Braden's Dire Wolves 3010

[Coriendal]

December 1st, 3012
Federated Suns, Great Gorge

     Colonel Braden, Major Halborg and Major Relle were discussing contracts now that equipment had been ordered and recruitment started.  Tomas brought up the first order of business.  “I have been approached to do recons of several systems in a clandestine way.  It seems certain interested parties want detailed information on three separate systems and are willing to pay well for it.  I am going to break up 1st and 2nd platoons of Alpha Company and send them off in teams to do the recon missions.  They pay well and we might benefit from having this knowledge in the long run.”
     â€œThat sounds like a win during the rebuilding phase we are going through.    Chief Prager estimates 3-7 months for equipment to arrive and Archibold tells me he will need 6-9 months to recruit personnel.  I am going to leave Rachel in charge of training.  We have a Cadre contract on Great Gorge for one year.  The Dire Wolves will be training the Marquis’ militia while we rebuild and settle our new recruits in.  In addition I have accepted a recon mission on the Draconis border.  I will be taking the first provisional company, the two Stingray’s, the “Worg” and the “Werewolf” with me.  We will be leaving in January and should be back by the end of July.  While we are away have “Den Mother” do commercial runs, she can use the two Sabre’s and the “Pit Bull” as escort.”

[Coriendal]

December 6th, 3012
Federated Suns, Great Gorge

     Tom looked over the comstar message from his employer.  They would need a new contract now that their target had been scouted by agents that had been overdue to report.  The only other contract was risky.  It seemed that the ruler of the world of Gulkana had recently been the victim of a palace coupe.  He needed to talk to Baron Andrews who had arrived yesterday looking to hire them.

     Baron Andrews was a short, wiry man with boundless energy.  He had quick eyes that saw everything but seemed to be at ease with Tom and his officers.  “Baron Andrews, it is nice to meet you.”  After shaking hands Tom introduced his officers, “This is Major Rachel Relle, second in command.  Next is Major Tomas Halborg the commander of the conventional forces.  Finally we have Captain Tylene Trakar who is one of my most experienced officers.”
     â€œGreetings to all of you, I don’t want to waste time so let’s get right to it.”
     â€œBy all means Baron, everyone get comfortable.  After you are done we will have questions for you.”
     â€œThat is to be expected.”  The Baron closed his eyes, no doubt to order his thoughts and then began.  “In May of 3010 Duke Kevin Salos took ill.  At least that was the official version of what happened.  He had recently hired a Colonel Alfred Yarborough to defend Gulkana and the Yefters Weapons factory from pirates.  It seems the reinforced company sized force was perfect for the job.  However, soon after arriving the Duke’s wife Julia died in a “riding” accident and shortly afterwards the Duke took “ill”.  The Duke’s children Christine and Carlton are 8 and 4 years old and have been under “close guard” while the Duke recovers.  This has gone on for over 18 months now and none of us have been allowed to see the Duke.  The new “President-General” as he now styles himself has been busy recruiting from off planet.  The forces under his control, by our estimate are now a full battalion of Battlemechs and a regiment of tanks.  He also has two regiments worth of infantry.  He has been able to raise this force by raising taxes to ruinous levels and skimming the profits off the Yefters Weapons factory.”
     â€œI have organized a “council of Barons” to counter the President-General but we do not have the force needed to defeat him.  There are six of us and we each have about a company of light tanks and a battalion of infantry.  We have all contributed to the fund available to hire your unit.  If we don’t regain our world soon the President-General will have an iron clad grip that we may not ever break.”
     Tom hated when an employer touched on issues that brought them onto their side emotionally before negotiations had ever started.  “Are there any questions about the contract?”
     â€œI have a few,” Tomas said.  “Why not just petition the AFFS to intervene?”
     â€œIt has been considered but as long as the supply of weapons and equipment continues to flow out of the Yefters Weapons Factory it is unlikely that the federal government will interfere in a worlds local problems.  With the Duke “ill” and the President-General issuing proclamation under his name it will be hard to get the FS to investigate.”
     â€œOk, let’s assume you are correct and the Duke and his children are being held by the President-General.  What do you think will happen if we start a civil war?”
     The Baron looked briefly angry and then it was gone.  “That is why I came here.  You, Major Halborg have a reputation in certain circles for being able to “extract” political prisoners successfully.  Colonel Braden, you have a reputation for being able to run over superior enemy forces.  We will be outnumbered but if we can rescue the Duke and strike hard at the President-General’s forces I believe the citizens will rise up to help overthrow the usurper.”
     â€œYou have given us much to discuss, please wait outside while we come to a decision.”

