[dcs_p]“Yes sir,” Navin said while looking back to his plate. Realizing he had forgotten
about the orange-flavored soda he’d ordered long before the steak had arrived,
the young man took the drink and used it to rinse the foul aftertaste from his
mouth.[/dcs_p]
[dcs_p]“Now, where was I? Ah, the partnership that lead to the Hueys’ neverending
security dilemma. As it turned out, Ace and Llana Huxley formed a strong
friendship right from the start.” He forked one of the larger pieces of lasagne
meat, rolling it along the edge of his dish. “As luck would have it, an opportunity
appeared for the teams that would allow for a duel contract negotiation with the
Snakes. Miscalculating the risks involved, the commanders guessed that the
unusually high payments offered were in recognition of our team abilities,
evidenced by both teams’ strong-willed victories in the Fourth Succession War.”
Navin looked up to his grandpa, who was now looking out across the room in a
blank stare. The older man was deep in thought, and it seemed that he might be
stuck in a trance if not for the well-collected thoughts he was sharing.[/dcs_p]
[dcs_p]“We had all been fooled. That much is definite,” he continued. “Hiding their
motives behind a wall of praise, our employers had everyone convinced. We
were told it would not be an easy fight, but that the contract was similar to one of
our past missions under the Capellan Confederation Armed Forces. I suppose
that had helped comfort some of us. We were assigned to an abandoned base
on a little planet called Miranda, which made its home in our target system.
There we set up camp with the Breakers. Within 48 hours, the Breakers moved
offworld to make the first planned attack against the pirates. The target, which
was situated at the edge of a dense forest, was supposedly a staging ground for
the pirate’s scout forces.”[/dcs_p]
[dcs_p]Harry’s face suddenly took on a grave appearance. He stopped looking at the
other customers and waiters of the Brush with Death. His eyes made solid
contact with his grandson’s. Navin felt the weight of the situation bear down on
him.[/dcs_p]
[dcs_p]“We lost contact with the Breakers shortly after they had went planetside. Their
team consisted of a single regiment with mostly medium and heavy Mechs.”
Harry’s face flashed with a look of disgust. “Its quite odd to lose contact with
something that big, and so we organized ourselves and made tracks for the
planet. Doing so, we had to ignore our original plans to strike at a separate
location. Unfortunately for the Breakers, the journey took us nearly 80 hours.”
Navin almost broke into questions, but decided to wait. He was likely to get more
information if his grandfather volunteered it himself. Harry was used to hearing
questions about the Hueys’ past, and Navin did not want to provoke any defensive
silences from the man. Better to let the story pan out. Rather than opening his
mouth, he bit his lip and fumbled with his fork while awaiting the next bit. It didn’t
take long.[/dcs_p]