More.
The next part in this mini-story of the timeline, this is probably the most I've spent on one group at once. Normally I'm jumping all across the Inner Sphere and Clans but it's nice sticking with one thing for a change.
Onboard SLS Wasp (Potemkin-class Troop Cruiser)
Brockway, Ridgebrook Combat Region
Capellan March, Federated Suns
5th January 3083
By the time the shuttle had crossed the void between the Recharge Station and the SLS Wasp it was 04:00 hours Alex was approaching a full eighteen hours awake and although he hadn't said a word Bannister Cameron had noticed. Instead of giving Alex a grand tour of the massive Potemkin-class vessel he had insisted Alex rest and ordered Lt. Sally Roberts to take Alex to guest quarters with a promise that after some rest he would see more of the Troop Cruiser.
He did not know how long he'd slept or exactly where on the starship he was but Alex was awakened a few hours later by Sally Roberts. She informed him that the Major-General was busy in meetings and planning sessions with the Calvary's commanders and Alex would be seen shortly. Instead of business she'd taken him on a tour of the massive 1.5 million ton vessel, although judging from his initial look of the vessel it was no passenger ship. Corridor after corridor room after room each packed with equipment Sally explained that some sections of the Wasp were still battle damaged, from an unamed battle, and unaccessible making moving around more difficult and the ships commander had ordered that only senior officers from its attending DropShips were allowed on board the WarShip giving for slightly risen tempertures between the ground forces and the WarShip crew.
Eventually they made their way onto the ship's single 95metre gravity deck in one of the mess halls they got some standard SLDF MRE (Meals Ready to Eat or Meals Rejected by Everyone) and sat at one of the tables, the room was sparcly populated but Alex's AFFS uniform gained plenty of looks. "So, Combat Rations?" Alex said looking at his meal, they were not his favorite meal ever a year ago the Recharge Station had failed a total power failure causing all the food to go off for six days all they ate were combat rations until resupply arrived.
"We couldn't trust local Taurian suppliers to supply us with sufficient supplies that wouldn't be contaminated. The Exodus had been called but the McKenna Shipyards in orbit of Kathil had agreed to provide us with supplies before turning fully over to the Federated Suns, the General said he was ordered a favour or two."
"I don't understand Major-General Cameron" Alex said looking overhead at the lights then back to Sally's petite face "he's a Cameron! Why wasn't he First Lord after the Usurper was gone? Why out here, the back-end of nowhere, how did you guys miss the Liberation?" He said asking rapid fire questions, he could see Sally thinking about her response.
"In regards to General Cameron all I know is the job we were given was only being intrusted to him he had some major backing, it was his project. As to why he wasn't recalled to be First Lord, I honestly don't know, something to do with a family disagreement, this project was suited to him, but it also got him out of the way a sort of Exile. When the Exodus was called he was more than ready to follow Kerensky but we never made it that far." She said quietly looking at the table toying with her ration "what did they say about us? We just disappeared..."
"I haven't read the history on the Wasp specifically, the only name we knew you by was The Legends."
"The Legends, how romantic" Sally said pulling her legs up onto her chair under her "tell me the story"
"Well I know now some of our details are off" Alex said quietly but Sally remained silent still looking at him waiting for the story "from our perspective it was still the Reunification War, a big Star League ship had been at the Nadir point recharging its drives when something happened, its engines locked on accelerate. The crew stayed aboard trying to repair the damage and turn around the ship, it simply disappeared never heard of again, some said the Legends of old were safeguarding the ship in deep space until they were needed again. Others said it had been swallowed by the Gas Giant."
"Didn't anyone ever look for us?"
"Plenty of times there were even a couple of ships a few years that jumped into deep space between the systems deploying sensor drones searching for a sign. But now I know there was no chance of finding you."
"No chance at all." Sally said quietly "we were just gone stuck in limbo, for us one hour was missed for you and the rest of humanity almost three hundred years." She said shivering, Alex reached over the table putting his hand on hers reassuringly.