[Coriendal]

December 6th, 3012
Federated Suns, Great Gorge

     â€œWhat do you think about the contract?”
     Tomas looked around and then started the discussion.  “It depends on a number of factors.  One, we have to find and rescue the Duke and his children.  Two, we have to have sufficient force to engage and destroy the President-General’s loyal troops.  That means we need to find out who is loyal and who is just keeping their heads down.  Three, I have never had six nobles who were of one mind.  That means some of them will be loyal supporters, some out for their own good and some completely untrustworthy.  I would need six months just to lay the ground work before we could target the right objectives.”
     Rachel was the next to comment.  “We still need to keep some forces here to train the militia and to integrate replacements as they arrive.  That means at least 4 Mechwarriors and one has to be Tom, Tylene or I.  That leaves you a maximum of 16 Battlemechs that can be piloted.  I would take at least 4 spares with you but 4 lances against a full battalion are not the best of odds.  Not only that but you will have at most 6 companies of light vehicles and 2 regiments of infantry supporting you.  Some of those units might not be reliable.
This President-General also has a regiment of tanks.  That is a lot of tanks and I will bet that not all of them are of the light variety.”
     Tom looked over at Tylene.  “It is a contract we could win.  I do have to say that if Tomas can’t rescue the Duke and his family it will degenerate into a bloody mess.  If that can be done we would still need to even the odds in the first strike.  Another concern will be replacement parts, armor, ammunition, etc.  I would be surprised if what we take with us isn’t all we have for the entire campaign.”
     â€œYou all have good concerns.  What if we take the “Worg” and the “Raptor” with the two Stingray’s as escort?  We could store 8 Battlemechs in the cargo hold of the Raptor.  We could then take the 4 Cavalry VTOL’s, 4 Kestrel’s, 2 J. Edgar’s, 2 Maxim’s, Charlie Company and the two platoons from Alpha Company not committed to recon missions along with the support vehicles.  Tylene is right, if Tomas can’t find a way to rescue the Duke this is a non-starter.  Tomas, infiltrate your two platoons on planet ASAP.  I will inform Baron Andrews that we will commence operations in 4 months only if you give us the go ahead.  Otherwise we will void the contract.  I can get it written up that way to protect us.  If we hadn’t done so well on the last contract we wouldn’t be able to afford this but I think this is too good a chance to not look at real hard.”

[Coriendal]

December 8th, 3012
Federated Suns, Great Gorge

     Rachel crossed over to where Tom was sitting.  After rubbing his shoulders she asked, “Let’s assume we are taking this contract.  Who are you going to take?”
     â€œI think I am going to leave you the members of your lance and the newly arriving replacements but I am taking 20 of our best Battlemechs and the rest of the Mechwarriors.  I am also going to take the conventional forces Tomas suggested.”   

BNC-3M Thomas Braden (2/2), WHM-6R Alexis King (3/4), MAD-5R-FW Urian Radovan (3/4), MAD-5R-FW William Adams (4/4)
CGR-1A5 Mark Ryerson (3/4), HBK-4G Latisha Washington (4/4), ENF-4R Christine Pursley (4/5), ENF-4R Melissa White (5/5)
WVR-6M Edward Black (4/4), WVR-6M Robert Lancaster (4/4), WVR-6M Hasad Ibn Falad (4/4), WVR-6M Themis Kardanes (4/5)
GRF-1N Tylene Trakar (2/3), GRF-1N Duane Milford (3/4), GRF-1N Michael Ramirez (3/4), WVR-6M Morgan Wahl (4/4)
PXH-1 x4 as spares
Alpha Company:  Special Forces:  1 Veteran, 2 Regular infantry platoons.  Elite platoon on two separate recon missions unrelated to this contract.
     4 Kestrel VTOL’s:  All Regular
     4 Cavalry VTOL’s:  All Veteran
Charlie Company:  Mechanized:  1 Veteran, 3 Regular infantry platoons.
     2 Maxim’s:  Both Veteran
     2 J. Edgar’s:  Both Veteran
Support:  2 Ammo Carriers-Green, 1 Coolant Truck-Green, 1 MASH-Regular

