Noriyuki's Office

[Zeamass]

This room is a spartan office. There is a sword stand behind the plain desk that normally holds Noriyuki's Daisho and a tasteful landscape on the wall opposite the single window. There is also a small bar here with a couple of stools.

[Zeamass]

Noriyuki dreaded this meeting. It was always bad to tell someone that you were downsizing their unit, but the Squadron was the one that had any slack to yield.

"We need money, Martin." Sawabe began without preamble. "We need it bad if we want to keep this set up."

The Aerospace pilot nodded and looked like he was about to make several comments, but thought better of it. "And this is my concern how, sir?"

The Major began slowly, restating the obvious to make sure it was absolutely understood. "Your unit is the only one above full strength, Captain. It is the only one we can spare anything from." Noriyuki paused for a second, thinking on how best to phrase his next words. "I want you to review your squadron and bring up a preliminary report of all equipment you think we can liquidate. You are then to turn in that report to Mr. Sasake, who will act upon your reccomendations."

Hallenbeck had been fairly restrained thus far, but burst out at this point. "Can't you get a damn contract?"

"We're trying, Martin. Mr. Sasake just found several contracts and one may be suitable." Sawabe sighed. "The problem is that if they aren't suitible, I would like to have exhausted all legitimate options before doing something that we should not be doing. " The major steepeled his fingers as he continued. "Beleive me, I won't be finicky about what work comes our way, Captain. I can't be. However, I will not let the morals of this unit be compromised by some shifty employer." Sawabe looked down for a second and then staired directly into Hallenbeck's eyes. "Believe me, Martin. I will not forget the patience of the pilot involved in this matter. The Grey Wolf Battalion will never discard members of their pack. No matter the reason." Noriyuki then composed himself and straightened out. "You have your orders, Captain. Please see to them."

[Zeamass]

Noriyuki's communicator sounded off, signaling that he had a message waiting for him in his office. The nature of the message was impossible to tell from the simple vibration and blinking light, but if his staff decided it was worth his immediate attention...

The Mechwarrior stretched as he picked up his phone. "Moshi Moshi?"

Toshi Sasake's voice filled the ear piece. Sasake was the unit's scrounger and the general contract agent. "Sho-sa, forgive the interruption but I've just recieved our report from the Hiring Hall. I thought you would want to see them as soon as possible."

'"Bring them in, Sasake-san. The Dragon knows we need to pay the bills." Given his converation with Captain Hallenbeck, this was very good news.

'"Hai, Sho-sa" The younger Kuritan cut off the connection, presumably to gather the reports and bring them over to the lounge. Noriyuki had brought Toshi into the unit a few years earlier after the Dragon's views on Solaris VII and Mercenary units had changed. The younger Kuritan had the habbit of referring to everyone as their equivelant DCMS rank.

'"I knew I should've called myself a colonel when I formed this unit. Tai-sa sounds so much better."

It didn't take long for Toshi to make his way to the lounge. The younger man walked in with a trio of folders under his arm, his uniform crisply pressed. Some of the other members of the unit saw Toshi as a bit of a snob...but those who actually got to know the young officer found that once he was off duty, he knew the right places to party in Kobe.

Toshi set the folders down in front of Noriyuki and took a seat beside him at the bar. "A decent collection of contracts, Sir. Better than the one we got last month. It would seem that the Dragon might favor us this new year."

"They might, Sasake-san. " Noriyuki commented as he picked one up and flipped it open. "Speaking of which..." Sawabe recognized the stamp on one of the other folders as belonging to the Draconis Combine's hiring agents.

Turning his attention to the first report, the Major learned that the contract was from a tiny nation called the Froncs Reaches. They were willing to pay fairly decently for the Grey Wolves for only three months...of covert terrorism on a neighboring world. By the look on Toshi's face, he had no idea what was in the files. He would have saved them for his commander's eyes first.

