Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Two: Where Were You?(Intelligence gathering)
Outreach, November 26th, 3035
"Brace for Impact Nat," I told my wife as we prepped the HPG on the Messenger to receive an incoming HPG communication. "I feel that our going AWOL may have happened at an awful time."
"Where the hell have you been?!" Hanse asked angrily as soon as the HPG established the connection. "We've had people looking for you since February!"
"We went out chasing a rumor of an old Terran Hegemony R&D facility," I replied after Hanse had vented a touch. "It wasn't on the standard star maps so we had to navigate carefully lest we vanish entirely." I smiled, "I'm sorry that we were off-grid, but we did find the facility, and we recovered some of the things we have been missing in our attempts to get us back up to the level of technology we're trying for Hanse. That alone made the entire trip worth it, we found the middle ground finally." I grinned from ear to ear. "We'll be able to finally instruct the intermediate levels without having to individually tutor every single scientist and engineer that we have."
"That's good to hear, Mark," Hanse sighed. "But I need you to change gears entirely. We're at war, and while we've got the war front handled I need you and Sortek to be working on the intelligence gathering portion."
"What do we lack intelligence on?" I asked as I began looking over the data that was being transmitted along with the actual audio.
"The Word of Blake, (which is what we're calling the radical elements of Comstar) has some sort of mysterious ally. I need you and Ardan to begin going over everything that we have available to track down these allies. The last thing we need right now is another enemy that we know nothing about to strike from the shadows."
"I'll start compiling everything and begin sending out some of the available spy Jumpships and dropships as soon as I get in contact with Dunham," I replied. "But knowing how this kind of work goes it may be months before we find anything useful Hanse."
"We've got the Outworlds Alliance handled, you don't need to go get in direct combat for now, but this, this is where I need you the most at present," Hanse explained. "That and making sure that David can focus on logistics while he's out in the Periphery. He's been trying to run both the Terran March and the logistical needs of the campaign."
"We've got that handled Hanse," I replied. "I'll get to work and send you a response once I'm back on one of the planets that are more able to handle the processing power that is required."
"Copy that," Hanse replied. "Oh, and Mark, if you ever pull anything like this again you can expect a visit from me personally to deliver your punishment. Davion Out."
"Well, I guess we better get to work right?" I asked Natasha who was seated next to me.
"No, I believe it is you who has to get to work in that area," Natasha smirked at me. "I have to finish the paperwork documenting the two new Hull children."
"Fine, but I expect you to help once we reach Luyten," I replied. "Because we're heading there next to make use of the computers that we installed there all those years ago."
Moving to Outreach's zenith point, November 30th, 3035
"Are you sure that you're okay with this mission, Major?" I asked MacIntosh as he and two of his lancemates began to do quick checks on the mechs that we had refitted for them.
"I'm positive," MacIntosh replied. "You have enough people guarding the twins for now, and my people need to get some action. We have been cooped up in cryostasis for far too long."
"Well, here's a letter for my son," I handed MacIntosh a sealed envelope. "This is confirmation of your orders, and I'm sending Regina Levi and Janice Viola to round out your fireteam."
"I want your word, Hull," Major Ian MacIntosh of the Black Watch met my eyes directly. "I want your word that you'll ensure that those children live no matter what happens."
"I swear that I'll do whatever is possible to make sure that they live Ian," I responded while gripping his arm in a warrior's farewell. "Those are my kids now, and I'd do just about anything to avoid losing another kid."
Seeing something in my eyes at that response, Major MacIntosh gripped my arm in return before turning to finish his preparations.
"Godspeed Major," I said as the Confederate class dropship detached from the Manassas and began to speed towards a waiting Jumpship with a Lithium-Fusion battery. "Godspeed."
Lutyen 68-28, December 5th, 3035
"I hate sitting at a desk like this," I moaned to myself as I combed through data with the aid of some basic search engines that Rook and I had created ourselves. "Data collection is easy, it's figuring out what's important that's the hard part." I reminded myself as I continued to sift through the massive amount of data that MIIO and Dunham had been collecting over the last year and a half.
"Did you find anything yet?" Natasha asked as she entered the office that I had commandeered.
"No, but maybe a different viewpoint might help," I replied as I showed her some of the main data points that Dunham, Ardan Sortek, and myself had agreed on were critical areas.
"Why are you focused on this?" Natasha asked as she pointed to things that we had sorted as linked together.
"Because we're fairly certain that those are things that are tied to specific known groups," I replied.
"Well, take them out of that and shuffle them in with the rest of the events that you noted as important, and then trace them back in time," Natasha gave me advice. "Don't just use the most recent timeframe, but see if there are other similar events in the past as well to help you make an informed decision."
"Sometimes I forget that you are good at this kind of thing too," I said as I brought my wife in for a kiss.
"Just because I do not enjoy it as much doesn't mean that I have forgotten how to properly do the things that I was trained in," Natasha scoffed at me. "I enjoy the thrill of combat, but I cannot get to the point of combat if I cannot chase the enemy down where they are laired at."
"Huh," I said as I tapped the pen that I was using on my lips. "Laired at?" I wrote it down. "Why is that important?" I began to go through the files again, but instead of sorting them, I threw them all into an unsorted spread to see if different potential points might be linked together instead of just assumed and grouped together that way.
Natasha just smirked and left the room while I was deep in thought.
"I'm going to need Rook's help," I decided after a moment. "There's something here that I'm missing."
Author's note: Sorry that this chapter is a day late. I've had a pretty bad week and it showed in my motivation to write yesterday. Hopefully things will improve over the next couple of weeks and I'll be able to put out more chapters.