30

The next week was 'interesting'.

During the day both I and Kamea, both workaholics, had a lot to do. She ruled her kingdom, I handled the multiple details of our arrangement. From planning with Mechdur managers to the imminent arrival of both VMI and V4RU technicians and specialists for the planned upgrades and repairs to arranging for Griffins to be sent to New Vandenberg for repairs by V4RU. Luckily, VMI produced the model and I was sure that if some extra parts were needed, access to them wouldn't be a problem. Not forgetting the long sessions with Kamea's military consultants to get information about the possible locations the former troop of the Directorate or should I say the pirates?

Being both fitness fanatics, a common feature of many 'Mechwarriors we ended up training together several times. Thanks to the fact that I hired some of the best coaches money could get me in the Concordat and to the good natural basis this body had, I was in an enviable shape but Kamea was not behind me.

The nights ... I never thought Kamea would be such a demanding and experienced mistress with a little kinky taste. Who knew the High Lady had that wild side? Thank God for this new, athletic body, with plenty of stamina, or I could never have kept up with her.

With the arrival of my staff, I moved from the organization phase to action, taking, as usual, the command of one of the Revenants combined-arms battalions.

The first system we visited was a flop as to the Aurigan advisor's great embarrassment, the location was deserted.

The second one put my forces against a group that had some infantry, more or less motorized and 4 'Mechs but nothing too big (1 Locust, 2 Wasps and 1 Phoenix Hawk). At first, they tried to escape, but after putting a Gauss round on the back of the Locust, the rest of the group surrendered quickly. Because they didn't surrender immediately and I needed to fire on a 'Mech, they were considered as having resisted and the Restoration didn't get access to the captured hardware.

In the third system, we found once again an abandoned base. Same story in the fourth one.

In the fifth system, the former Directorate troops surrendered as soon as they saw our forces and I must say, it was to the Aurigan liaison great relief because they could finally take care of some and much needed military hardware. Not that it was much, but when you need anything, 2 Wasps and several APCs and trucks were better than nothing.

At the last place on the list (Vasseur had another list and was 'visiting' other possible pirate activity locations in other systems), we found something different. For starters, this group, unlike the others, had a JumpShip, an old Merchant, which we captured without much difficulty. Intrepids loaded with marines were really useful for this kind of operation. While heading down towards the pirate base, we located at high altitude that they had 2 DropShips, an Union and a Jumbo. With us having captured their JumpShip, there was no fear that they would escape far away, but just in case, I put the ASFs on standby to prevent any escape with the DropShips.

The approach to the pirate base was running smoothly until we got close to a hill. Lieutenant Joshua Pride, who was driving one of the two Royal Black Knights the Revenants had and who due to the specifics of this hunting mission I had traded with Vasseur (both Black Knights being in his battalion) for Antony Rubens and his Thunderbolt. because of the very useful Beagle Active Probe capacity, the Royal 'Mech had reported that a couple of 'Mechs were hidden just over the hill. Suddenly, a pair of Griffins rose in the air and fired their PPC... At a distance greater than the maximum range... and they both hit the unfortunate recon Toro that was in front, One of their shots beheading the 'Mech and killing Sergeant Raul Lagarde.

A quick glimpse at my sensors confirmed what I already knew, - we were facing 'Mechs with advanced weapons. Oh, shit.

'General alert! We have Star League 'Mechs ahead. Proceed with extreme caution.'

Changing the channel (so you want to play rough? I'll give you the rough game) I called our artillery giving them the coordinates where the Griffins had landed again, behind the hill. Changing channels again, I called our ASFs who were on patrol and ordered a strafing pass with rocket pods, which I knew they had loaded, in the same area as soon as the artillery finished their mission.

Fortunately for me, the ASFs on patrol were the two Vulcan that the Revenants had, both types being ASFs particularly good on support missions as they were able to carry a large number of rockets and had a pair of AC/10 that gave an extra 'punch'. As soon as the ASFs started strafing, my 'Mechs advanced at full speed with Georgina being the first to climb the hill, making excellent use of her Merlin jump-jets. When I finally reached the top of the hill thanks to my Nightstar's cursed slug speed, it was all over here, the two Griffins were destroyed, having been hit several times by all kinds of weapons.

Fortunately, the rest of the enemy forces had no more advanced weapons, making their defeat easier thanks to the use of our extra long-range weapons adding to our account, 1 destroyed Thunderbolt, 1 captured Cicada, 2 Withworths (one captured and one destroyed) and 2 destroyed Locusts. Luckily, I didn't lose anyone else in this battle, even though several 'Mechs were damaged and two 'MechWariors were wounded. As anti-climax, both DropShips surrendered without any further troubles, realizing that against my ASFs, artillery and with the capture of their JumpShip, it was useless to try to escape.

After the battle, I took some time to check the only ER PPC still intact but I couldn't link it to any model that was in my database, which had every version from the first-ever made by the Hegemony to the beginning of Amaris' Crisis. Where the hell did this gun come from? Unfortunately, both 'MechWarriors were dead and couldn't enlighten me.

The report from the intelligence team that was with me, which included an in-depth analysis of the DropShips and JumpShip computers as well as 'robust' interrogation of the surviving pirates only reported that they had recently had contact and equipment exchanges with a notorious black market group controlled by a Notker Baumann. Was this the supplier of advanced equipment of unknown manufacture? I had to find out now that the last pirate group that Kamea military had indicated to me was eliminated.