Pt. 14 Mercs

 

The Clan

 The proposition Cat offered us was high risk/reward, an assignment at the edge of our capabilities, we assembled the Council, and 4 to 3 we decided to take the job.

  My name is James, but they call me JR Gibbons, Chieftain of the Conchos tribe, and head of the Mercenaries Guild, that job I did not want, but when you are herding cats, maybe you need a Dog. Our story goes back centuries, to a tale preserved by my Great Grandmother. I come from a line of mercenaries, going back some 600 years, from freedom fighters to Weapons designers, our clan was built for war, and still is. Our Motto is, “No glory without Sacrifice”

And as the new hires file into the Academy, they are reminded of the sacrifice our founder made, his words etched in the finest White marble, a testament to his greatness, and our visionary.

 

 JR Gibbons (1829-1865}

  Letter written by commanding officer after leaving the grave site of James R Gibbons.

Lieutenant James R Gibbons of Company C Barry Battalion Southern States Frontier Regt.

 

On the 8th day of Jan 1865 Lieutenant James R Gibbons fell mortally wounded in the battle with indians in the Dove Creek Battle. He lived until Jan 16th. A braver officer than Lieutenant Gibbons was never sworn. He was a freemason, a Christian, a good man and a true soldier. He was respected by those who knew him best.

We can not call him back so let us revere his memory on the banks of the Concho. Far in the distant west lies

this brave warrior in his quiet peaceful rest.

S G S McGarry

 

Plans of the Cat

 Lord this man is tedious, he understands every aspect of our journey, and the potential for action, how does he know?

 Gentlemen hello, I am Cat Fletcher, and I command the Leopard, as you know Seamus and I have made some new discoveries, and some new problems have come up. While the Tuyani are highly intelligent, they possess no defences to speak of, they say they are explorers, nothing more, I do not believe them for a second. I let that sink in, it worked.

However, the CCP is headed towards a Titania object in hopes of harvesting the Titanium, and the Tuyani has asked us to deal with the situation, we have already been given coordinates to some rich rocks in payment, and we don’t need the CCP in our way anyway.

 

 “1 Billion Quats” my men’s jaws dropped, this would be the biggest run in our history, then it got better, “Elon has seen fit to equip us with latest Railguns, for a modest fee” Just what I needed to hear, we agreed to terms and with two weeks, we prepared..

 

Mars Prime

As soon as I landed on the promenade I heard the news, Kerry had been lost in a Nuke accident on Nephilium, the old testing ‘roid, and the entire thing was vaporized, to the Sun, as the saying goes, Painful, but I had business first…

 I found my usual sleeping place, dressed for the Evening and headed downstairs to Rose’s Cantina. As I sat and ordered my usual Ale, I wasn’t really looking for women, having lost two in as many months, so I was surprised to see Tangent. She was an old friend who wanted nothing to do with me, and it was good to see her. Of course she wanted to sign on as my cook, alas I declined. This one was tricky, and we may not come back in one piece, if at all, she understood, and we finished the evening in comfort.

 

JR

  We had 14 days to prepare, this meant 11 days of prep, 2 days to say farewell and then load out Day. Many militaries don’t understand our ways, but we are pay to play and take our work seriously, we do the hard jobs first, and relax later. Gunny Cole set up the infantry with updated rail rifles, they had some unique abilities, as we found out. Our weapons officer was a man named Patton, and was having some issues with mass distribution installing the new, much larger Rguns, so we called Elon.

  “ JR, you’re ready to go, the upgraded mounts should work out, and I added a special touch to it all, the guns can be jettisoned and then self-destruct, giving you an opportunity to run. Of course the destruction of the guns is, how would you say, spectacular? Take this under advisement” With that, Elon returned back to his lair as we concluded our business here, tomorrow was load out, and then 6 weeks to somewhere..

 

Time to fly

The Conchos had 12 ships, 2 Companies of Infantry.and light artillery, I had Leopard, Moria, and a Company of fighters amongst my crew, we were ready for a fight, with who? We’ll assume it’s CCP, but we are eyes wide open, six weeks of 15 G, Let’s Go!

To be Continued,