Canopus - 3145

3145 Canopus - Delphi

The 77th Border Observation Battalion had a history stretching back to the Amaris Coup. Four Succession Wars, Clan Invasions, not even the Jihad could keep the 77th down. No matter how hard they got kicked, they always managed to get back on their feet to defend the border worlds of the Free Worlds League.

However the League had torn itself apart during the Jihad. The 77th survived, the nation it fought for didn’t. Breaking into the member states that it had been originally, the unit was left with no one to answer to. While the states began to fight for dominance and over who would be Captain-General, there were worlds left to fend for themselves.

The 77th had done its best to protect them. Asking only for enough to repair their mechs and feed themselves. For a time, this was enough. It wasn’t glamorous or well paid work like being a mercenary, but it was enough. It gave people hope. And that was enough.

Then the Wolves came.

Like at Tukayyid, they were unstoppable. Clan Wolf tore through the remains of the Free Worlds League driving all that resisted before them, the 77th included. With every world they fell back to, the Wolves took more of their number. When the offensive finally ended, two thirds of the 77th had been killed or wounded in action.

That was why Force Commander Ilse Von Schtupp was in a cafe in the middle of the night on Canopus. The older woman had managed to get her men far enough from the Wolf/Lyran border to heal, but the 77th was barely hanging on. It needed to rebuild. The Free Worlds League was rebuilding and they would be needed. At least she hoped they would.

She had managed to sell every asset her family had owned. The Von Schtupp family had amassed a small fortune manufacturing parts for the very popular Demolisher as a subcontractor. They had small factories all over the League that somehow had survived the numerous wars, but that number had shrunk dramatically. Most of the emerging nation-states nationalized and seized the factories inside their borders. All Ilse had left were those few on

independent worlds.

Replacing the Battlemechs wasn’t the problem. They would have to make due with older models and take whatever they could get. It was the pilots. Ilse took another drink of her coffee and sighed. Her shoulders sunk as she remembered all the letters she had to write. Some for people she had known most of her life. Some that had been with the 77th longer than she had been alive.

Adjusting her glasses, she looked again at the datapad on the table. Scrolling up, trying to look at the Mercenary Review Board’s list of pilots looking for work. Lot’s of dispossessed, looking for work. Either they didn’t want to work for a failing, “former” house unit, or they didn’t want to work for what Ilse could pay.

The officer brushed the grey hair out her face and readjusted her glasses. She scrolled through the information again hoping that something might have changed in the few seconds that had passed since the last time.

“I hope Agustin is having more luck. All those years in SAFE should have given him some skills, let’s hope recruitment was one” she thought to herself.

“Let me refresh that for you Commander!” said a cheery voice that startled the veteran soldier. Ilse straightened up as the bubbly cafe waitress was already pouring coffee. Her short pink hair was almost distracting from the fact that there were cat ears coming out her head.

“Thank you.” Ilse said quietly, slowly sitting up, straightening up her uniform she still wore, as much as she could anyway.

“My pleasure, Commander! You’ve been here for awhile, would you like anything to eat while you wait for your friends? We have a great deep fried Hodson Flier platter.”

The waitress winked and smiled in what could only be described as wastefully cheerful. Her uniform made her look like she was part of some maid service. If that maid service enjoyed wearing loud pastel colors.

“No...I’m fine, just coffee.” She was not used to talking to civilians. Ilse made a point to keep her volume low and her tone soft. “There’s no one else. I’m just doing work here and this is the quietest place I could find on Delphi.”

The waitress cocked her head slightly to one side and smiled. “If you say so. I’ll make sure the kitchen is ready when they get here.”

‘Wait...when who gets here?” Ilse asked, confused. However the waitress had already turned and headed into the kitchen, her tail swishing back and forth as she skipped.

Ilse got a sinking feeling, the same one she got every time she felt they were about to be ambushed..