Mech Warrior Log - Brody.J - Curiouser and curiouser

Thraxan Orbit

The transit to the Jump point took eight days... Eight days of listening to Hausa and Shirinov talking up how easy it was going to be, how valid Shirinov's intel was and how much we, as a unit, could make from this... What a crock of shit! two pompous windbags filling the air with meaningless chatter. People were going to die on Thraxa, maybe not our people but people just the same. People who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I struggle, I freely admit, with the whole idea of piracy... Mind you I guess banditry is not a great deal better... I cant crow too much about it though as I have now added both to my C.V. They sit real nicely next to gambler and thief.

I spent as much of those eight days away from the briefing room as I could manage, not that Hausa or Shirinov seemed to notice, a fact that suited me fine. Once we were securely docked with the Vanishing Point  Captain Melville jumped and we were truly under way. Eight jumps later and we arrived at our destination jump point and the King Goblin detached from Melville's jumpship and  we were departing for Thraxa and our objective raid.

Less than three days is all it takes to get from the Thraxan jump point to the planet itself and for most of those three days I spent my time preparing  my Black Knight, ensuring that all the systems were in good working order and ready for the inevitable action to come. Six hours from planetfall we were all summoned to an emergency briefing in the ready room. Hausa sat at the head of the table, wrapped in a thermal blanket and looking like he'd been eaten by a Thraxan Ice Bear and shat back out again. He struggled to get out that he had fallen ill a little over an hour before and rather than calling off the raid had decided to leave Shirinov in charge as he had that expert knowledge about the layout and disposition of forces planetside. There were grumbles from those not in his camp, a camp that seems to be growing I hasten to add, and one or two smiles from those within it. I watched as Hausa struggled to rise and had to in the end be helped back to the Med-Bay.

Shirinov called Thornton, Jakari and I over at the end of the briefing and told us that he had another mission for us while the raid was being dealt with at the distribution centre. He had ordered the King Goblin to drop us off at a private estate some sixty clicks southwest of the designated target. Our mission was to aid in the extraction of Lady Rosalina Trussel, daughter of Duchess Molly Trussel. He said that Lady Trussel would be ready and waiting for us and it should be a simple matter of just picking her up.

That prick! He'd had all of this planned from the start. I suspect that Hausa was poisoned with some fast acting but short term agent which had rendered him unable to command. Shirinov is a clever bastard, I'll give him that! I registered my disapproval of the plan but as Shirinov had been placed in direct command what more could I do but obey the little Prick's orders.

With the rest of the Blackshields dropped off at the distribution centre we made for our own LZ... What a cluster fuck!

Mech Warrior Log - Brody.J - A Pirate's life for me

Return to the Briefing Room

With the Vandals now a part of the Blackshields it was time for us to earn our pay and our good friend Arturo had offered Col. Ferguson a tasty little target, The Ellinikon Distribution Centre on Thraxa. Ferguson called us all into the briefing room and called the room to order once the usual hubbub had died down, again she and Hausa both wait far too long in my opinion but it is their unit to command and not mine... in fact I find the entireity of the command structure a little lax, especially as Hauser and Ferguson were regular troops at one stage. The Colonel started the briefing and began to outline what lay ahead of us. She soon handed over to Capt. Hausa so that he could fill us in on the specifics of the mission.

Thraxa, a semi-arctic world on the border between the Magistracy of Canopius and the Marian Hegemony. It has come to recent renown for trading furs and wool and for the meat from the native Tazqan (a herbivore that resembles a Terran Caribou). Our objective was to land at the Ellinikon Distribution Centre and load up as much of these high value items as possible without wasting too many of the locals (OK, I'm paraphrasing here)... it all seemed easy enough.


Kaja however was not impressed at the idea of attacking one of her home planets and made as much known at the briefing, refusing to take part in the raid and leaving before the briefing was done. I too said how I thought it was a bad move to be attacking a Canopian world, even one as rich and apparently weakly defended as Thraxa, when we had ripe targets available on Astrokaszy. Still Capt Hausa assured us that Shirinov's intel was legit. I checked out Shirinov's face as Hausa was talking him up and there was a moment or two when that prick's mask slipped... There is definitely something going on with him... more than he is letting on,  and rather than use their own wits Ferguson and Hausa are blindly being led into doing what Shirinov wants.


