38

Because Mechdur didn't have the capacity to produce any "advanced" technology, the equipment supplied to the units of Kamea's army was limited. The tanks, APCs and IFVs only had ICE engines and missiles (SRM and LRM), cannons (AC/5) and machine guns (HMG) were the norm for their weapons and energy weapons (lasers and PPCs) the exception. Likewise, the infantry had decent ballistic weapons and rockets (LAW and SRM) and Flak armor with energy weapons or ablative armors being almost non-existent.

That said, with the support of my Revenants, I was confident that we could succeed and on the 25th​ of January 3031, 4 infantry regiments supported by the Revenants invaded Herotitus in order to claim the planet on behalf of the Aurigan Restoration.

Gabriel Fur' Seng-Gang, the Planetary Ruler, had little more than a small police force to maintain order, despite is best efforts to obtain a 'Mech mercenary unit to beef-up the planetary defenses, and was not exactly stupid. As soon as he learned of the number of forces that had landed and of their goal, he declared his allegiance to Kamea and immediately accepted the integration of Herotitus into the Restoration, thus ensuring his position and a peaceful transition.

Although Herotitus was a Mercenary Star, even if on a much smaller scale than Galatea, there were almost no mercenaries present when the Revenants arrived, due in no small part to the war going on between the Magistracy allied to Andurien against the Capellan Confederation that had attracted almost all the mercenaries in the area. What was left was too badly equipped or had such a low reputation that no one wanted them, not even Seng-Gang. Interestingly, a good percentage of them left the system soon after we arrived and took control...

Herotitus was important to Kamea not only as a source of income but also because it exported food, something that unfortunately was still very much needed by the Aurigan Restoration, in spite of the improvements over the recent years.

As soon as the situation on Herotitus was stabilized, which thanks to the "cooperation" of the local authorities took only a few weeks, we departed for our next target: Detroit. On the 4th of March 3031, we arrived at Detroit. With one regiment staying on Herotitus, our forces were slightly smaller.

Unlike Herotitus, Detroit didn't have a centralized government, but this doesn't mean we had it easy to secure the planet as the opposition being several independent forces, it took us time to secure the planet, since we had to deal with all of them.

And one of these groups had advanced weaponry… that is for the era. Fortunately for us, they were few in numbers and little more than thugs leaving us the full advantage of superior numbers, training and material. 

This time we didn't capture any 'advanced Mech', we 'only' found several 'Mechs, or more precisely what was left of them, with different pieces of very advanced equipment. The 'robust' interrogation of the survivors of that group, as well as the detailed analysis of their computers and records, revealed not only that, as I had been expecting, they had obtained the equipment from Notker Baumann but it also gave us the location of Baumann's base, a group of coordinates in the Mantharaka system, 41.3 light-years away from Detroit. 

The first prize of this conquest was that several groups, including the one with advanced equipment and another one formed by survivors of the forces from Espinosa had several JumpShips and DropShips in the system, allowing us to easily capture an Invader, a Tramp, two Unions, one Triumph, one Jumbo and one Leopard. However, unlike last time, Kamea had looked at the contract and made it so that any captured JumpShip or DropShip would be delivered to her, meaning I just got the salvage left by the 'Mechs and vehicles.

However, the real prize was the world itself. Detroit was by a wide margin, the most industrialized independent system in the area, almost as much as Mechdur and in some areas even better. On it were the repairable ruins of an Earthwerks Limited facility capable of producing light, medium and heavy units, ranging from tanks, to Mechs or even Aerospace Fighters. In the lore that I remembered from my universe, it was the basis for the Detroit Consolidated group of factories built in the 3060s. It would probably take time and money (a lot of both) but the Aurigan Restoration and perhaps I too would have something to play with.

As soon as the system was considered safe enough and after exchanging messages with Kamea, (It is strange how these independent systems all had HPGs, while many systems in the Aurigan Restoration didn't), I left one of the Revenants battalions with Kamea's regiments in Detroit and left with the others three for Mantharaka