The career of the Grudgebringers(battletech)

[PainRack]

Hello Huangyue, I'm pleased to receive the cargo manifest that you sent us. I have only just heard of Sally accident, and now, I'm see in your cover letter that Sally is well and working. I'm stunned at the cost though. Can Comstar truly charge so much for re-opening a HPG station? 100 C bills for routine documents is..... atrocious. I will try to message regularly, but given the bills, I do not know how lenient our new commander will be.

The New Earth campaign has been successfully completed and the Grudgebringers have retired to Outreach. "Unsanctioned" strikes against the Liao/Marik alliance were the official reasons for Comstar cashing out our contract. Still, our support services remain on New Earth and the Federated Commonwealth has moved in more mercenaries to reinforce the area. Do not worry about them. MacAllister has promised to protect them and.. well, let just say there's a MIIO contract available on New Earth that requires Ryu and Ken to be in theatre.

Back to business then. The intergration of the Matildas with Hell on Wheels is going smoothly. Our technicians have agreed that the field trials are completely accurate. Its runs well and the engines are excellent. Hell on Wheel will soon run company and then battalion tests on dropships. Once the Myrmidion battalion has completed infantry/IFV cross-training, Hell on Wheels will be placed on the mercenary lists for hire. I sincerely wonder whether McGee will follow Manteuffel lead. Zangief has never dennigrated armour units, however, the arena experience has led McGee to believe that armour are cannon fooder meant to absorb hits. Still, both officers believe in my reforms and Jason has led by example, leading mechwarriors and armour officers in cross-training exercises. Their new tactical doctrine places Mechs in front of tanks. On one hand, it appeals to the traditional arena jock style, to seek out and destroy other mechs. Manteuffel long experience with garrison duties in the Sarna March suits the new doctrine well. But to expect either side to learn how to cooperate well, despite the losses on New Earth would be incredible.

In terms of our T&E, 10 Matildas will anchor an infantry battalion along with HQ personnel/support. I do not have sufficient Hetzers and supporting units to provide firepower. I understand that the Scutum project is going nowhere. May I suggest a redesign of the Matilda as an assault gun instead? I need a dedicated gun to support our infantry and we lost too many Manticores and SRM carriers. Still, the armies of the Inner Sphere need Scutum, something to combat battle armour. They might not buy the Matilda but they WILL buy the Scutum. Push that to the design team at all costs.
We managed to acquire 50 Myrmidions so far, so, the tank component of Hell on Wheels is finished. They aren't happy about losing the Shrecks to Grudgebringer, but I think they like it when the Kesselschlacht reaches them. We need 12 Kesselschlacht in the roster...... and hopefully, Engels will be able to refit enough Hetzers with Gauss rifles for our needs.

Given equipment for training and reserves, that will mean we require at least 40 Matildas. Another 6 will probably be desired to make up for current equipment deficits. I hear the Kesselschlacht production line will be operational by the time this message reaches you. God knows how many of those we will need, but heavy artillery is something that's needed. Badly. We lost two companies of armour and an additional mech company to Liao artillery at New Earth and our assault battalion suffered badly during Campetown.

Jason agrees with me on the need to renew and refit our logistics. We simply can't afford another Campetown where we couldn't keep our mechs running. Hell of wheels is my test model. I'm going to show the Inner Sphere what a real army can do. For too long, we considered mechs to be the king of the battlefield. Melissa showed the Inner Sphere otherwise. But so much else can be done. I read the histories. The Kuritians and Liaos understood some of these basic concepts. The Flashman and Grasshoppers..... even the Clans showed us how flawed the public is when thinking about war.
We can do this. Arrow IVs to serve as direct fire guns anchoring our forces... mechs for fullscale combat against other mechs, tanks as striker elements for maneveur combat and to support infantry. More guns to assist our infantry in their roles, giving them anti vehicle firepower. Streamlining of mechs and vehicles. Its been hard, but I finally managed to get enough mech models via swaps, trades and direct salvage/purchase to streamline mech numbers. A Wolf Dragoon guy dropped by the other day and asked me why we're trading new designs, including rare regulators on the open market for lesser units such as the Myrmidrion and the Ostol. I think he was stunned at the idea that you can operate a mech battalion with 5 mech models or less, oddly enough, the idea that you can have entire companies equipped with the same vehicle design doesn't seem to offend him. The difficulties of getting enough mechs to fill out the same company seems to have twisted itself into some..... strange self justification. Oh, we NEED many models so as to offer tactical variety and flexibility. The advent of the Omnimech should have made that clear. We don't need so many different designs and weight, we need units capable of meeting a tactical role. Sure, different designs have their unique flaws..... but we can offset them with good combined arms. Is it neccesary to show that the Catapult is more mobile than the Archer, so, we need both mech design in a company to give it good firesupport?

