Elidere Part 2
Imperator Pax
Talon Master
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Elidere Part 2
"So you found a room full of mummies?"... they had been sealed up in an environment where bugs couldn't get to them, and had dried out so yeah maybe mummies was the correct term. "Part of a Combine regiment trapped on the planet elected to commit suicide rather than be taken prisoner," He explained as Septim toweled his face off, "Did you find anything?"
He shook his head, "No, I mean yeah you can tell this was a battlefield. My mech's sensors were warning about old munitions being buried," Something to remind the IE diggers to be sure, "But I didn't pick up anything like what you described."
That didn't mean there wasn't a communications bunker tucked away somewhere, but it had been worth a shot anyway, "Alright well what about the town?"
"Radiation levels, but really they're fine. I don't know about the coast, but its probably okay as long we don't spend too much time there. You want me to check it out?"
"Don't grow any extra fingers, but yeah, schedule taking a look and get readings. Take Chang along with you, just in case. I know the locals aren't very happy, but I doubt they'll actually take a shot at you."
"Boss all they have are Franken mechs, whats the most 'bang an AgriMech can even carry?" He didn't know the answer to that, "I'll bring Bubbles, and Beau with me. Sound good?"
"Sounds good," He replied. "My bigger concern is if we have to start making trips back and forth between Ander's Moon." Which was yes technically a habitable moon, but it was in orbit of a gas giant and was basically a baby planet in its own right... smaller than Elidere IV, but still basically planet sized.
"What do you make about that Chalice of Herne thing, they plaster it on everything. They say its from Terra."
"I have no idea Septim," He had seen the images... and it just looked like gaudy big cup to him... it was a gold cup, but he had no idea what if any non local historical significance it might have had. "Anyway we've confirmed the unit markings on the gun which seems to validate that the Regiment survived the periphery campaign."
"Couldn't someone have left the gun with family? Then bought the farm out there?"
Gene shook his head, "Date on the gun says it was manufactured after Terra was liberated." He replied, producing the engraved laser pistol and handing it over. Septim raised an eyebrow at the jade inserts, and asked if it worked, "It appears to be functional. Power cells can be recharged. No reason it shouldn't work, but the techs have other things to do." It would be something for them to play with later. "What about the chalice? What brought that up?"
"Talking to some of the locals."
"Yeah, making friends?"
Septim held for a long moment, "Maybe not friends, just that in addition to being the duke's badge of office its supposedly the sacred chalice entrusted to the planet by the SLDF." He bit down the snide response that they were turning a gaudy goblet into the veritable holy grail. "I was kind of wondering if Doctor Ford had said something about it, I mean if its from the SLDF could it be important."
He shrugged, and reiterated that frankly he had no idea, Gene sighed, "I will ask Ford about the cup, but its on Ander's moon." Or at least it should have been, but even if it wasn't he doubted they could just walk up and ask hey can we look at your holy grail, "I'm hoping we won't have to go traipsing all over the damned continent." Septim returned the laspistol, and seeing the rain starting saluted, turned up his collar and went to find the others in his 'demi lance' even as people started cursing the sudden rain storm for the inconvenience of having to stop what they were doing.
Ford... so best as Gene had understood it was still in school... in the process of still attending post graduate studies and had not at least during the little expedition he'd been involved in, had not been awarded the post nominals of someone with a PHD.... unless of course the last thousand years of human development in future eighties had changed how that was treated. However a number of people had explicitly referred to Ford as Doctor though not professor. It was entirely possible that Ford had successfully defended his dissertation before committee while he'd been shooting pirates.
"Damned weather." Speak of the devil.
--
The spate of on and off rain continued for the rest of the week slowing digging and excavations to a near crawl, and that was without having to contend with defusing old ordinance. Ford though was convinced that they hadn't exhausted the area... citing the clear evidence of battle here as that there had to be something more here. He wasn't convinced, but Ford was signing the paychecks... and the paycheck meant that this wasn't a waste of time. Gene was getting a little concerned that they might have been getting lax, but he wasn't comfortable scheduling excercises while they were still digging unexploded remains of two hundred plus old battlefields... and realistically IE probably would have complained about the risk of damaging the dig site.
That of course left the unit with academic past times to engage in. On the plus side Ford had stated that he'd be able to put them in contact with suppliers for various equipment and material that hadn't been available in the periphery. Simulator pods were at the top of that list.
