[So, let me get this straight, the forces coming to the planet are from the Kepler Military, and most likely friendly, but we have to pretend to be neutral Mercenaries from the outskirts of the Galaxy until Central Command can find out who sent them here to interrupt a Classified mission?] Colonel Lucci, the middle-aged woman in charge of the Second Battalion asked Max dubiously, despite seeing the orders from General Tennant in front of her.
[Yes, and nobody is to have direct contact with them without orders. We don't need someone getting recognized. Because I've been in one too many propaganda films, I will be wearing a mask during all required communications and using a voice modifier. From what I can discern, they are planning to send a force to the planet to go hunt Klem in the mountains, which we couldn't do ourselves, so make the best of what we have and try not to let them die.
The chance that any of the Pilots in the three regiments have a clue what is actually going on is close to zero." Max explained.
[Does that mean no more military discipline? By default, First Battalion takes charge when Regimental Command is unreachable, so it is your call, Colonel Max.] Colonel Klinger, the wizened soldier in charge of Fifth Battalion asked.
[Yes, kick back, relax, just make sure that everything gets done. There will be no saluting, no ranks used, and no military drills until further notice. Also, I will be Commander Keres, and you can call my copilot Rage. Feel free to use nicknames that your men might have over the radio, and in person outside, just in case someone is listening. Be sure that every single one of your men understands that they are not to screw this up.] Max ordered.
[Yes, Sir.] All four other Battalion Commanders responded in unison, then began passing orders to the troops.
It only took a few minutes for the change to be visible. Gone were the orderly ranks of mecha waiting for or finished repairs, instead the Corvettes were sent to gather firewood, while the Crusader Class units crouched to block the wind from the camp areas where the Pilots were gathered.
First Battalion did the same, but their Landers were already in a circle, so they only had to close all but one of the gaps, letting them get Mecha in and out while creating a mostly sheltered central camp. The design caught on quickly, and the other Battalions moved their landers to create four more circles at the cardinal points, each a hundred meters out from the main lines.
That area had been thoroughly cleaned by the plows, so the ground was clear and somewhat level, plus it was close enough that they could make one large defensive line around everything if they needed. The Drone Fighters were landed in the fields outside the defensive lines, waiting on a refueling so that they could begin flying again, but the effect made the force look much larger than it was like they had intended to be here for an extended period of time before the Klem had arrived.
Mercenary bases were often like this, set on isolated planets nobody cared about due to their danger level, and the lack of an interstellar transport on site was no surprise, as they rarely hung around to lure outsiders to their bases.
In orbit, the representatives of the three ships had taken shuttles over to Abraham Kepler, meeting with General Tennant in Mecha Bay 1 for a strategic conversation that couldn't be conducted over a data link, for security reasons.
"I looked up the Abraham Kepler, official records say you're still stationed at the Comor Station, waiting on a new crew, but attached to the Comor Research Lab. What exactly is it that your crew is here to study?" General Muriel asked.
"Xenobiology. Imperial Command has had some luck in developing new medicines from alien plants, and data showed that the plants and animals of Rae 3 are almost entirely indigenous, not terraformed." General Tennant explained.
If their original destination was leaked by someone before they left, they would have been expected to head for Rae 3 not the Rae 5 system, so maintaining the cover story was important to him.
"Interesting. We weren't told anything about a mission to Rae 3, only that we would find you here and that your team was in danger. Might I ask, what were the actual words of the message that you sent to the Sector Government?" General Muriel asked.
"That's the thing. We didn't send a message to Sector Governance. In fact, we didn't send any signals at all before you made contact with us." General Tennant answered with a displeased look, and the expression on the leader of the force on the second of the three ships to arrive, General Ming's face turned deadly serious.
General Ming turned to General Muriel and gave a curt nod before speaking. "I will report that all forces are fully engaged in a battle against a Klem infestation on Rae 5, and then contact Imperial Command. Something is very wrong here, but as you said, we can't ignore the Klem this close to our borders."
The four Generals from Central Command and their immediate Subordinates took a seat in Mecha Bay 1 while the order was given to scramble all Mecha and infantry to the surface of Rae 5 for Klem suppression. They were to land in and around the mountains and send one Company to make contact with the Mercenaries, asking for their assistance in the endeavor.
In the eyes of the Generals, that was a risky but necessary move. If the Mercenaries had a base on the planet, they would want to recover what they could before moving their base somewhere undetected, but if they had only just landed here to start forming one, they might believe that they were being attacked by the Kepler Military when they saw all the Landers start to fall.
The biggest issue was simply communication. They didn't know what frequencies to contact the Dark Wind Mercenaries on. Or at least, most of them didn't.
General Ming spoke again, addressing the room. "What I say is for your ears only. I am an Inquisitor for Imperial Command, supervising the Sector Government and deployed military forces. I have a way to contact the Dark Wind force on the planet. A code that was obtained through great difficulties, and if this temporary alliance fails, only usable once. I will attempt to contact the surface and tell them of our intentions to help with the Klem infestation then leave the region. If they agree, that Mecha force should fight on our side, for a price."
All the Generals nodded in agreement, but General Tennant was nervous. That wasn't a Mercenary force on the planet, and he had no way of knowing if they would even detect much less interpret the code that General Ming was going to use.
