Chapter 15
Defaulted Payments and Relics Oh My
Periphery
21st September, 3024
Dekker
The Hysteria dropped down through the atmosphere as I bonded with the Throne Mechanicus still only half believing the boss trusted me to run this operation myself. The job was an easy one as we were dropped off in the small mining town, "Medusa, you're our flusher, Warspite, Spike, with me, we're making an advance to the nearby mining facility these corporate toadies took."
The Lazarus snarled out its war cry and the Armigers howled like a pack of faithful hounds in response. The Volkite Chierovile pulled to the right trying to follow Spike before a snarl of my own brought the recalcitrant machine spirit back in line, its whine of anger calmed by the promise of violence to come. And it did not take long for that to show as the Auspex on Medusas Armiger picked up movement at the first site. A Locust, Spider and Vindicator came out to meet us, and I felt nothing but contempt as they tried to defend the facility as the owners made vague threats towards us.
I spared a moments remorse as their defenders moved up, and the first weapons fire of the day was the PPC on the Vindicator aimed square at the head of the Lazarus, not understanding the pilot was shielded all too well and safe. The enemy's turret control centre was here and I could not afford for them to keep their defences online. "Warspite, Spike tear apart the Locust and Spider, feel free to take your time.." I recoiled from the intrusive thought from the machine spirit, "But be merciful about it."
I stepped up before the Vindicator as it attempted to backpedal quickly, its weapons lashing out at me in bright bursts of actinic light. "Medusa, take out the Turret Generator. I've got this Vindicator."
The mech could not have fully understood its predictament as I fired the Graviton cannon, the mass of the machine bringing it to a halt under the introduction of unknown forces, pinning it in place as unholy light gathered around and the Volkite cannon fired.
I had seen the Thermal Cannons turn Assaults into molten masses, the battle cannon blasting apart a mech like it had suffered an ammo explosion, but the Volkite Cannon?
I don't think I'll ever truly sleep again, the heat ray had real force behind it and the ablative armour appeared to ripple like cold fat introduced to a grill plate and melt away from the point of impact, the meagre vegetation nearest the Vindicator caught alight from the waves of heat being emitted as the entire mech turned into a conflagration as the very metal burned.
The head burst open and the flare of an ejection reached me all too late to stop it, the machine spirit was slow to respond to a call to stop even as I through my entire will into ordering it to cease fire.
The pilot of the Vindicator burned as his or her ejection seat cast him high into the atmosphere.
The other mechs had not fared any better, though Warspite and Spike were kind enough to restrain themselves and simply go for crippling shots.
The dead Vindicator still burned. The very metal burned where the Volkite weapons had torched it. "Advance on the main HQ structure at low stride." Heading for the main corporate HQ we crested the hill and I saw them there, a dozen or so buildings including the corporate headquarters. The cliff we stood on had a path down to the small town below and I felt a moments hesitation, these people were just workers, wage slaves to some faceless corporation from the Taurian Concordat...
The moments hesitation was all it took for the Machine Spirit to blurt out a binaric warning as a pair of Shadow Hawks and a Phoenix Hawk emerged from behind the ridge and unloaded their autocannons at me, the ionic flare shield living up to its name as the Lazarus worked to undo the mild damage an AC10 had done to it, angry and hateful at its attackers.
The Warhorns blared as I snarled out an almost incoherent order to 'slay the heretics'. The rage was in full swing and the red mist had descended and I watched with horror as the Volkite weapon was lowered to aim at the HQ structure, blazing crimson light flared and the very building itself combusted under the arcane light as the plasma blaster began firing with the graviton gun. Structures collapsed under the power of the gravity weapon or as plasma blasts carved through them as the horrifying red ray played over the HQ building.
