The video is grainy and every few seconds shudders with a flicker.
It shows a classic Dropship bridge, expert rust seems to stain every surface.
Half of the monitors are blank and many of the workspaces are stripped back, exposing circuits and wires.
A short, shabby man stands in the centre of the room. He’s dressed in grimy blue coveralls and sports a Mohawk and heavy ink across the bald parts of his scalp and neck.
He’s holding a radio receiver connected by a looping wire to the main comms station.
But the man is surround by three figures bulky with black combat armour, Night vision googles and face mask rendering their faces vaguely insect- like.
The radio crackles: “Blackbeard... Blackbeard... are the mercs destroyed? Let us know, over.”
The grimy man looks nervously about, only to have the largest commando place the barrel of his pistol against his temple.
“Tell him yes,” the man says, his accent thick with a a rough Tikonov accent.
“And convince them. Or you’ll die.”
The smaller man swallows. He puts the comm to his mouth.
“Prime, this is Blackbeard. Confirmed. All the mercs are dead. Over.”
The big man chuckles.
“Good work.”
He pulls the trigger.
Voice one: This is, of course, an informal hearing, Captain Barrett. Just to establish the facts of last month.
Voice two: Of course.
Voice one: Specifically, the events of May 17, and 18 which saw your unit engaged in combat with our own planetary militia.
Voice twi: Of course, sir.
Sounds of water being poured and a heavy glass clunking against wood.
Voice two: Sir, at approximately 0400 on May 17, Cavalier aerospace fighters conducting low level combat patrols spotted a Union class Dropship, without the proper authorisation about 1500km north of the capital. After hauling it repeatedly, they requested permissions and engaged the craft-
Voice three: Captain, much of the earlier testimony has gone over this. Please feel free to skip ahead a few hours.
Voice two: Of course, your honour.
Coughs
Voice two: After the pirate Dropship was brought down, we were ordered into the field by our liaison.
Voice one: Colonel Mosby, correct?
Voice two: Yes, Colonel Mosby - I believe we can also refer to him as the defendant? Or one of the defendants?
Laughter.
Voice two: As I said, the Cavaliers were sent to take the craft, along with militia support. At about 0800, we encountered pirate forces. It quickly became apparent, that rather than a crashed and demoralised band of survivors, we were facing well dug in and disciplined troops from the so-called Kelly-Scott gang.
AUDIO-LOG KILO-NINER-NINER-ONE
Three Keystone: Dammit, Mo! I am getting flanked here!
Zero Alpha: Keep pushing, I see targets in the open.
Three Keystone: Anyone! I’m taking fire! Anyone!
Static
Zero Alpha: Keystone Lead, gimme Sigma-V. That friggin hill is still in the way.
Image appears:
It shows a long line of brown, dusty hills topped with thin, gnarled trees and shrubs. Behind it, the steel-gray half crescent of a Dropship can be glimpsed.
Along the crest of the hill fortifications have been set up - sheet metal and slabs of amour, obviously cannibalised from the ship.
Slit trenches run between each armoured bunker and gun barrels poke through.
Reaper: I spy two pirate lances forming up behind that hill, guys.
****
Voice two: Our artillery laid down smoke and HE, while we advanced close behind. Militia armour and infantry were to flank and swing in around behind the pirates as we attacked.
Voice one: That flanking effort did not materialise though? Did it?
Voice two: No. we lost three tanks and a Mech as we assaulted through the pirates’ fixed defence and encountered close to a full company of Mechs.
By this point, we were also taking fire form the grounded Dropship - which was relatively undamaged, despite the cosmetic work to make it look so.
I pulled my unit back into the cover of the tree line and demanded to know where the militia was.
Militia VTOLs had been carrying out strikes to our front, but the infantry and armour was nowhere to be seen.
Voice one: and then?
Voice two: I heard the radio signal.
AUDIO-LOG KILO-NINER-NINER-TWO
Saxon: Irene! All units, the code is Irene!
Four Alpha: Son of a bitch! I’m taking fire! What! That’s the militia shooting at me! The fuc-
Static
Zero Alpha: All Cavaliers, rally on me! Find out what the hell is happening!
****
COURT-MARTIAL TRANSCRIPT #7770_
Voice one: and what did you do then, Lieutenant Anderson.
Voice two: I respectfully declined the major’s order to attack our mercenary allies.
Voice three: Gentlemen, I’m looking at the submitted transcript and it states that Lieutenant Anderson suggested Major Schultz could go and make love to his mother, in a most unconventional manner. But he certainly did not use those words.
If it pleases the court, perhaps we just stick to the Lieutenant’s actions?
Voice one: please continue, Lieutenant.
Voice two: My platoon of Scorpions was locked in to the left of the mercenaries - despite our earlier orders to advance and flank the enemy.
After the major gave the order, Kessler’s lance and his attached infantry began firing on the mercs from behind.
After a short exchange with my TCs, I decided we couldn’t allow this to continue.
I ordered the platoon to wheel around and we engaged Kessler’s lance. We quickly destroyed them with mercenary support.
Voice three: According to recordings form the battlefield, Lieutenant - you placed the barrel of your laser against Lieutenant Kessler’s turret and fired until the tank exploded.