I know.... I'm not saying anything new that I haven't before, but I finally have the means to do it. I convinced Jason based on Campetown. New Earth has shown the wisdom of this as ammunition and parts flowed more smoothly than before, I dare say we beat the WOB and Liao coalition because of this. The Blood Angels and Red Devils also reported that their raids ran more smoothly as they could equip faster. McNally is also happy, as his stevedores are happy about a simpler cargo manifest. Everyone is happy so far about rationalising parts and ammunition. If things go better, Hell on Wheels reactivation should show the rest of us how effective and pointless the rebuttals may be. Common parts, common ammunition and of course, your mechpart kit will mean it can run better and longer. I only hope that the fact that Hell on Wheels is designated as our garrison unit will not work against me. The training we put them through has shown them to be of the highest quality and the re-equipment has smoothened and increased their mobility. The mechwarriors are also getting over their arena experience and learning how to work together.

My best wishes to you Huangyue. And do take care of your health too. It has been flu season here on Outreach and I have been recovering from a bad cold.

[PainRack]

"Ok folks, any questions?"
"Yes sir." A short brunette, hair cropped in the old mechwarrior style with a bald square patch over the occipital lobe stood up.
"Why are we memorising this? Do we NEED to know that sand conditions are bad and can foul up the Marauder ball joints?"
"Sit down and shut up John. If everything goes well, yes, we won't need to know..... This is our plan Z people, and in plan Z, everything goes. That means everything the briefer put in gets put on the table, and everything we can think of gets put on the table. This isn't your first mission, so come on, think people. What else can go wrong?"
Everybody stared again at the map, the plastic counters pinned on the paper along with the magnets anchoring it to the bulkhead. Beside the map, the projector flickered with another burst of static before recycling back to the begining, bringing up photos, routes and computer generated projections of mechs and tanks. A clay model floated loose again, threatening to fly away before an attendent anchored it down.
"Ok. So, that's the brief and intel they prepped for us.
Recheck your computer before we drop. Check the comns. I don't want to contact our secondaries if we don't have to. We're the ones able to lift off, they..... they're stuck insystem until that escort contract finish in another week or so. We don't know what their plan Z is, so, let's try not to get them involved. Act on your own initative if they comn us. Remember, first objective is to smash and grab physical records. Stuff for the intel jerks back in the Fed Com to go over. Our bonus relies on salvage, so any stuff you guys pick up... goes into our paycheck. Secondary objectives is to burn the arms shipment. Baker, if the comns are down, I'm not authorising it. Period. Go over the model again, see if there's any way to come out with a better targeting grid. Be creative. Charlie.... I'm sorry Mike, but there simply isn't any better dustoff zone. Sigma force says they help monitor the site. But like I said, don't get them involved. Now, Captain Zacchary estimates that it will take 30 minutes before we can lift off, it will get delayed if sand conditions worsen. The site is hard enough for a landing, but we're sticking to a touch and go. The dropsite will be hot, so, maintain fire discipline and clear the lanes of fire as fast as possible. Our last objective is to "avoid" engaging the Marik forces. Wasat is newly garrisoned by some Marik units, but their mech component shouldn't be significantly higher than us. This objective is probably not achievable. We explain it to the bosses when we reach home later, but the only ones we're going to hit are those guarding the warehouses.

Ok. So, the team leaders so far identified these potential hick ups.
1. We can't find the supplies within the time limit. If we can't, we can't. The mission is too tight for us to stay around and the basic pay covers our expenses.
2. Transport. We don't have the dropship capacity to drop any armoured vehicles. If we have time, Baker, your phoenix hawks are going to load. We got the trucks in, Sigma pictured some forklifts. If we can't, blow it up. The main thing is the computers.
Lastly...... if we do lose the jeeps or trucks, Sigma force has optioned some vehicles for us. Remember these buildings and their signs, they're parked there. If we lose wheels outside, you got two options. These three.. holdouts are available, if you can find them. Transponder beacon is set up in only one of them so, I hope you guys are up on your nav check.
3. Plan Z. Ok, if we can't lift off... three choices. Ransom. We activate Sigma and resecure an alternate LZ here. Or we reroute and hide out here in the mines here. A shuttle can land over here, and we lift off without our mechs. Sigma force will attempt to recover them via "salvage" rules.

Yes Mister Grafton?"
"Sir, and what if Sigma cover is broken?"
"They're mercs on a legit contract."
"Lawyering isn't going to help them from enemy fire."
"If they contact us, Charlie force will escort them in and we lift off together sans mechs. We be on short rations AND worse, short O2. Our captain says we SHOULD have enough fuel for a hard burn to the jumpship..."
"And if Charlie can't hold? There's a company of mechs here at least."
"Then we surrender and act as prisoners of war before we're executed for acts of piracy and other shit. Any other questions?
Good. Good day gentlemen. I see you on the ground in 2 days. "