[Abe Sargent]

Mar 4, 3066 – After a long an unsuccessful era of quiet, James Sandoval has passed away. He spent the last few months in quiet.

Mar 6, 3066 – We receive a communication from Duke Tancred Sandoval. Duke Essex agrees to the message and leaves the Coalition on a command circuit prepared for this journey by Tancred.

March 15, 3066 – New Duke Tancred Sandoval contacts the Coordinator and sues successfully for peace, and the Draconis Combine counter-assault ends.

Mar 30, 3066 - Essex arrives at Robinson, the home of the Sandoval family, and the capital of the Draconis March. Tancred meets him. They go to view the body, which is lying in state.


“We’ll keep it up for a few months at least. We’ve had more people visiting his grave than we expected.”

Essex nods. “Your father was a good man.” Seeing Tancred squint a tad, he adds ”Look, your father wasn’t the easiest of people to get along with. We all know that. But we was a good man. He cared more about the people of his March than the aristocrats who placed him in power. That made him abrasive, but in a very good way.”

Tancred smiles a bit at that. “Yes.” After a short walk they arrive inside the Ducal Palace, a place Essex has been before. Tancred has been a huge supporter of Victor, when his father was a pro-Katrina supporter. That has to weigh on Tancred still.

“While I’m happy to have you come and pay your respects to my father, that was not the only reason I contacted you. Obviously things have changed in your state, and ours as a result. We are more distant now. But my father and you never let that interfere with your letters and messages. You sent a unit of ‘Mechs in the dark days of the March. No, my father never forgot stuff like that.”

“Your father was fiercely loyal. So are you Tancred, even if you forget it.”

“Although to different things. I to Victor, to a comrade-in-arms, to the guy who is the white hat.”

“Your father wasn’t loyal to Katrina. He was loyal to these people. These people who you see all around. The ones visiting grave beyond expectations. That’s a loyalty that’s increasing rare these days. For all of my hassles with Duke Hasek, I can’t fault him for that; he has it too.”

“Perhaps. You knew my father in a different way than I did. Than any child could.”

“True. Although that’s not unexpected.”

Tancred lets out a gentle laugh. “My father’s loyalty. That’s why I’m here. Let’s drink to it!” Tancred passes a drink to Essex and they toast Duke James Sandoval.

“And that’s why I brought you here. After I essentially forced him to resign, he had a few months to put his affairs in order as he grew closer and closer to death. He never forgot a debt. The list of people that he feels he owes things to are just extremely long. He has an entire log!“

“Well, as you can imagine, my father willed that you receive some thing that would help defray the bond, trust, and aid you gave him and his people. Come with me, I think you’ll be suitably please.”


Tancred escorts Essex to the local garage and they get a hover-limo driven by an employee of the Duke. After a drive of a half hour or so, they park in the StarPort, and get out.

“My father was always a savvy man with a sharp mind. He knew what people’s greatest needs were. You had an abundance of ‘mechs and other units, but your mercenary unit and your state were always needing more transport assets. Here she is…”




“As you know, JumpShips are all captured by the two sides in the war for combat transport and have been militarized. Even if my father thought that a JumpShip was a proper repayment, we couldn’t have gotten one. The same is true of proper, good, FedCom built and designed DorpShips. But this? Ah this!

This crashed in one of the battles we fought against the Draconis Combine. It took our techs about 9 months to fix it and get it ready again. It’s not on any of our lists of local DropShips and naval assets, since its not ours. My father felt that, since you would often send him battlefield salvage, the least he could do was return the favor in his will!”

Tancred steps aside to reveal a Nagumo class DropShip.


“You sent my father a company of mechs that included some clan tech. If you were to sell it on the open market, this is about the price. That’s a fair exchange. Plus, you have to love the symmetry. My father was a great man.”


“We salvaged this DropShip from the Combine in the last months of 3063 in our campaign against them. Obviously, repairing the crashed ship would be a real benefit to the war effort. But as the techs looked it over, they realized it would take a while to fix up, so my father prioritized other needs. As the war progressed, and it looked worse and worse for us, you can imagine how a infantry-transporting DropShip was de-prioritized.

Every now and then our techs were able to work on in and fix it up, and then, after my father left the office, he made sure that a variety of projects were finished up, this among them. It was repaired about 13 weeks ago. They even launched it to verify that it works. Shoot, you can even take it home with you if you want!”


The Nagumo, a recently created DropShip, is a heavily armed and armored troop transport DropShip. Designed to land and deliver in a hot zone and to protect itself, it has a lot more armor and weapons than is normally expected of this role. It can carry 12 infantry platoons, and 2,270 tons of cargo. (A battalion of infantry) This enables it to deliver all of the various materiel and support that might be needed – food, guns, ammo, mines, surveillance, medical supplies, and so forth.

The only major issue with a Nagumo, is that leaving the gravity well of the planet requires the reconfiguration of the infantry bays, which takes a few hours. You can’t leave hot.

It’s a nice parting gift from an ally.


Essex leaves with the Lucky James a few days later.