"I bet the Inner Sphere is completely different now." she whispered quietly turning her hand linking it with his.
"In places, I wonder if Brockway will ever change."
"From what I've seen the people are friendlier now." She said with a smile.
"Bridge to Roberts, get our guest up here on the double, something's happened." Both immediatly got up and headed off the deck as quickly as possible. The Wasp was a huge vessel just over fifteen hundred metres long with multiple decks each with near identical layouts of long corridors connecting port to starboard and ventral to dorsal hulls. Huge pressure doors which could close were positioned ever ten metres or so to contain any potential hull breaches. In the zero-gravity it took nearly forever to travel deck to deck, most were not connected directly to each other meaning you had to go up and across a deck instead of straight along.
After nearly twenty minutes they arrived on the main command deck. Built similarly to the Recharge Station's Control Room the main room was an edged oval shape with the command deck at the lowest beside a huge table. As Alex entered the room he could see the table was infact a huge Holo-tank displaying the Wasp in the centre, the recharge station off to one side, the FSS Melissa Davion nearby and now several more contacts. Beside the tank stood Bannister Cameron and another man dressed in white wearing Commodore insignia.
"Taurians" Bannister spat seeing Alex enter, "welcome aboard Leftenant."
"Thank you sir, problem?" He enquired looking at the holotank and the Commodore.
"Taurian Concordat forces just jumped in demanding the Wasp's immediate and unconditional surrender." The Commodore said.
"Why?" Alex asked not understanding, the Wasp and her crew had only just gotten here.
"We don't know but they want the Wasp and her crew, identified us by name. Seems good news passes quick."
"Appears they follow their history as well." Bannister said quietly
"Sir?" Alex asked hearing the General.
"Nothing Leftenant, do you know do the Taurians have any authority here at all."
"Not with the Melissa Davion here, the Taurians have nothing that can manage her firepower, this is a Federated Suns system. But the Taurians are part of the reborn Star League, so I don't know if they can pull political pressure on Prince Steiner-Davion."
"Steiner-Davion?" Bannister asked the Steiner realm was the Lyran Commonwealth half a sphere away.
"Long story, bad experiment, paid our price for it now on our own again. Mostly." Alex added looking at the Holo-tank, the Melissa Davion was moving towards the Taurians although it hadn't gone weapons hot the Avalon-class Cruiser was trying to bully the five Taurian DropShips into leaving. "She's the Federated Suns Flagship her crew know what they are doing, haven't seen one this close though." He said with interest.
"Radiological alarm, one of those Taurians has nukes!"
"Sir, there are four hundred Federated Suns sailors aboard that Cruiser, you have to make sure they know about the Taurians." Alex pleaded watching as the Avalon accelerated towards the DropShips.
"They know." The Commodore promised recoignizing the Avalon's movement profile, the vessel wasn't just warning them off. Suddenly all six of the Cruiser's forward facing AR-10 Multi-Purpose Capital Missile Launchers fired as one engaging each of the DropShips all at once. Two of the Taurian DropShips exploded into pieces a third, what appeared to be a Buccaneer Civilian cargo carrier lost its entire wing section spinning out of control before exploding, while the remaining two craft recieved heavy damage. "Wasp Actual, Hornet deploy fighters attack Taurian DropShips." From behind and below the Wasp one of the Titan-class DropShip had been moving forward steadily during this unnoticed by Alex.
"Sir, with respect they will never have time to intercept those DropShips before they are in range of the Melissa Davion, the human body can't take that kind of acceleration."
"No it can't" he said knowingly. The Titan-class Carrier was joined by six fighters then a second six and finally a third six an entire aero wing. The fighters were all identical Alex didn't recoignize the design but all shot forward at almost four G acceleration straight away and continued to acclerate as they closed on the battle site. "Wasp Actual, Hornet, extreme prejiduce." The Commodore said into the communication system, there was no return from the Titan however the fighters continued to acclerate.