Noriyuki nodded as he examined the file carefully. "These Fronc Reaches must be new to the mercenary business. We are much too big to be handling a contract like this."
Toshi's brow rose slightly "Sir? What do they ask for in the contract?"

"It's a contract based around guerilla actions and indiscriminate strikes. Not only are we too big for that kind of work, it is not the work that a Samurai, even a Ronin should look for."

Toshi nodded, the look of annoyance telling what he thought of such a thing "Then it is better that we inform the Hall that we will not take it."

'"Hai!" Noriyuki looked onward to the next contract, one involving the Word of Blake.


The contract called for an assault on the world of Hall in the newly formed "Chaos March". The world had rebelled with other worlds in the area, leaving the Free Worlds League because of political differences with the Marik family. It claimed it's independance and was only just working on hiring mercenaries to defend and train further troops to defend their new soverignty. The Word of Blake was looking for a unit to retake the world of Hall in concert with another House Marik unit in the area. The contract basically required additional personnel to pull off the assault before Hall fortified too much.

Noriyuki muttered "But it is the Word of Blake tendering this contract. I don't think they would mind us leaving our dependents here under our care for this one, Sasake-san?"

Toshi nodded crisply, his eyes deliberately ignoring the folder and the papers it contained. "Hai, Sho-sa. There is little point to have them along on this kind of mission."


"Let's see the final one, Sasake-san." with that Nobushige flipped open the folder containing the third contract.


The final contract was from the Draconis Combine, for a guerrilla campaign within Clan territory. While the assault contract called for a year committment, this contract ran for two. It didn't say what Clan the contract was about...in fact, it was fairly vague about the details of the mission, in traditional Combine style.

Noriyuki wrinkled his nose. "It would be good to return home. I dislike these contracts though. They leave an odd taste in my mouth." The mechwarrior tapped his nose. "We shall do the following. First we will attempt to negotiate a contract with the Word of Blake. if that fails, we shall attempt the same with this guerilla contract. If that fails, we shall wait another month."

Toshi nodded and accepted the two lesser contracts back from Noriyuki "Will there be anything else, Sir?

"I'll review the base terms first and make sure I'm not leading us into something too hard."

Toshi stood up from his seat and turned on his heel after a short bow, heading back to Noriyuki's office in case further information became available.

The terms of the Blakist contract were damn good. The Wolves could get rich off of such a contract, and maybe expand into a full battalion...or a regiment if they got lucky. The terms of the contract were fairly impressive. The pay was fairly standard, but the Blakists were covering all overhead, 90% salvage rights, would cover 70% of the units maintenance costs and full transportation compensation. The only caviate was the Blakists wanted integrated command for the duration of the contract.

Integrated Command meant that a Blakist officer would be attached to each of the command. It was a demeaning state of affairs that totally went against the "independant" spirit of a rent a soldier's life. There was one backhanded benefit to being in that situation. The employing force took most of the responsiblity for the unit's actions.

At the other end of the spectrum was Independant Command. This option was only extended to mercenary units that had the reputation for being smart, tough, capable and honorable. Either that or the employer wanted to be as distant from the results as possible. Independant Command was what you gave a unit that was assigned to attack a target surrounded by nuns, the elderly, school children, and puppies.

Noriyuki knew that Sasake would settle for something in between, but prayed that the indiginity of integrated command was not forced on them.

[Zeamass]

Sawabe looked over the freshly negotiated contract. It had it's weak points, but it was a good one. Better than the Grey Wolves deserved, no doubt. Noriyuki could buy the little industrial park they were located on easily with this contract.

Fortunetly, they would only have a laison to observe and help coordinate their actions. This was usually the case and hopefully the laison would just act as an observer. There were still ways that this could end up horribly, twistedly wrong.

However, Noriyuki's immediet worries were put to rest when the signing bonus cleared in the units bank account. The Bottom Line was fed and things could be relaxed for a bit.