Iron Tigers
Current Status: Styk, Capellan Confederation; En Route to Zenith Jump Point

November 14, 3067
Styk, Capellan Confederation
En Route to Zenith Jump Point
Dropship Fortune Hunter


As the tall, lanky redhead with the grease stained coveralls walked out through the door, it swished shut. Blix sat down in the chair opposite the brunette woman in a black leather jacket, urban fatigues, and combat boots. Her short hair was pulled back in a ponytail offering a full view of the asian heritage reflected on her face. Her eyes washed up and down Blix's figure, a flicker hidden behind a casual blink that everyone missed. Except the former Blake's Wrath operative. Keith put down a noteputer and rubbed his eyes. Sleep would have to wait for most of the officers and crew. Keith popped a pair of aspirin and cleared his throat.

"Major, I'm ass-deep in paperwork, so I'm going to keep this short and sweet. With the addition of McCabe and her soldiers, I want to retask your orders. As you know by now, Outreach has been hit by renegade mercenaries. What you may or may not know yet, is that the renegades were backed by the Word of Blake. The Dragoons won't take this lying down, neither will the rest of the Allied Mercenary Command. And that makes it a lot tougher for the rest of us mercenaries until the MRBC sets up shop somewhere else. Rumor has it, it's going to be Galetea, but we'll wait and see. Just to put everybody's minds to rest, I've already confirmed that all our funds are still secure, so everyone is going to get paid on time." Blix shifted in his seat and crossed his arms. His legs stretched, uncomfortably, the muscles overused by BattleArmor.

"I'm going to move McCabe and her soldiers over to security detail under your direct command. If our next mission pans out, I'm looking at purchasing some BattleArmor. I want them trained how to use it, specifically anti-Mech and Zero-G operations. While you're working on that, I'm planning on filling out our MechWarrior roster then locating some more transport. If the future is half as dicey as it looks, I'm going to let you take the gloves off and run Special Ops full-time. Simply put, I need to know what the Word of Blake is doing and recommendations on how their actions will affect us and our region of operations. The data we retrieve will be passed on to Tyler first and then WolfNet, but I won't complain if it finds it way back to your friends in ComStar."

Blix didn’t have to size up the woman sharing the office with him and Keith; he’d had plenty of opportunities to do so earlier, which he had taken advantage of. He also ran a security background check on every trooper from her security platoon, including the ones who hadn’t made it back to the Fortune Hunter. Old proverbs aside Blix was distrustful of turncoats, but he had been forced to admit that there was nothing to suggest that McCabe and her people would betray Keith or his Iron Tigers. It was his problem, anyway.

“You’re assuming that I have any friends left in ComStar. As of the latest information, I’m still wanted ‘for questioning in connection to events leading up to the murder of ComStar personnel, theft of ComStar property and treason against ComStar,’” Blix recited from rote memory. “You could swing by Tukayyid and hand me over for the reward, yourself.” The words he spoke were delivered with a jovial, sarcastic humor, but the stone cold look in his eyes suggested that it might not necessarily be a healthy decision to turn him over.

The news about Outreach was already old. Captain Stuart’s last few reports had been full of the events taking place there, and the intelligence cipher sent along confirmed the suspicions of Blakist involvement. A group of four MechWarriors, hired out independently by a mysterious employer to attack Dragoons’ positions on the first morning, had violated their employer’s orders and played watchdog over a large group of civilians from Harlech. Stuart had made contact with the group, and the limited information they were able to provide to her led Lieutenant Beckwith and his cyber-warriors to backtrack the money trail, ultimately, to Gibson Transports, Limited.

Gibson Transports, Blix knew from personal experience, was a Word of Blake front company; one of their first, in fact, acquired legitimately by individual members of the Word who mysteriously turned up missing sometime in 3062. Gibson is still officially non-affiliated with the Word, which made perfect sense; only those missing Wobbies could tie to two together, which is why they went ‘missing.’ Now, as for ‘letting him’ run special ops… well, what Keith wasn’t privy to would undoubtedly let him sleep better at nights. Blix was conscientious about keeping both the Tigers and the Terrors out of the line of fire, largely by centering operations on Stuart and Beckwith and away from the other two units.

“I’ll put this lot under the careful eye of Sergeant Emory. He’s the best I have, and he has the added benefit of having experience training new people.” Blix felt badly for McCabe. Emory would run the whole group through the wringer. An armored infantry MOS was not for everyone, and even experienced conventional infantry had difficulties adapting. “As for spec ops, I believe I can accommodate you there.”

[[[END OF FILE]]]

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