Nashira Wraps Up

At the end of June, our FedCom liaison stops into the Bastards’ headquarters and lets us know that the assault is over; they’ve come to terms with the Draconis Combine. We spend another week or two on Nashira while the FedCom military packs up; we spend some money on paid recruitment rolls to pick up more mech techs, and some additional money on spare parts.

The Bastards return to Piedmont in early September, along with a brand-new used Stalker, the company’s second assault mech. Unpacking from its rented DropShip, the company bids their traveling companions farewell and gets down to training, refitting, and preparing for whatever comes next.

Which is a bit of a sticky question. The full extent of the Clan push into the Inner Sphere is still not exactly common knowledge, but it’s common enough now that a well-regarded mercenary outfit such as the Bastards can get a sense of the scale of the problem. The upshot is that the Inner Sphere is, at present, largely at peace with itself.

What does that mean for us? Mainly, that there isn’t much to do right now on the general contract market. There’s some pirate hunting in the Federated Commonwealth and Free Worlds League, and the Free Rasalhague Republic is desperate enough to put out a call for mercenaries to carry out security duty against the Clans on Stanzach.

Organization

With Rook getting used to her new Stalker, it’s time for some lance reorganization. I’ve come up with two options, one of which is less well-described than the other. We can also change lance names now, if you’d like.

One Assault Lance

We can pack both assault mechs into one lance; along with our two heaviest heavies, that makes for a 310-ton lance, 70 tons shy of our 380-ton maximum drop weight. The other lances would likely be medium-weight, with one underweight heavy lance.

Two Heavy Lances with Assault Mechs

The setup I have right now. It looks like this:

1. First Lance (270t)
   • Drake, Awesome AWS-8Q
   • Carcer, Flashman FLS-7K
   • Woad, Grasshopper GHR-5H
   • Pvt. Hernandez, Phoenix Hawk PHX-1K
2. Second Lance (270t)
   • Rook, Stalker STK-3F
   • Double Dog, Thunderbolt TDR-5S-T
   • Milspec, Crab CRB-20
   • Wizard, Guillotine GLT-4P
3. Bear’s Bruisers (180t)
   • Teddy Bear, Vulcan VL-5T
   • Hanzoku, Guillotine GLT-4L
   • Severe, Locust Custom
   • Pvt. Popalzi, Archer ARC-2K
4. Reserve Lance (220t)
   • Linebuster, Lancelot LNC25-02
   • Wojtek, Trebuchet TBT-5N
   • Ker-Ker, Lancelot LNC25-02
   • Euchre, Trebuchet TBT-5S

First and Second Lances are both solid, assault-anchored heavy lances near the 280t heavy lance cap. Bear’s Bruisers is a durable, punchy medium lance with long-range fire support between the Archer/Locust team. Reserve Lance is a true reserve, subbing in whenever a pilot is injured or a mech damaged in the other lances.

Contract Options

We have a few short-term options, limited by the fact that the Inner Sphere isn’t really fighting amongst itself very much right now, and a few longer-term options. As ever, we also have the option of waiting to see what next month brings.

Short-Term

The Free Worlds League and the Federated Commonwealth both have some pirate hunting on offer. They’re very similar contracts; both have Liaison command rights, pay for about 35% of transport, give us 20% or 30% salvage rights, and cover 10% of battle losses. The FedCom contract pays about 22 million C-bills in profit for 5 months, and the Free Worlds League contract pays about 16 million for 3 months.

The Free Rasalhague Republic offers a Security Duty contract against the Clans on Stanzach, as mentioned above, Clan Wolf in particular. We get a bit more transport, 40% battle loss compensation, and 30% pure salvage rights, a generous offer when Clan tech is on the table.

Long-Term

We also have the option now of signing on for the longer haul with one of the great powers of the Inner Sphere. The Federated Commonwealth was impressed with our performance on Nashira against strong Draconis Combine resistance, and is willing to bring us on semi-permanently—until the threat of the Clans is diminished. They’ll pay us to relocate to a world in the northeast of the Inner Sphere near the Clan front line plus a signing bonus of 10 million C-bills, and keep us on a mix of reserve/refit missions, like short-term garrison and cadre duty, and front-line missions like planetary assault and security duty. They’ll accept liaison command rights and pay good battle loss compensation, but salvage rights will be exchange (i.e., they buy Clan tech we salvage at market rates) rather than pure.

We could attempt to put out feelers to the Free Rasalhague Republic about a longer-term contract. They’re more desperate, but also much poorer. We’d have to relocate on our own dime and wouldn’t get much of a signing bonus. In exchange, we’d likely see front-line combat as often as we want, liaison command rights, and broad rights to take what we want from the wreckage. In exchange, we wouldn’t get a lot of battle loss compensation.

In both cases, we’d of course be paid a fair base rate, although a slightly fairer one from the Federated Commonwealth. It’s the bonuses and benefits which are different.

Status

Gonna keep this one short, since it’s deep into Saturday morning and I’m still writing this. It’s September 8, 3051, and we have 11.874 million C-bills in the bank.

Mechwarrior Claims and Assignments

• For the record, the following mechwarriors are claimed.
  • Captain Huri “Drake” Halit (Mephansteras) – Awesome AWS-8Q
  • Lt. SG George “Linebuster” Atkinson (Hasek10) – Lancelot LNC25-02
  • Lt. SG Mariamu “Rook” Ishikawa (Culise) – Stalker STK-3F
  • Lt. JG Sung-min “Double Dog” Dare (a1s) – Thunderbolt TDR-5S-T
  • Sgt. Jose “Milspec” Ortega (milspec) – Crab CRB-20
  • Cpl. Damayanti “Carcer” Ngo (Dorsidwarf) – Flashman FLS-7K
  • Cpl. Tedros “Teddy Bear” Jamil (Knave) – Vulcan VL-5T
  • Cpl. Ferdinand “Woad” Kohler (A Thing) – Grasshopper GHR-5H
  • Pvt. Jan “Euchre” Kojic (EuchreJack) – Trebuchet TBT-5S
  • Pvt. Cathrine “Severe” Payne (Burnt Pies) – Custom Locust
  • Pvt. E-Shei “Ker-Ker” Ec (Kanil) – Lancelot LNC25-02
  • Pvt. Ed “Hanzoku” Yuksel (Hanzoku) – Guillotine GLT-4L
  • Pvt. Ik-jun “Wojtek” Frajtov (Blaze) – Trebuchet TBT-5N
  • Pvt. Xue-Min “Wizard” Que (Rince Wind) – Guillotine GLT-4P
• The following mechwarriors are available.
  • Pvt. Abdul-Hafiz Popalzi – Archer ARC-2K
  • Pvt. Gwenael Hernandez – Phoenix Hawk PXH-1K

Action Items

• Lance organization and naming suggestions.
• Contract choices.