Collection 6

A/N: this chapter fought me for 2 weeks. 

Collection

Chapter 6

-VB-

Edward Arlaoskas

Campoleone II

3001 June

My paranoia turned out to be a meaningless. ComStar didn’t send any assassins or mercenaries after me. They didn’t fabricate any reason to deny me anything. For the most part, they left me alone as I coasted along the League’s rimward peripheral border worlds. Or maybe it was just taking longer than I expected because of the distance involved. 

Whatever the reason, I found myself doing work expected of a dropship captain … but not one that was expected from a mercenary like myself. 

I watched intently as the spaceport workers used a homegrown brand cargo hauler to load my ship’s meager cargo bay with cargo boxes. I already had Miguel move both of the mechs to one of the drone bays, which gave me jus enough room to get 100 tons of food, basic tech, and water, which should sell for higher price in the neighboring star system, Gatchina. Apparently, that world was a very dry place where people struggled to grow food. They could and did grow food with meager water, but it didn’t change the fact that life was hard there. Just like the rest of the Inner Sphere, Gatchina suffered technological regression, so more reliable and durable tech like solar panels were worth more there than most things. 

I intended to sell these in exchange for whatever processed stuff they have there. As a desert world with ease of access to many mineral resources, what little information I obtained about that world here on Campoleone stated that Gatchina did have multiple refineries. 

This was a good thing for me, too, because even if they did not make dropship and battlemech armors, I could still make a temp workshop to patch my ship with fresh material there. 

The problem then would be the planet’s natural harshness: its extreme dryness and heat. 

There wasn’t much I could do aside from buying plenty of sunscreen and water. 

-VB-

Armas Arlaoskas

En route to Gatchina

3001 June

… He still couldn’t really get it through his head that his brother made some kind of new faster-than-light system. Oh, he knew that no one in this crew would ever willingly spill this secret. He didn’t know how many jumpships were made every year, but he knew that it couldn’t be that many if attacking jumpships and their crews was a taboo. But his brother made a brand-new jump drive in under a year. 

That alone would have everyone gunning for him, but won’t happen as long as everyone kept their mouths shut. 

Even if they did, what they were they going to do? Chase after him? 

Ed’s jump drive was primitive because of its jump distance but when it came to recharge and distance traveled per day, it was superior to most jump drives out there. 

Or so he learned from asking about jump drives. 

“Wait, you want to make this ship bigger?” he asked, and Edward, who sat across from him while eating a sandwich, nodded. 

“Yup,” he hummed. “This ship is too weak to survive any concerted effort to take us down. It also lacks the level of firepower that I want out of my personal ship. But it’s not going to be easy because we can’t carry enough cargo for upgrades. It’ll have to be incremental.”

“So what you’ve been doing already?” 

“Kind of,” he replied as he finished the sandwich with one last large bite and then wiped his lips with the back of his hand. “I want to find a friendly world with a serviceable dry dock.”

“... But wasn’t there one in Campoleone?”

“Yes, but Campoleone is also well known world for mercenaries to retire to in the League. Rumors will come and go about me, and eventually, I’ll have to deal with a lot of people snooping around. That’ll be irritating at best and dangerous at worst.”

He nodded along. “Then…” he paused. “Wait, were you thinking about setting your operation in Canopus?” he asked incredulously. “I did joke before about going to Canopus, but you’re seriously considering that?”

Canopus and Canopian was a very strong insult back on Kendall as well as anything else that reminded the people back home about Canopus. This meant people scored things like aesthetic cybernetics and excessive displays of wealth. He knew that Ed wasn’t the most devout Christian, but he didn’t think that he would dive straight into the hive of wretched depravity that was Canopus. 

“Not on Canopus itself,” Ed replied with a hum. “Canopus’s only manufacturing company to speak of is Majesty Metals and Manufacturing, which has three major factories, none of which are  on Canopus. These three are supposedly on the Dunianshire, Luxen, and Ballad systems, all of which are periphery ward systems.” He reached down to his pocket and pulled out a noteputer.

Except it was far smaller and sleeker than any noteputer he knew of. It didn’t have any keypads. In fact, if it wasn’t for a metal and plastic “handle” that was a third of the noteputer, he would think it was just a rectangular piece of glass or transparent plastic.

But no.

The moment Ed pressed the only button on the side of that handle, the entire aqua blue plastic-green lit up with light, and little boxed apps showed up in neat columns and rows. Unlike the holographs and holovids shown on low quality noteputers, the colors on Ed’s personal noteputer(?) was vivid and clear. He pressed on one of the apps, and the entire screen changed to a map of the Inner Sphere. 

“Where did you even get a map like that …” Armas muttered to himself. 

Ed just looked up at him and smiled. 

Yeah, he wasn’t answering that question… but Armas wasn’t sure if he wanted that answer at all. 

It probably had to do with how he was able to do everything he’s done so far. 

… Would any of it hurt Amy?

He looked at his brother in the eyes. 

“No, not even if it’s going to cause problems for me.”

