Diary entry - Republic of the Sphere Knight Vitkor Zimin
November 11, 3085Gellen's Heights, Sheratan
Prefecture X, Republic of the Sphere
Arrived on Sheratan this morning. The group calling itself the Sheratan Knights are still refusing to surrender their weapons and come in from the jungle. It's been months of negotiations between them and the governor and still nothing. Unfortunate that it's come to this - me sent, in a Battlemech to end it.
This should have been dealt with six years ago, but the ComGuard troops who wrested Sheratan away from the Robes stupidly let the Knights keep their mechs and heavy weapons. And then when the Cappies invaded, we were forced to drop everything and deal with the bigger picture.
First meeting with the Knights today. For what is effectively the mish-mash left overs of a resistance group that first fought the Capellans and then the Robes, they seem to think they're pretty important. Press releases issued, lawyers and protocol officers discussing the why and how's. And then, then do the meet with me - a Federal representative with the direct authority from Devlin Stone.
Meanwhile - how the hell are the Knights still re-arming and equipped after all these years? Their equipment should be falling apart, launchers and guns empty, but somehow they're still well equipped.
Later:
THEY WALKED OUT! I cannot believe the gall of these people. I was very clear - the Sheratan Knights have unlawfully kept military grade weapons, including close to two companies of Battlemechs, heavy armor and Lord knows what quantity of small arms. They have to surrender it and, we're willing to hand out immunities. But they just got up and left.
November 16, 3085Days of negotiations and the Knights finally agreed to speak with me again. And this time, their leader came. "Colonel" Gerrard Saul. Republic intelligence doesn't have much of a file on him but I gather he's been around since the Knights were a FedCom unit pre-Chaos March. It was again all very grand and pompous - they filed in, I explained my position, they kicked up a fit about the sovereignty of their rights or something.
November 17, 3085Governor Dunbar is pissed. Governor Elizabeth Dunbar, specially appointed to lead Sheretan through these trying times by the Exrach himself. She wants the Knights disarmed yesterday, but doesn't seem to understand that if she keeps trying to consolidate their mechs for her militia, they will keep pushing back.
These guys maintained a low key insurgency against the Word for more than a decade - hiding in the jungle, popping out to raids some supply dumps and such every so often. By 3079 there were maybe three companies of combined arms forces.
One of those came straight over to us and handed in their weapons. Saul has the remaining two out there somewhere.
Later:
Well, that was... That was odd. I just got a call at the hotel. An internal number. Asking me to meet in the hotel bar. I was not expecting to meet one of the Knights.
He spelt it out - not all of them want to continue to sit out in the jungles and fight. They're tired, they're getting old and some of them genuinely want to re-join real life.
He reckons two thirds of the Knights will come in from the cold if we offer them citizenship and cash payments for their equipment.
That's outside what I'm authorised to offer.
What's even stranger is that my contact claims Saul has been dealing with some arms dealer for equipment and munitions - THAT'S how he's kept them going, even after we took over Sheratan. There's talk of some Blakist cache they've had access to, with the dealer cutting off bits and pieces of it and selling it to the Knights piecemeal. The whole thing could be a flight of fantasy, but who knows.
November 19Well, it doesn't matter anymore. Everything has gone to hell. I had better start from the beginning. I pressured Governor Dunbar to offer citizenship and immunity to every Knight willing to come in. She kept pushing back and seemed determined to force some sort of vendetta against them. I kept feeling out my contact among the Knights, but somehow Saul got wind of the whole thing.
That's when they launched a wave of attacks on the capital - car bombings aimed at the government building, the main Standing Guard barracks and here at the hotel I'm staying at.
Close behind that vehicle that detonated prematurely outside on the street - killing like 20 commuters - came a half a dozen gunmen, all looking for me. I was carrying my old M&G service pistol as my escort and I ran through the lobby to see what had happened and managed to squeeze off three rounds as they burst in. I capped the first shooter as he pulled his sub gun out from under his jacket.
The one next to him had stopped one of the rounds and seemed to get his weapon caught. He was still clawing for it when I put another two rounds into him.
By now, the two boys from the Constabulary who were escorting me managed to draw and fire, along with the other hired goons.
I noticed something wet and sticky all down my left arm and suddenly discovered I couldn't stand up right. Around me, guests were screaming and running about and one of the Constabulary lads was laying face down in a pool of blood.
The other one got busy dragging me behind cover while I tried to put some covering fire out towards the three remaining Knights.
Somehow I managed to hit one - one shot took off the top of his head and his two mates decided it was time to go.
They patched me up there and then - I demanded they didn't knock me out and managed to get across to the Standing Guard command post. The bombings and the attacks had just been the entree.
Saul had seized the old Addicks Enterprise building outside the city and was holding close to a dozen hostages, including the 19-year-old daughter of world Governor Elizabeth Dunbar.
I'd reached out to my contact to discover only about a lance and a half had gone along with it, the rest were keen to surrender.
It doesn't matter though - Saul has given us 12 hours to furnish him with a dropship and safe passage.
It will be well and truly over well before then.
Game setup:
Use the flatlands maps, but the defender positions d6 + 2 light and medium buildings. One of these is designated as the target building.
War chest:
"crazy weather"
Roll three times on the flora and fauna chart and apply all conditions.
Booby trapped: before the game, the defender selects up to half of the buildings (not counting the target building) and designates them as trapped - both within and in the adjacent hexes.
calculate damage by the buildings CF divided by 5.
A trap can be triggered if any defender has LOS with the building and is not crippled at the end of the turn.
Objectives:
Rescue the hostages:
Occupy the hex containing the target building*
(400 points)
Hearts and minds: at least 30 percent of the defenders remain at the end of the game. This does not count destroyed units, but does include crippled or incapacitated.**
(200 points)
Take them down: destroy 50 percent of the opposition.
(250 points)
Cut off the head: destroy or cripple the enemy commander
(200 points)
* infantry only
** attacker objective only
Attacker:
Sir Vitkor Zimin - Grizzly
Kinnol MBT
X2 JES I Tactical Missile Carrier
X3 Saxon Hover APCs
X2 Squads of Kopis BA
Squad of Grenadier BA
Defender:
Perseus (variant A) - Colonel Saul
CLNT-3U Clint
NTK-2Q Night Hawk
SRM Carrier (WOB variant)
X4 Vendette (Ultra AC)
X2 Prowler (WoB)
Hetzer
Foot infantry platoon
Foot Infantry platoon
* Sir Zimin receives one wound from his earlier gun battle.
Postscript:
Sir Zimin began a preliminary investigation into rumours of a lost Blakist cache, but three days after the final battle with Knights he received word his wife, Sian, had given birth to their first son on Formalhaut. He hurried home for a period of extended leave and the investigation was effectively forgotten.