G ops Log: 730903SD, HGK, LAAF Ops Liaison, Reporting on 12th COB ops.
Day 1 730903+06SD: Made planet fall after six day .85 G burn.
LZ established 10 km NNE of operational atmosphere processing plant and 15 km SSW of the valley scientific station. To my amazement the last recorded garrison unit on planet was still present and functional. While I will leave this to the Alliance legal services I suspect we owe this company one hell of a payday. In the chaos of the Civil War and into the Jihad evidently all records of their existence and their deployment must have been lost.
Although the contracts they presented were in good order with continuance riders that should more than compensate these good people for our oversight.
First contact with the garrison force nearly went poorly. Leaving a true born Clanner to any known first contact would seem to be the definition of questionable, but to reiterate I did not anticipate any friendly forces in area. Clanners are pretty good at the shoot first ask questions later ops command and I deemed most likely.
Luckily the Rasalhauge Bear command insisted on accompanying the “star†sent to investigate the state of the atmospheric plant. He was able to realize that there was no need for combat, something that doesn’t come easy to most Clanners I’ve met.
With some rather clumsy communications protocols the few shots fired didn’t melt any armor. Their commander came to me later in the evening and I was required to remind the Wolf commander that any “bondsmen†would be limited to my approval or any other Clanners we might encounter.
I should be able to use the Clanner’s intentions as leverage to gain the Alliance a good deal on the balance of a full company of Mechs. Most of his company is ready to take their pay share and find somewhere quite. I didn’t wish them good luck finding that anytime soon.
Their units are in pretty bad shape, barely operational and unable to operate beyond the dome of atmosphere in the immediate proximity of the atmosphere generator. I had a good look at a couple of their “less sound†seals and the harshness of this rock’s gases out of the atmosphere generation perimeter is apparent. Give a unit two or three weeks in and out of the more volcanic areas and its seals will be in need of an overhaul too.
While in poor condition all units are marginally operational. A little dip into the units spare parts and ammo cashes should give us some reserves if we need them. I’ve watched the combat vids from the first contact and it looks like a couple of their pilots haven’t lost much of their edge. Not many units have been under that Freeman Bear’s gun sights and lived to tell about it.
On to an organizational meeting with the unit commanders.