"They are going to rip themselves apart." Alex remarked focusing on the fast moving fighters "those pilots are insane." He remarked suddenly the first flight of fighters broke into three pairs of two. The first two sets of fighters headed straight for the remaining two Taurian craft. "A flying pass at that speed isn't going to do much damage, fighters travelling at those speeds can't carry that much firepower?" He asked looking at the Commodore, the Star League fighters approach was brute force no tactics at all.
"No, but then the fighter can act as a weapon." The Commodore stated plainly as the first fighter followed closely by the second slammed into the Taurian Overlord-class DropShip. Alex involantarily stepped back from the holo-tank as it showed the DropShip spin out of control. "Damage assessment" the Commodore calmly said.
"100/100, target completely destroyed Black One and Two lost, no recoignizable wreckage remains." One of the bridge crew said.
"As expected, we'll have to build more." The Commodore said turning back to the screen Alex was almost blind with rage how could he be so callous with his people's lives. "There go the second two" the Commodore remarked almost off hand as the second pair of fighters struck an Excalibur-class DropShip the first catching the DropShip head on the second slamming into the hull about half the way down. "Damage assessment"
"Vessel appears to still have power, no movement, radiologicals still lingering."
"Commit final pair first squadron, commit second squadron for Battlefield assessment." The Commodore ordered the crew moving about their duties. Moments later two more fighters intentionally plowed themselves into the remaining crippled DropShip tearing the remains of the vessel to pieces. "Damage assessment" the Commodore ordered for a final time, this time the sophisticated holo-tank detected three "Excaliburs" then turned into a debris field.
"100/100, sir mission completed."
"Good job people, Hornet, second squadron Battlefield assessment, third to CAP relief. Don't worry we'll replace those losses." The Commodore said smiling turning to Bannister.
"Well done Commodore, a good mission..." the Major-General started before Alex screamed in anger and disbelief.
"What the hell does that mean? Good mission? You lost six pilots, six fighters completely destroyed for two DropShips! The last two sacrificed against a target that was no threat!" he shouted "what's worse you" he said pointing at the Commodore "you, ordered them to do that without a single shot fired! No tactics just brute force smash them. You callous bastard how could you ever raise in the ranks, you should have stayed in your damned timewarp, we don't need your kind in this universe!" He shouted running out of breath.
"Leftenant, please some respect." Bannister said quietly
"No General, I can understand combat losses, I've seen combat losses friends killed fighting the Taurians, the Capellans. Hell I've even heard of entire wings killed in major engagements but what you just did..." he said "you never even gave them a fighting chance." He was speachless, he just looked at the expanding DropShip debris which at that point disappeared as the debris dispersed too much to be considered to be a ship.
"Leftenant, perhaps I can explain." The Commodore said manipulating the holo-tank's controls suddenly an aerospace fighter was displayed. "You see Leftenant, not a single SLDF pilot was killed in that engagement. In fact not a single aerospace figther pilot flies an aircraft for the Wasp or the Second Royal Armoured Calvary." He said as the holo image of the fighter rotated slowly, Alex couldn't see a cockpit just solid aeroframe all round.
"No pilots." Alex whispered still looking at the fighter.
"A drone Leftenant, the SLS Wasp is aptly named for this mission, this is the Mk.30AM Blackwasp Fighter (Advanced Model), this is one of the reasons this entire unit came into being." Bannister Cameron said stepping beside Alex who hadn't stopped looking at the craft, "I fit with this unit because I brought the funding and the name not because I am a fantastic commander. I know this Leftenant, in many ways I came to accept it, now in this 'new-world' maybe I can make a difference." He said the Melissa Davion had successfully moved away and the fighters were moving over the wreckage Alex quietly wondered what he'd fallen into by being involved here, maybe the station's nightshift was boring but sometimes "Legends" didn't play out in reality like you expected them.
I decided it was time to add some flash to this story.
Hope you enjoyed more along soon
Author
Topic: The Legends (Read 14644 times)