Chapter One Hundred and Twelve: Truth, in Everything
St. Ives, April 25th, 3026
"You're finished here Duchess Candace," Hull said over open comms. "You're down to the last of your effective forces on St. Ives."
"Then come finish us off then." Candace replied. "We know you want to kill us all off anyway."
"So be it." Hull responded before swapping over to the Ducal Guard's encrypted channels. "Bring 'em down Mathis, and try to keep as many of them alive as possible."
"Copy that sir, springing the trap." Mathis had two companies of Mithril hidden in the area over the last few weeks of fighting, and they had been patiently waiting for this moment. When Mathis gave the signal, two fireteams deployed from orbit, crashing down to create a distraction, while the rest of the battalion of infantry swarmed the company of Battlemechs that Candace had left, using their jump jets to leap onto the massive machines of war, and using shaped charges to break into them
Mathis himself had jumped onto Candace's mech, grabbing the entry hatch, and using the enhanced strength on his Mithril, yanked the hatch open, and climbed in. Hitting the override switch, he shut down the assault 'mech and knocked Candace unconscious with a short and "gentle" blow to the head.
"This is Mathis, one Duchess packed up and ready to relocate when we're done here." He reported.
"Good work, that was the last of the conventional forces left on St. Ives, now all that's left is making sure that we don't end up a smoking ruin." Hull replied. "Have Liao moved to the prison dropship with the rest of the senior officers."
"Copy that sir." Mathis replied. "Moving POWs to secure areas." He moved Candace into the jump seat and strapped her in while administering a mild sedative that he carried for jobs like this before using some tech that Rook had sent with him to factory reset the 'mech and change it's IFF. "This is Guard Dog, I have captured enemy equipment and am moving it back through, do not open fire."
"We see you on our scanners "Guard Dog, "Bring her on home."
March 17th, 3026
"Calderon, we managed to find the nukes scattered throughout the Earthwerks factories." The TMI liaison reported. "And we interrogated the local MASK head as well, they have at least two to three cells left on the world somewhere, and it may take years to locate them all."
"As long as we managed to get all of the Death Commandos then I believe that we'll be fine." Zarantha replied. "It is such a shame that Colonel Ridzik died, he would have been a fantastic source of information for us."
"Indeed Ma'am." The Liaison replied. "Edward reports that he's holding down the factories, and that the garrison forces have just landed in his area."
"Good, let's get our 'mechs repaired, and the salvage distributed. We need to be moving on, after what happened to Northwind, we need to move on to Sian ASAP if we want to end this madness."
"Ma'am, our latest reports before the Interdiction was that Peterson and the 1st Marksman were on Capella, if we want to help ensure a victory, then we need to be certain that we have the numbers to do so."
"That's the plan, that's the plan." Zarantha Calderon replied.
Capella, February 28th, 3026
"That was the last major cell, sir." Jones reported. "Getting the people of Capella involved helped out tremendously."
"No one wants to be vaporized by a Nuke or killed by a nerve agent." Peterson replied, "And it helped that De Salvo was assisting, he is a face that they believed they could trust after having been stationed here for so long."
"Well either way, less death and destruction can only be a good thing." Jones replied. "We may not want to move onto Sian though, if this is what was waiting for us on Capella, I don't want to imagine what is waiting for an invasion force there."
"Jones, we're staying put until I get orders otherwise." Peterson said, "And I'm having Bruce do a quick survey of the yards up there, both the Rashpur-Owen's yards, and the other destroyed ones, to see if there's anything that can be done to repair both of them."
"Just make sure he does the surveying from the Defender. We can't afford to lose a Warship like that."
"He has a few of the engineers that were working on the New Rhodes shipyards on the Defender." Peterson reminded Jones. "So he's going to send some of them over in small craft to survey for repairs."
Liao, March 3rd, 3026
"We've been ordered to take Liao instead of moving onto Capella," Packer reported to his senior staff as they entered the jump point. "I'm not exactly sure what to expect, but we may have to deal with a regiment or more on the planet."
"We're going to broadcast a surrender offer as soon as we are in communications range." Packer stated. "And then, we'll send a courier to go get orders from Davion High command."
"We've got a Pueblo with us sir." Packer's XO said, 'Why would we send a courier?"
"Because the Jumpship that has the Pueblo with it won't have to go as far to get new orders." Packer said, "It'll be a shorter trip that way."
"I understand sir."
"Any further questions?" Packer asked. "Good, let's go see about taking another world, and moving on to wherever we are needed next."
March 7th, 3026
"Oh thank the gods that you're here." Came over open channels. "This is Colonel Samantha Vincent of Vincent's Commandos. I am speaking for both my forces, and what's left of the 1st Confederation Reserve Cavalry, we were going to surrender earlier, but we've been dealing with Maskirovka trying to kill us off ever since then, thankfully they didn't use the WMDs on us yet, but it's only a matter of time if what I heard before the Interdiction was correct."
"Meet us at the LZ we set up, if you power up a weapon then you'll be wiped out." Packer said. "But if what you say is true, then we'll need to coordinate in order to make sure that we all make it out alive."
Sarna, March 15th, 3026
"Well, that didn't go as I expected." Hanse observed to the surrounding Crucis Lancer COs and the Davion Assault Guards CO as well.
"No sir, we're detaching some of the New Avalon Militia to help garrison Sarna now." Marshal Winston Ashley reported. "Along with a Detachment of MIIO and DMI to help them root out the last of the MASK cells that might be there."
"I didn't expect them to just immediately surrender like that though." Hanse said as he thought out loud. "We may want to leave behind a company of 'mechs, just in case they need the firepower."
"We've got several lances of Gladiators, Swordsman, and Von Rohrs in the New Avalon Militia we can leave here." The New Avalon Militia Colonel spoke up. "We can leave a mixed company behind, and continue on our way."
"That's good to hear." Hanse replied, "We're leaving in two days, make sure everything is worked out, I'll be reviewing the logistics myself along with going over plans with the Colonel here."