Commander's office, House Davion Expeditionary Force company camp "What is it, Private? Is Lieutenant Hammond back yet?" "No, sir, she's still overdue. But Lieutenant Gilligan is back with Gillin and Finch, sir, and they've brought some sort of local troop transport with them." "Send Jon Gilligan in right away... and, Jones, get me a damage report from the Techs as soon as they've looked those 'Mechs over." "Yes - uh, Captain Farrar, but there isn't so much as a scratch on them, sir." "Jon. Good to see you're back; you've beat Ruth and Sergeant Speyer to it. And you must be Mr. Doez. I'm Captain Kathryn Farrar, commanding House Davion's forces in this area -" "Those maniacs! They were trying to kill me!" "Precisely why it has been necessary to take you into protective custody. Now, my orders are to turn you over to my superiors ASAP, so I'm afraid I will not have the pleasure of your company, but Private Jones will see that you get something to eat and drink while we wait for transport to be sent. Jones! JONES!" "Yes, sir?" "See that Mr. Doez is made comfortable while HQ sends transport over for him. Normal 4-A hospitality, understand? And find him some fresh clothes." "Yes, sir. This way, please, Mr. Doez." "Hello? Get me battalion HQ. Yes. Yes. This is Farrar. No, F-A-R-R-A-R. Captain Farrar. Hello? No, don't put me through, you idiot. This is CAPTAIN FARRAR. No, with the forward company. Hello? Thank God, someone with a brain. Sanderson, we've snatched Doez. Yes, the local your bosses wanted picked up. No, he's not hurt. No, he seemed pretty pleased to see us - apparently someone or something was trying to kill him. We've got some local transport, but it's a rust bucket - suggest you send over a VTOL. Half an hour? Good. No, I'm talking to my pilots now. Yes, I'll fill in the goddamned paperwork. Yes, I know he might make a run for it - Private Jones is watching him. Yes, that Private Jones. Farrar out." "Right, Jon, let's hear it." "Actually, sir, I wasn't involved. When the alert went out to snatch the target, the only unit from my Lance in the immediate area was Sergeant Gillin's Trebuchet; Corporal Finch radioed me to say he was nearby and he'd managed to locate some local transport." "Wasn't Corporal Finch assigned to C sector? He turns up in the oddest places. Still, carry on, Lieutenant." "Sir, I made best speed to the target area, but I wasn't going to be able to do more than provide backup, and by the time I arrived the target was already in custody. We didn't see the enemy on the way back here; we used pass 57, which today's intel briefing suggested was unobserved. I took the liberty of asking Sergeant Gillin to stand by in case you wanted to talk to her, sir." "Yes, send her in. Stick around for her debriefing, please." "Sergeant Gillin reporting, SIR!" "Thank you, Sergeant. Now, tell us what happened out there, and how you seem to have got back without being shot at. Spare me the shot-by-shot - I'll look over your sensor records and gun camera footage with your written report." "Yes, sir! When Coles and I - ah, that's Corporal Finch, sir - " "Yes, Sergeant, I know - and while we're on the subject of Corporal Finch, I'd be fascinated to know how he managed to figure out where Doez was an hour before anyone else and find a bunch of infantry from our so-called local allies just lying around the countryside." "I really couldn't say, sir. I've found it best not to ask how he pulls off his little tricks, sir." "I suppose it will remain a mystery. Anyway, Sergeant, what happened out there?" "Sorry, sir. When we arrived, there were a couple of Jenners from George's Dragonslayers - that local outfit you told us about, sir - coming out of another pass. I saw we had a clear run up towards the target, and I knew the George bunch might be on our side, sir -" "Might, Sergeant. They don't like Kurita, but with these bandit outfits that generally just means they'll steal Kurita's stuff first. Go on." "Well, sir, I thought I'd see if they wanted to fight us or not. But then another pair of Mechs turned up in the middle valley here - a Panther and a Whitworth from Markovitz's Mongrels. I thought we had the best run at the target and we'd better just keep moving, and I could see some bunkers on the hill, sir, which if we could dig down in might make us hard to dislodge. There were three houses on the hill; two were going to be easy to reach, but if the target was in the third we'd be around for a while because the troop transport couldn't reach it, and both the other units had troop transports with them too." "I had Finch go on a bit to take a look, see if there was anyone else around, but then the Jenners and Markovitz's started firing on each other. The Jenners got in close, and it was obvious they were going to win, so we just moved up the hill as fast as we could and started unloading troops. Finch moved his Locust up to scare off one of the enemy transports - which worked, sir - and I took up position behind the ridge and tried to hit the Jenners with LRMs, but they were moving too fast. Our transport's gunner had been blazing away like crazy, but I couldn't tell you that he even hit the ground." "We'd got two of our infantry squads into bunkers, and the other two were searching the houses, when one of the enemy transports came out into the open. I managed to get a lock on it and fired a full salvo into it, and it flipped on its side and caught on fire. Some infantry made it out, but they were running away, so I let them go. One of our squads radioed me to say they'd found the target, and Markovitz's guys were retreating, so we started moving our Mechs off the ridge and getting the transport ready to go." "The Jenners were all over the Panther, but it looked like it was going to make it out. I managed to hit one of the Jenners that had already been chewed up, but didn't stop it, and then they got under cover; Markovitz's guys got out, and I got on the radio to the Jenners and gave them the old don't-fucking-try-it, 'scuse my French, sir. They made the smart choice and bugged out too, and we came right back here." "Good work, Sergeant. Mission accomplished without any damage. We won't see too many of those out here. I'll expect your report by 1400 hours; dismissed."