He pushed the pencil and pad away, rested his chin on his hand and scowled at the attempt to puzzle out the image... or his attempts to recreate the fragment of it. He was pretty sure at least that that was a Cameron starburst, which meant nothing the symbol of the hegemony and the star league were everywhere on this damn rock so this piece of a puzzle having it on there probably meant nothing... and of course he would probably sit there and laugh if this whole thing turned out to be another wild ass goose chase that turned up nothing... but it was one more thing that Ford was convinced that they were on the right path.
... and on that path would lead them hopefully onto the exodus road. It was an obsession he simply didn't understand... "What do you think?" He asked the dark haired teen across the table.
Bahar looked up from her end. "If it is a Star League unit patch it isn't one recorded for the 63rd division."
"How far down did you go?" He asked picking his pencil back up to move it back through his figners. It was as good of an idea as any to be sure... it was sort of kind of the right shape even though it... the image had empty spaces like it was incomplete. "And if its a unit crest why is it incomplete. Ford thinks its some kind of put the pieces in puzzle."
"I went down regimental patches, would SLDF batallions have individual unit patches?"
"They would." He replied. "On the other hand I don't think we have those on file, and even if we did I doubt its that." Pulling the tables for an SLDF division break wouldn't be a bad idea, there might have been some kind of attached battalion at headquarters for a division... engineers or pathfinders, but they were largely spitballing and there was no sense pretending otherwise. Presumably any of the SLDF gear they had recovered from 'the mummies' tomb' had had their unit marks had also been checked, "What do you think it is?"
"The very top might be," She paused, "A torii gate maybe, but if its a Terran unit why would it use that... and I think part of the missing segment, it looks like a wing. Some sort of bird?"
"Its not an eagle if it is, but yeah I sort of see it." He shrugged, and stopped twirling the pencil and craned his head to the doorway.
"Good I had hoped I'd finder you." Ford replied striding in, he had a noteputer with him showing a map of the region, but the note dated it as 2765. "This is the continent as it sat before the division that was stationed here was sent off into the unknown, we're excavating the ancient tramway its slow going what with the weather and much of the civilian infrastructure having been damaged by the fighting a lot of the ferrocrete had sunk and shifted. Well, regardless there has to be a spur that tracks off into the mountains."
"Why do you think that?"
"DOME liked excavating into rock formations, it provided natural ablative armor against orbital attacks, and concealed facilities from easy detection of course. That's what we need the digging machines for, its almost certain that the mountains have had landslides or other obstructions given this planet's climate." That made a certain amount of sense. "In any what this tells me is that there should be the remains of a starport, but we can't find it. I've gone over the Davion records from the time of the Ander's uprising and they don't have it on their maps either. Its like the starport just stops showing up."
... which was a long winded roundabout way of 'hey come help us look' in your giant stompy robot, because Ford didn't have any better ideas.
... "Anything?"
Nope. "Nothing on scopes." He replied to the question being asked yet again. He wished that he had Star League era copies of the maps programmed into his nav computer, but nothing was showing up... no beacons or electronic signatures, and there wasn't even any indicators of buried ordinance from the chemical sniffers. "This whole sector is clear Ford." There wasn't anything here... which... he paused, "What if the map is fake?"
"What?"
"More correctly how sure someone didn't modify the maps to show a starport where it wasn't, and then obviously when the davions and kuritas started fighting over the world they wouldn't have a starport on their maps?" There was a pause as Ford must have been turning the idea over in his head.
"Oh, yes, I suppose thats a possible misdirection. I didn't consider that." He paused, "But why would they do that?" at the proffered explanation of making people like us wander around like idiots, Ford shook his head over the line, "No, that can't be. I am sure that this is an unmodified map, and besides it matches all of the other 2765 era maps, further and earlier maps. The starport just doesn't show up in first succession war and later period documents." Gene rotated his Marauder's torso and looked around the stand of white pine. All of them were mature and covered what should have been support facilities for the port that had disappeared from history. "Look, just humor me," a pause as the radio seemed to get an intermittent signal, "lets try that sonar buoy idea, broadcast a general interrogative using an SLDF IFF, we haven't tried that yet."
He glanced up at his console's array of switches, and then back to the surrounding landscape... he didn't see any concealed turrets that would pop out and start shooting at him... and more pointedly his Mech hadn't detected any.
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