****
I still don’t understand exactly what happened. Or how we survived.
Not long after encountering the pirates, the militia turned on us.
Well, some of them did. Seemed not everyone was in on the fix.
Orders came in from on high. We needed to be taken out. Initially, we were getting hammered from both sides and just trying to fall back when the militia fractured.
See, we had lived and trained alongside these guys for months and most of them saw politician wrangling when they saw it.
It wasn’t long before I was on the line to several lieutenants and a Captain who said they either would fall back and not target us, or went all the way and joined us fighting the pirates and militia.
Made sense - these guys had watched these raiders rape their home again and again and were now getting told to to help them.
We crushed the main militia resistance and then turned on the pirates. They didn’t expect all of us and it was almost an anti-climax as we poured every gun into that Dropship, forcing the crew to quickly surrender.
A lot of pirates managed to flee the area and escape though.
But we had slightly more pressing issues.
- Taighe Barrett
Voice one: After your truce with the militia forces, you discovered the evidence, that’s correct?
Voice two: Well, yes. Eventually. It took a while to secure the area and work out what the hell was happening. Things were very tense. A short time later, a joint militia and Cavalier group searched the dropper. The radio was tuned into a militia frequency - with a militia callsign demanding to know if they had crushed us mercs yet. Later we found all the message back and forth between the pirates and government house about where to strike to do the most political damage, all the intel on other planets to direct the raiders there.
See, most of the militia was just told we had gone rogue. They weren’t in on it. But they still refused to pull the trigger on us.
A short time later we learned the government had used the opportunity to crack down on everyone else who had ever opposed them.
We knew what we had to do.
***
News at Nine - Breaking News
Fighting has broken out across the capital, with reports of Mechs and tanks clashing across the western and southern zones.
It comes just hours after the prime minister announced a massive crackdown on dissidents, claiming rogue mercenaries were working with the Greens Party and Labour Movement factions to orchestrate a coupe.
Nine has confirmed at least 10 MPs, along with hundreds of government department heads, along with unionists, members of the clergy and activists were arrested in raids this morning. There are also unconfirmed reports of trials and subsequent executions at government square, but all media organisations have been banned from the area.
News at Nine - Breaking News
Fighting continues across much of the capital, with authorities claiming the city is under attack from pirates.
This contradicts an earlier broadcast by Militia deputy commander Major General Hans-Otto Zilchmann, who earlier declared the government “corrupt” and “actively working with the pirate raiders and their Hegemony masters”.
He went on to urge citizens to rise up and actively fight the government before going off the air.
No word has been heard of him since.
There are also unconfirmed reports of militia troops firing on each other.
The Blakists are back! - The Marc Sidney Report
The Blakists are back! Remember how we fought a decade of war to keep the Robes from taking our planet and smothering it with their filthy pro-tech dogma a couple years back? Yeah, well... they’re back and they’re attacking us right now! Umgebung sold us to the Robes years ago. And now they have called their evil overlords back!
Fight them! Fight them, my people! Support your government!
NEWS ALERT (2200)
Stotzing’s new government sworn in after day of savage fighting. New Prime Minister Boris Schmidt calls for unit after predecessor’s collaboration with pirates revealed.
So, that was it. Armed with the evidence the planetary government was actively selling nearby planets to the pirates and had been allowing them to target select areas of their own world, most of the militia decided it was time for a change.
They managed to reach out to the few remaining members of the opposition, after the PM’s little arrest frenzy.
And, so we marched. It wasn’t easy - plenty of local troops refused to believe the evidence. Others probably knew about it all along and weren’t going down without a fight.
It was bitter, nasty and will continue to cause problems for a long time.
But that is the new prime minister’s issue.
And our’s I guess, too. We have re-signed with the government of Stotzing. After this shitfight, they desperate need help.
Not to mention, they’re offering a landhold and incentives to stay - and even pensions and retirement bonuses.
The Cavaliers aren’t going anywhere. But we are changing.
I spoke with Mo and Occy after the new PM was sworn in. Mo is certainly not keen to settle down just yet and I pushed him to go and do something for himself before taking over the reigns of the unit.
He’s petitioned the Marik Protectors over on Maxwell for a slot. They’re bringing him in as a lance commander, but reckon they’ll have a captain’s job coming up in the next year. He can go and learn more about command at the knee of some seriously experienced and honourable commanders.
Octavius, well he surprised me. He’s met a local boy and actually wants to settle down. The new planetary government has already offered him a job trying to reorganise everything and he seems amazingly happy.
The age of the Mechwarrior is coming to and end Occy is a testimony to that. Good luck, my son.
Jesus, I’ve come to look on those kids as my actual children. I really hope Felix would be proud. I know he would.
I also like to think he’d appreciate what we are doing here. We are going to continue to protect Stotzing, make it a place where people can be free.
I joined this unit mid-way through the Jihad and I’ve already seen a host of fallen. I’m tired of war, purely because my employer wants it. All of us are. This is maybe... hopefully... an age of peace
Colonel, where ever you are - I hope you’re happy with what I’ve done with your unit.
- Taighe Barrett