Convictions

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

HQ Helm Defense Force

Freeport

4 March 2785

Major Keeler was sitting in ops watching his staff work, for a militia they were quit efficient and he was very proud of it.

Sir, patrol Delta has not reported in, they are 5 hours overdue. Lt Wallace said.

And I am just hearing about this now!!! the Major replied, so much for efficiency he thought, out loud he said. Where were they patrolling Lt?

Lewieville on the east coast. Replied Wallace

Order Alpha Company and Echo Company to patrol he paused and looked at the map, if a patrol went missing something was up, just the day before several satellites malfunctioned, and that civilian dropship had an emergency and landed at Drango, something is defiantly wrong. Then he saw it, have both companies start out at Lewieville, place Alpha Company in the lowlands and Echo Company up in the hills have them move west paying attention to the riverbed, along the way.

Ummm yes sir, what are they looking for?

The Major sighed, ok maybe some of his men are not as smart as he thought. We are looking for an enemy, an enemy of Mechs

****

Town of Lewieville

Both the Alpha and Echo Company Commanders were interviewing the locals, most of them talk about how the enemy mechs marched out of the water and attacked the patrolling militia mechs without mercy and then left the town untouched, which left the local impress and in awe to this strange unit, whoever they were, they did take all the flatbed trucks (full of salvage) from a local transport company. All the locals seem to think that the mechs went south but that just did not jive with Captain Henson of Echo Company.

Captain Jackson, why would the Major send us west along the riverbank if the enemy went south?

I am not sure Captain Henson, either he has some other type of Intel or it is just his gut feeling that whoever these warriors are they are after Star League depot and not the planet. Jackson looked up to the sky and then said, either way they have two days head start, they are not setting off any radar or seismic alarms so they must be moving pretty slow, if we head south like the locals suggest we could catch them by this afternoon. I think if we go south for 100 kilometers and we dont catch up then they must have doubled back somewhere and went the riverbed way.

Yep, just what I was thinking we could still catch up to them in the middle of the night if they maintain the slow speed. Henson said.

****

200 kilometers east of the city of Drango

Riverbed

Night Camp of the Siegers

Things was going pretty good Major Chapman thought, maybe just a little too good. So far two days after the initial battle there have been no signs of the militia, unfortunately as slow as they were moving they still had another day to make it to the city of Drango, the city at the foothills of the mountain range that if the information provided by General Hayes is correct has the Castle Brian and the warehouses either built on mountain range or in them. The Major, knowing how Star League had operated didnt think they would have warehouses just sitting on top of the mountains so best bet there are hidden access points to a big natural or man-made cavern.

He just got up to go see his XO and bounce off his thoughts on her to see if it made sense, when the call came that he knew would happen but hoped it wouldnt.