With no further questions from the floor Ferguson said that Captain Hausa would be leading the raid with Mech Warrior Shirinov acting as his second. We had 8 hours before we had to meet up at the King Goblin So Jakari, Thornton and I went our separate ways to prepare. I made for Kaja's quarters and found her there looking royally pissed off. We talked for a little while about the raid and I made a promise to her that I would do everything in my power to minimise casualties, After all this was only meant to be a smash and grab objective raid. With that done I left and headed back to my own quarters to prepare... Piracy! How could a Solaris VII champion fall so far!... Aint life an absolute motherfucker!

MechWarrior Log - Brody.J - I love it when a plan comes together!

Jakari in action

With the trap sprung I climbed my 'Mech out of the gorge I'd been using for cover and opened up on the Dervish with the twin large and four medium lasers. The heat level in the cockpit spiked a little but it was worthwhile as my opponent rocked backwards as the armour on it vaporised. Thornton let me know that he was on the move and Jakari for once was sticking to the plan. The Dervish spun round trying to bring its weapons to bear but I blasted off another salvo from my 'Mech's energy weapons. I'd punched through into the internal structure and damaged one of the LRM systems as my lasers boiled its armour away.

Thornton was now in the thick of it too, blasting at the Panther with his PPC while strafing at Musa's infantry as they tried to get out of their technical. Things got a little hazy after that... The dervish pilot had soon had enough and shut his 'Mech down so I switched to the Panther who was so busy trying to evade Thornton's Battlemaster that he didn't notice my kicking his leg off until it was too late. We concentrated on the infantry and the vehicles while Jakari came up to finish off the downed Panther blasting it's cockpit when the pilot refused to stand down... I do wish he wouldn't do that but I guess it is the pirate in him!

Over the comms I could hear the chatter coming from the Vandals, Cia was telling them to stand down while Collins was railing against it and even took a pot shot at Thornton before van Zant saw the writing on the wall and ordered him to cease and desist. Jakari was soon on the comm to the four of them telling them that they were now a part of Ferguson's Blackshields! I got the distinct impression that they were not too pleased about it. It's a hard thing to go from being top dog to one of the boys again and I didn't think that van Zant would handle it all that well.

The last of Musa's trucks was making a break for the hills and just as it crested a rise I blasted it with my 'Mech's PPC. Some of Musa's infantry decided that they couldn't compete with Thornton's machineguns and threw down their weapons... very smart of them.

With the fighting over van Zant was quickly on the comm asking what the fuck was going on. Jakari once again let him know that they were being taken in and made members of the Blackshields or they could die where they stood. With Cia obviously already on side and heavily outgunned by superior 'Mechs van Zant agreed.

Before we headed back to Ras Hafun I fulfilled my part of our bargain with van Zant. I took his star league computer and plugged it into the battle computer in my Black Knight. It took a few minutes but I was able to hack my way in and release the coordinates of the lost Star League base. I ran an algorithm that corrupted the coordinates before handing it back to van Zant... I just don't trust that arsehole!

MechWarrior Log - Brody.J - The Ambush!

The Ambush Site

So with our plan laid out to van Zant (and my promise that once I had my 'Mech back I should be able to hook the field computer into my own computer system to crack it) we waited on Musa's go ahead stating that an early morning strike sooner rather than later would give us the best opportunity for success.

We didn't have to wait for too long! Musa's greed and lust for power and revenge over his neighbour far outweighed any sense of caution he may have once possessed. The mission was given the green light for early the very next day. These crazy fucks! they really have no comprehension of planning and preparation... still it all works in our favour!

Thornton spoke to Jakari and I and said that Cia was aware that we would be pulling a stroke of some kind or another and that she should tell her colleagues to stand down when it all kicked off. I personally hoped that the Vandals stuck to the plan and could see when they would be better off. Time to get a little R&R before we set of in the early pre-dawn hours.

The hour was upon us before we knew it and I have to say I was a little worried. Musa was throwing almost everything he had into the pot in an effort to make good on the raid... could we rely on the Vandals to stand down when we sprung our trap? I figured only time would tell.