I saw them then, people trying to flee the structure lighting up like little candle wicks as the machine spirit played the Chieroviles rays over them. The Shadow Hawks and Phoenix Hawk in a running duel as rapid bursts from Thermal Spears and Meltaguns turned joints into molten connections, armour flowing like liquid onto the ground before I stole conscious and full control back from the angry machine spirit, it subsided, its wroth spent, its cruelty indulged for now. Half of the worker habitations were alight and people fled from still burning structures. Of the HQ building there was nothing left. The three mechs desperately broadcast surrender calls.
"We accept your surrender." I said opening the vox. "You will follow us to the township."
The march back was slower than I liked, the melta weapons had fused the Phoenix Hawks left leg into a solid bar of metal and the damage to the others was not inconsiderable. "Look, now we've gone this far, I'm afraid they're going to come back, so we're going to have to requisition your mechs."
"Sumire. You hear this?" I asked as the audacity of it took me aback.
"I hear it Dekker, question is what do you plan on doing about it?" The Hysteria and Warden's Rest were on their way to a landing and these poeople wanted to try this, here, now?
"We have you all locked down under our turrets.."
The Cheirovile fired, it was not the machine spirit this time though it revelled and relished what was happening as the Turret Control centre was blasted and ignited by the unholy weapon. The armored vehicles that had burst from hiding slowing to a crawl as I turned and grabbed a tower bearing one of the turrets with the Hekaton Siege Claw and crushed its supports
The speakers blared out as I opened up their circuits to my voice. "You are imbeciles, idiots and dullards of the highest calibre. You beg us for help from Comstar because you lacked the ability to turn away the corporation yourself, then compound your idiocy by attacking me? If Behemoth were here she would burn buildings until you surrendered. If Glitch were here she wouldn't stop until you were all ash beneath her feet. The boss? He'd just take out your weapons and then quite literally crucify your leaders for this."
People milled in the streets below. Terrified and waiting to hear the verdict of the machine standing over them.
"Me. I'm the 'reasonable one'. I'm just going to take these three mechs in lieu of the payment you stiffed us and send a quick message to ComStar notifying them of your default and betrayal. You'll never hire another mercenary again. And then your corporate overlords will be back, and they'll have bones to pick. Good day."
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Lotara had brought the Solar Macharius to this uncharted system that didn't even have a name, no Inner Sphere power had set foot in this system since its inception, it was possible, even probable that it never would. The fourth world was bathed in clouds of radioactive dust and storms raging unchecked since they began and I understood the true horror of what had been wrought.
Lathe. The co-ordinates had brought me home, or near to it.
The signals had brought us to a dense part of the Asteroid Belt where the vessel waited, cold and silent, it's hull vast in size. I heard Lotara draw a breath as the the Wroth brought us in closer. "Lathe Class Monitor-Cruiser." Trotter said as we came closer. "I don't believe your Uncle had named it before I was sent on my way."
"I know what he called it." I moved up to the screens showing it's increasingly large mass in our view. "Kane's Legacy. He intended me to find it, he knew all of this would happen!" The last was almost a hissed accusation.
Spoiler: Model + Specs
"But... it's impossible," Lotara said as we got closer, "it is just impossible, nothing this big was ever built in space. Not even during the Star League! The sensors tell me its just over four kilometres long! Thats over twice as long as .... anything!" She said in exasperation as Trotter sat down.
"It was an experimental ship, we could never make the Jump Drives work, I never knew why, I'm an engineer and what his Uncle built was far beyond my training and expertise, i'd need to live my life again just to get the basics of his work." Trotter said staring at it. "This ship was to change that, a third of its mass is all drives, power generation and what he called the Interstellar Displacement Drive. Kid, this is too much, you can't bring this out where the Inner Sphere powers can see." There was an almost panicked tone.
"Trotter, I know. They'd kill us all for the IDD if it works, let alone everything else. Lotara, take us into that landing bay and set us down gently." I turned back to Trotter. "But there is every chance that the crew here is alive and waiting for us, meaning their supply vaults have to be running low, we need to get them somewhere else instead of watching out dead homeworld."
