetrating. This baby was made to take and survive much heavier damage.

From a semi upward position, Kamea fired all of her surviving weapons at the back of Victoria's 'Mech and at least eight of the SRMs hit sending the Catapult to the ground.

Not giving her time to recover, I carefully targeted her legs and put one Gauss round and a laser beam on each, destroying both and ending her struggle.

Looking around I realized that my teammates and the only survivor of Kamea's unit had finished dispatching Victoria's unit and that in this area, the war had ended.

'Are you okay, Lady Arano?' I asked with concern in my voice.

'Just a bit bruised, but I will survive. Let's end this.' Is the answer.

Before resuming our advance in direction of the capital, I sent instructions for our infantry to capture Victoria. Soon after a pair of Maultiers arrived and two platoons of heavily armed and armored infantry quickly disembarked. They took care of Victoria, that until then, under the sights of my 'Mech weapons, had in her cockpit. After their arrival, my lance could advance again.

Three days later in the Coromodir palace.

'Milady Kamea, my orders are very explicit. I have to return to Taurus with both Santiago and Victoria Espinosa cuffed or in coffins.' said Ostergaard to Kamea while I stayed a little away. I was only a mercenary and even if socially I was superior to the good Commodore, he was in charge of the Taurian forces.

'As a proof of the good relations that should be from now on between our nations I give you both of them, Commodore' answered High Lady Kamea Arano.

A few hours later, when the official ceremonies were over, I received an invitation for a private meeting with the High Lady.

Arriving at the small office, I was surprised that Anne-Marie Centrella was also there. I would need to play my game the best I could.

The following afternoon (and dinner) was very agreeable. In company of two beautiful, sophisticated woman we discussed the present and future of the region and what that meant for the Aurigan Restoration. They were in a weaker position than before, with the economy in pieces, the industry seriously damaged and several ex-directorate forces turned pirates. The relations of the Concordat with their respective nations were also discussed. I had the felling that I was in the middle of an interrogation by at least one expert (Anne-Marie) and I was afraid that I might have revealed way more than I wanted while getting very little in return.

At least I successfully deflected the questions about how I knew about the Madeira Files, making a tale of how with the Madeiras being very able at politics and very close to the ruling clan at the time I had considered very likely that they had tapped in the surveillance cameras in the castle and even added some new ones, to get leverage on others. If Kamea and Anne-Marie believed a single word of what I said, I didn't know, but apparently they accepted the story.

Anne-Marie was way too well-informed about the Concordat in general and my business in particular for my liking. I put a good bet that she had dropped the MIM on me long ago.

All in all, I returned to my DropShip satisfied but with too much to think about.