The desert was still chilly in the pre-dawn half light as we sped across its wastes in our technical. We had a short period of time to get back to our 'Mechs and head to the ambush site before the Vandals and Zanjibari combined forces appeared so our reunion with Muhktar's men was brief and we were lucky that Jakari had bought his young slave girl with him or we'd have been fucked with Hadji as nothing more than a smear on a 'Mech's footplate.

As our 'Mech's powered up the sky was growing lighter  and with every moment that passed our opportunity to ambush Musa's force was fading. We had found an excellent spot on our way in and had taken note of the coordinates just in case. Withing half an hour our ambush was set and we sat waiting like a coiled snake ready to strike when our prey came into range.

Jakari and Thornton were powered down to all but the bare essentials while i scanned from my position using my Knight's Beagle active probe. Soon enough Musa's force came within range. I picked up a number of trucks and technicals as well as the Vandals four 'Mechs and Musa's two.  I passed on the info over a secure channel from my advanced coordination point with Jakari and Thornton waiting on my command... 'Stay on target... Stay on target... Now!'

MechWarrior Log - Brody.J - A cracking job

van Zant's Prize

The morning after the night before and Hadji's corpse and the remains of the party had both been thankfully cleared away before we were called to another meeting with Musa, his Vizier and Ronnie van Zant. I cannot stress how pleased I was to see him standing there as we were escorted in... his chest all puffed out like a pigeon and strutting like a peacock with it's tail in full fan.

The Vizier started proceedings by offering us light refreshments, sweetmeats, coffee (or what passes for it in this shithole) and mint tea (see my former elaborated point). All of these I politely declined but Jakarai tucked in with relish. He then went on to say how his illustrious master, the wise and beneficent Caliph Musa had decided to take us up on our offer to betray our former master and return to his Caliphate with our recaptured 'Mechs... Increasing his military might while punishing Muhktar for his deceitful behaviour.

He suggested we spend some more time in the company of his esteemed 'Mech commander Ronnie van Zant and his crew but that we should stay away from his 'Mech bays after the unfortunate incident where his very loyal 'Mech Pilot had been killed after attacking Jakari. We of course thanked him for his wisdom and beneficence... he was obviously a very enlightened individual, I find it extremely amusing how they think of us 'ajaniib' as pawns to be used in their petty power struggles... they have no idea of the power of an inner sphere planet, even one like Solaris VII let alone a bloody House!

With that we were dismissed and returned to a common area where we were able to talk, relatively privately, you never truly know if the guards who hovered at the edge of our vision spoke English at all. We talked through how we would get back to Muhktar's compound in Ras Hafun and came up with a plan between the three of us to ambush Musa's forces in the desert.

A little while later we were summoned to a rather more luxurious area of the Caliph's palace where Ronnie sat holding court with his followers clustered around him. Pyle looked, a little fearfully I thought, at Jakari and then decided that he needed to spend some time cleaning his boots and disappeared double quick... I really need to speak to Jakari about what went down there. Cia moved off to talk to Thornton and I was left in the company of the king himself.

I outlined our plan to van Zant saying that we would sneak back to Muhktar's compound in one of Musa's technical, closely followed by van Zant leading Musa's forces to surprise attack Muhktar's compound. as he lead Musa's forces against one side of the compound we would overpower the guards on our 'Mechs, reclaim them and join the fray.

Van Zant liked the play... I guess it appealed to his nature, flashy, treacherous, devious and cowardly all at once. I asked him what he was doing there at Musa's compound and he replied that he was doing what everybody needed to do... Survive. Laughing I replied that each battle he fought brought him one step closer to having his own Caliphate at which his eyes lit up like flashlights and a wry grin crossed his features very briefly.

In a sudden flash of inspiration he asked how we would break back into the 'Mech bays as the keycode had most likely been changed. I replied to him ain a conspiratorial tone that I had some reasonable skill in hacking and I figured I could manage any security level this dungball had to offer. again his eyes lit up and he said in a conspiratorial tone of his own 'I have something you might want to take a look at... the real reason we are here' and from behind his seat he produced a battered metal case, opened it and revealed what can only have been a functional star league field computer!