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It was both better and worse than I could have imagined. The crew was indeed alive, and they had mere weeks of food left in their supply vaults. But the reason for the positive food supply was the worse part, stuck waiting, orbiting a lifeless world waiting for my arrival, suicide was the number one killer on board, and those left had started to resort to supplementing already short rations with the dead.
Stepping from the Wroth in my Knight Suit people began to gather in small numbers, worshipful and terrified. The words 'he comes' moving ahead of my passing until finally we reached the bridge, my body having been touched by more hopefuls than I could possibly have imagined.
A corpse sat upon the Captains chair. And yet I recognised my uncles body.
An emaciated man who had the title of acting Captain stood next to it, waiting. "He waited, but the situation got worse. The Arboretum was never installed in time before things.." He looked at the world in the distance. "And he had sent out the activation keys with Trotter and you..."
Miranda clutched my arm, slightly horrified by what she was seeing. I nodded to her and she stepped up next to me on the dais as I gently removed my Uncles corpse. The dessicated flesh preserved by the sterile ship environment. "Darius, can you please?" I said to him and he took the body and carefully laid it down where it wasn't in the way. Turning back I activated my key, the little beam of code-light projectign from it as Behemoth mirrored me.
We slotted the keys into their matching positions and turned.
For a moment there was nothing. No sound. No anything. Then a trace of music as a rumble began throughout the ship, the massive mass of its plasma reactors and their automated systems coming to life, the advanced technologies throughout spurring into action. Engines began to rumble with cold light as I brought the Vox arrays online. "I'm going to try and get this ship to the Knighthold, if I stop communicating for an hour, return to the Knighthold and wait for us."
"Acting Captain, do you have a manifest?" I watched as the bridge systems came to life and the ships machine spirit rumbled into action, my implants picking up the noospheric data.
"A company of tanks, four superheavies, a handful of the experimental knights and a regiment of troops in stasis. The hangar bays have a squadron of Faustus Interceptors, one Squadron of Fury Interceptors, two of Valkyrie Gunships, one of Marauder Bombers and a pair of Warhorse Dropships configured for the Knights.."
"I thought Uncle wanted to rescue people?" I almost snapped angry.
"He did, most of the crew are people he chose to save, and there was a transport ship called the Valley Forge that has people in stasis." The man began weeping. "The bastards nuked it with everyone on board..."
I sat back in the seat and put a hand on his shoulder as more and more systems came to life.
"Sorry, I understand." I said, depression was not unknown to the me from before this all happened.
"I doubt it my Duke. Seeing your dead world every day for years... a quarter of the crew has committed suicide over the years." The number horrified me, almost nine thousand people committing suicide? That was true horror.
"Well, let's get away from here and to a new hope." I began to manipulate the Noosphere as Miranda watched one hand on my shoulder comfortingly. "Legacy, are you awake?"
The machine spirit rumbled as the cold start of her reactors was completed and her systems came online.
The Inner Sphere born looked uneasy as the machine spoke. They didn't understand its soul.
"Bring Navigation online, and tell me about the IDD procedures."
Well shit, on jump the ship would be disabled for up to ten minutes?
"Plot course for Mandeville Point indicated." The Jump Point the Solar Macharius was currently residing at, a quick vox communication indicated that we were on the way and that, the Macharius should do its best not to cross our bow. "System diagnostics."
One of the crew looked to her screen. "Drive systems are all at nominal expected readings. Weapons and Shielding are on standby. Projecting readings to your sensorium now." The noospheric readings came up and I saw some of the other systems for the first time.
"When we arrive at our destination, if we're not all horribly murdered by an unepxected event in the jump, I want the Empyrean Mantle online as soon as our down period is over. And if there is any ship there not broadcasting a Raven Guard IFF, I want it destroyed, I don't want anyone to know about this ship, not yet."
I grinned. "Then we can get you people fed for real