The man on the screen introduces himself as Roderick Black, the chairman of the Outworlds Alliance, and after some tense moments, both sides accept that neither side is looking for a fight – in fact, Black has a proposal for the Agamemnon.
Colonel Becker, Stella, Mitch, and a small detachment of marines take a transport to Black’s jumpship, the Hard 8, along with all of Black’s people from Persephone who wished to remain in his employ. He offers the officers dinner and explains his proposal (between attempts to seduce Colonel Becker). It seems that two Clan assault frigates had pulled into Prinis Prime a few months previous and have kicked the Outworlds Alliance off the planet, securing the H3 fuel refinery there. Losing the refinery is forcing the Alliance to import fuel from the Draconis Combine, which could collapse the Alliance economy and cause starvation. Black offers the Agememnon fair Outreach rates for a force of their capabilities to reclaim the refinery.
During the battle for Prinis Prime, Black did manage to capture one of the Clan elementals. Becker attempts to question him, but receives only a fanatic statement that the Agememnon crew may “be of the people, but you are not of the chosen”.
Becker agrees to the terms of the contract, and after charging the K-F drive, Agamemnon jumps to Cerberus, the capital center of the Outworlds Alliance. They lay over there for two weeks while Jameson and Sims head to the capital and acquire supplies and recruits. Sims returns with consumables and a number of valuable Battlemech components, and Jameson with a hundred and fifty elite recruits who had formerly been dispossessed. While in Cerberus, the Agamemnon crew also pays their last respects to Master Chief Fagan.
Agamemnon jumps to Rushaven, where the new recruits train. While in-system, Becker arranges for a large quantity of the holocaust data to be stashed in deep space, to be found in case the ship is lost.
After charging her K-F drive, Agamemnon jumps to Prinis Prime. As they approach the single small planetoid, Stella recognizes it as the same planet she retrieved Alexsandr Kerensky from two hundred years previous – the fact that the planetoid hosted a pre-Exodus cache and now the Clans have secured it is far too much of a coincidence.
Agamemnon closes on the two frigates, identifying themselves as Clan Ghost Bear frigates Claw and Ghost Dancer – however the ship’s computer recognizes the drive signature of the latter as the SLDF Alabama, which was a member of the 9th Fleet at the time of the Exodus. She has a brief flashback, remembering a moment when Major Summerville had proposed to her after receiving a commission to command Alabama. As they approach, it occurs to the staff that it’s likely that Captain Millet’s security system hack could possibly still be in place on the Clan vessel, and Summerville attempts to establish a communication channel with the ship’s computer.
As both sides deploy fighters and approach weapon’s range, Summerville exclaims….
“Holy shit…I think I have control of the Alabama.”
3010-11-26:
Now that got interesting.
I have to admit I had not expected to be met by mr. Black himself. Some of his people, yes. But it seems he mobilised pretty much everything he had when he prepared to meet us. Which made perfect sense, I suppose. His men got a message out before we took them out. That was obvious before we even left the system, since we did receive new messages along with the old ones.
I might have been overly cautious when he wanted to meet with me, but the Agamemnon might well be the most powerful warship in the known galaxy, and I would prefer not to do anything that puts her at risk. At more risk than necessary, that is. There were quite a few people who wanted to talk, and I suspect that at least some of them would do anything at all to get their hands on what might be one of the most powerful warships in the known galaxy.
It did seem, however, that mr. Black was more worried about my intentions. It seems our enemies have started their move into more inhabited space. Two assault frigates have taken over his refinery, and he wants our help getting it back. He’s offering to pay quite a sum for it, and while I did not intend for us to do any mercenary work, being paid to do something I’d have been willing to do anyway is quite ok.
His prisoner was interesting. Clearly, a fanatic. His reactions were interesting. He recognised the Agamemnon, which means that they still remember something, at least. And what he said, about us “being of the people, but not of the Chosen”, it rings of religion. And if it is, it is bad. There is no arguing with religious fanatics. It can, however, be exploited, so what I need to find out is whether it really has become a religion, and if so, their view on Agamemnon, Kerensky, and the Exodus.
It seems their goal is Terra. That they think they have some claim on it. Well, it is something, I guess, though I suspect Natasha Kerensky will be able to give me the answers I need.
3010-12-06:
The jump to Cerberus went well. And none of the crew wished to leave when they were told what I’m planning. It’s a good crew, and that, we’ll need in the weeks and months to come.
Jameson and Sims left to restock; Sims to buy resources we need, Jameson to find recruits, which we’re in desperate need of. From what I understand, the recruits will be fairly easy. We have mechs and ships, so any dispossessed would be eager to sign up. Add to that the fact that they’ll be serving on board the Agamemnon, which really seems to have some status of a legend in these days, I think we can safely assume that the ones we’ll get will be good, just unlucky enough to have lost their mechs.
I’ve also started preparing a cache with a lot of the data we have on technologies, science and so on. Should the worst happen and the Agamemnon not survive the coming battle, at least the knowledge should not be lost. I’ll set a timer on it to start broadcasting in a year; if we haven’t picked it up by then, someone will find it, and hopefully be able to put it to good use.
3010-12-20:
We arrived at Rushaven with no incidents, and with a crew boosted with an additional 150 men and women. Things are looking less grim. We’ll spend a few days here to let them become aquainted with their new vehicles, and to work together with the rest. I might be imagining things, but I swear some of them were close to tears when they saw their new toys.
3010-12-31:
The cache was dropped just before we jumped. If it is lost, well, then someone gains the technology in a year, but it is not as if I hadn’t intended to give people back this anyway, just not everything at once.
The jump to Prinis Prime went well. And one day, I’ll probably stop writing that after every jump. But not with our fatal jump a few months and more than two centuries ago still in mind.
Captain Ives recognised this place; she picked up general Kerensky here, and there’s a cache here. I very much doubt that this is a coincidence.
Two ships are headed our way. Clan Ghost Bear ships, the “Avenging Claw” and the “Ghost Dancer” are headed towards us. Although the “Ghost Dancer” is an old friend. It had another name before, the “SLDF Alabama”. The ship that Summerville would have taken command of, had we not had our misjump.
I suppose I need to give them a chance to surrender.