Ed didn’t reply for a moment before grinning. “Is it about your dear Amy~?” 

He felt a blush creep up. “Ed -!” 

“It’s natural.”

His older brother’s reply made him stop. 

“‘For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two shall become one flesh,’” his brother abruptly quoted. “Ephesians 5: 31.” He smiled. “It’s natural for you to worry about your new wife. She’s your love, and anything that can harm her is something you will avoid. You aren’t someone who goes out and picks a fight like me.”

Suddenly, he felt sheepish. “Well, I just …”

“Besides, you and I both know the significance of everything I’ve done so far,” he hummed. “But me getting the map has nothing to do with those. I just traded a few things I had for the map from an old dropship captain back on Campoleone.”

He let out a sigh of relief. “So -.”

“But the slate here is something I made.”

Armas dropped his head intop his hands.

-VB-

Edward Arlaoskas

Gatchina System

3001 June

Our arrival at the rimward edge of the Gatchina System was heralded by a lot of radio waves from the center of the system. 

Half of the crew was at the bridge, and all of us listened as I finetuned the receiver until actual words were coming through.

[“... tzz … the 122nd Company is gone … tzz … pirates are attacking the Boli … tzz … “]

“Fucking pirates again?” Miguel growled. 

“And they’ve all landed on the ground aside from their jumpship,” I hummed as I pinged my ship’s directional sensor toward star Gatchina. I upgraded it during the transit. After a minute, the onboard screen specifically for the sensor lit up showed an Invader-class jumpship near the nadir jump point of the star. 

“It’s an Invader, but we don’t know if it had full load or not.”

“That’s three dropships he could be carrying,” Danielle muttered. “... Are you thinking about attacking them, captain?”

Everyone turned to me, and I glanced over my shoulder. 

“Why not?” I asked. “But this is not a job like before when we were defending the grain hauler. I’ll skip out on this if you all don’t want to fight.”

Amy bit her lips and looked at Armas. 

I could guess what she was thinking: weighing the risks of getting into a fight with pirates of unknown experience and numbers … against her husband getting his own hands on a ship. Miguel looked like he was raring for a fight. Armas looked like he wanted to do the right thing, but wasn’t sure about how to go about this. 

“I think we should scare them off,” Riley, the handyman of the crew, grunted out. The young man kept chewing on his jerky stick, which has been the case since he bought a small crate of them on Campoleone. “They’re just pirates, right? They don’t want to fight to the death if they don’t have to. A few well placed shots should get them to back off, right?” 

“And where would we shoot them?” I asked. “Even if they are a pirate’s jumpship, shooting at jumpship is not a good look. And we don’t know where they are on the ground.” After I turned my ship to point its nose at planet Gatchina, I pinged my directional sensor again. Unfortunately, the planet’s massive size obscured everything else on its surface. 

“... Send me out, captain.”

I turned to Miguel.

“Miguel?”

“I’m a veteran mechwarrior. I can do some damage to them, especially if your drones support me.”

I thought about it. The Wasp Interceptor Drones weren’t at their most agile in atmosphere; they were meant for space combat. At the same time, they were far smaller than most fighters, more maneuverable than a fighter, and there were a dozen of them in my bays right now. 

“Are you sure about this?” I asked him. 

“I am,” he replied firmly with determination shining through his eyes. I also saw his old glory shining through, demanding that he get himself back out on the field as a mechwarrior. It was pride and excitement that drove him more than any tactical or strategical considerations. After all, we knew nothing about the pirate’s numbers, and sending a single Phoenix Hawk against what could be a company of battlemechs would be disastrous at best and terminally suicidal at worst. 

But Miguel wanted to ride out. To be a mechwarrior again. 

“... Alright,” I replied, making everyone else look at us in surprise. “But when I tell you to retreat, you retreat. Understood?”

“Of course, captain.”

I nodded. “Good. Then we go.” During our conversation, my ship’s battery had recharged just enough for me to do a intrasystem jump. “Miguel, we will do doing a hot drop. You will have to jump out of the dropship as I come close to the ground. I will give you the go, so go and get ready. You have less than half an hour to be ready.”

Miguel took off from the bridge toward the drone bay. 

“Daniel, Riley, Sato. You’ve all been training with the turrets. I need you all to man them.”

“Got it, captain,” Sato, who’s been quiet so far, acknowledged and left with the other two.

“Amy and Armas. Both of you will assist me in the bridge. Amy, you take care of the sensors. Armas, you aim and fire the main cannon.”

“Got it, bro,” Armas grunted as he quickly went over to the new drone control console. Amy wordlessly nodded and followed her man over to where the main sensor console was, not the screen that was next to the captain’s seat that we have been watching from.

I turned to face the front again and looked at the screen showing me Gatchina. 

Pirates were everywhere we went. Was that truly what the situation was like along the League’s periphery border or was there something else that was causing this…? 

Then I jolted as the Inspired Inventor, after months, finally gave me another charge. 

Nice. Now, what was I going to invest that in …?