Union “Worg” Veteran
Condor “Raptor” Veteran-Auxiliary
F-90 Doug Pakhurst (2/3), F-90(January 3013) Allen Smith (3/4)
Merchant “Werewolf” Regular
     2 Aquarius Small Craft-Regular

     â€œI should receive a report from Tomas in March and if he says it is a go we will be on the ground in early May.”

[Deathknight69]

Looking good there Coriendal. You're making me want to dig up Thompson's Irregulars and start them up again. the thread should still be in the pre-crash archives if you want to look for it.

[Coriendal]

I never read them.  I take it they had a campaign on Gulkana.  I would be more than happy to steal ideas.  I am not sure how to find the pre-crash archives though.  I was under the impression that they were a total loss.

[Dave Talley]

http://www.classicbattletech.com/forumarchive/

they are ok up to halloween, the backups after
that are apparently compromised according to DS

but you have about 4 years worht of stuff archived there :-)

[Hawkeye Jim]

Thanks for the link, Dave. It was posted before, but I failed to save it. There's some stories in there I want to reread.

[Dave Talley]

no prob
I have a metric buttload of bookmarks on this pc

just wondering how many are still good :-)

[Hawkeye Jim]

I know that feeling. I have over 400 bookmarks on mine. Some I know are dead. I need to do some serious housecleaning.

[Dave Talley]

several years ago is tha last I counted them,
it was in the 3500 range then

I dont have time or money to game so I
keep an extensive batch of gaming porn :-)
 my 2 biggest groups are roman history and WW2

[Hawkeye Jim]

I've organized mine into folders to make it easier to keep track of. battletech has two folders.   :)

[Deathknight69]

I never read them.  I take it they had a campaign on Gulkana.  I would be more than happy to steal ideas.  I am not sure how to find the pre-crash archives though.  I was under the impression that they were a total loss.

 I've never heard of Gulkana, Where is it?


http://www.classicbattletech.com/forumarchive/ is where you can find the archives.

[Coriendal]

Gulkana is in the Federated Suns.  It was a contract in the hot spots books that I have altered slightly for my campaign.

Thanks everyone for the links to the archives.

[Coriendal]

January 22nd, 3013
Federated Suns, Gulkana
City of Kanpur

     Tomas had just exited the Mule drop ship he had booked passage on to Gulkana.  Counting the two other men with him there were now 22 men on Gulkana with another 6 arriving later this week.  They would gather intelligence for the next two months before sending a report back to Colonel Braden.  He needed to make contact with Captain Thacker and get a report.
     Two hours later he was sitting down with Captain Thacker in the hotel where six of his men were now staying.  Richard Thacker was from Tomas’s old Special Forces unit and an experienced undercover operative.  “Rich, how have things been progressing?”
     â€œNot bad at all.  Baron Andrews took six of our men with him when he left for his barony a couple of weeks ago.  He plans to send one man to each barony supporting the insurrection so we can evaluate their forces and get a feel for how committed they are.  I have also sent two man teams to Lettsburg, Ft. Edge, Cope and Footrest.  Each city has at least a company of vehicles and one to three lances of Battlemechs.  That leaves me 14 men for operations here.”
     â€œOk, that sounds good, how long do you think we will need for basic intelligence gathering?”
     â€œI would say about three weeks for the basic intelligence with another one to three months to get the better stuff.  We already know that Kanpur has the majority of the military forces on the planet.  It also appears that there are at least four atmospheric fighters based here.  I can give you an estimate of types and numbers in a few weeks.  The most difficult part of the operation will be infiltrating the palace and finding the Duke and his family.  If the President-General keeps control of them the Baron’s won’t have a leg to stand on if the AFFS intervenes.”

[Marwynn]

Good stuff, just read through the 5 pages here. Keep it up!