Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)

Turn 60 - To His Jackal Head



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Operational Report - Operation Dragonbreath

Combat operations do not begin until early December, giving 2nd Armored and 2nd Infantry time to integrate in new sub units prior to combat operations beginning on December 3rd. The escort echelon of Majestics and Shannons clear the Nadir jump point prior to the arrival of the main body to a pirate point close to Ravenna III.

Initial landings are heavily contested, however a mix of orbital bombardment and superior numbers and equipment allow 2nd Armored to easily secure a landing zone. By the end of the month a secure planetary foothold has been achieved, with loyalist NRI legions actively suppressing Pugnus Deorum insurgents. Large numbers of loyalist civilians have been fleeing into the secured zone as rebel atrocities start to mount with the fury of desperation.

Jeremy reports that he expects combat operations to wrap up in the May/June time frame of next year based on the progress to date, but admits that this is possibly a conservative estimate. So far rebel forces are continuing ‘conventional’ resistance, if they switch to a guerrilla strategy the active phase of combat operations may end much more quickly, but suppressing the rebels would become far harder overall. Thankfully the NRI loyalists are fully invested in that side of the operation.

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There is unusually cold weather on Griffin’s Roost this winter, with snow actually falling in Griffsport for only the second time since records were kept for the capital. Granted it never actually reaches the ground, melting to rain a few feet up, but you do have the novel experience of white flurries drifting through the sky.

The cause was the jet stream dipping south and bringing a blast of moist arctic air with it, a few hours after the ‘snow’ it was in the low 20’s Celsius, and was a typically mild and beautiful winter day in Griffsport.

On the flip side, the same arctic front dumped freezing rain and slush on the testing area along the north coast of Castor where the final acceptance trials for the MASC system were taking place. Both test pilots somehow managed to slip and fall, and were nursing concussions and badly bruised backsides as a consequence, stalling final testing of the new system until next year.

You do take your grandkids on a winter retreat to a resort on Nowy Gdansk, where the younger grandkids seem to take inordinate pleasure in refighting the Great Snowball War. You, of course, have plenty of hot cocoa, brownies, and other sweets, all calculated to keep the grandkids as riled up as possible for your kids to handle.

You are such a loving and considerate ba.

You do manage to keep from smirking or giving the game away when you ‘coincidently’ wander past Siriwan and Lisa ‘engaged in deep philosophical discussions’ in the chalets lounge. You most certainly did not take blackmail photos of the pair, their whining and complaining notwithstanding. You certainly are not planning on someday showing said nonexistent blackmail photos to future great grandkids.

You do hear from Willis that Lee Industries has evidently purchased one of the Light Battlemech Factory complexes on Griffon IV and is investing heavily into upgrading them to full regimental production. They currently are producing spare parts to support existing units, but the expansion plans will allow them to build full new-build mechs as well in the near future, although the next phase of expansion will rely on Imperial backing, just to keep the stockholders happy.

They’ve also invested heavily in the new plants on Nowa Warszawa, allowing for greater progress to be made on their construction than otherwise, with the extra funding also allowing for some serious refurbishment work on several nearby residential blocks for worker housing.

You spend quite a bit of time attending various keel laying and commissioning ceremonies, accompanied by Admiral Benjamin. The old Admiral broaches several topics with you during this time.

First of all, his staff is recommending shifting all of the First and Second generation combat dropships to training and rear area garrison roles, replacing all of them with a mix of Bainbridge and Shannon class vessels. The older vessels have seen hard service, are generally less efficient, are harder to maintain and have poorer crew accommodations. He also wants to turn the Colchesters over to the Space Guard, to be converted into system tugs, on the grounds that experience has shown that the Bainbridge class fulfills the same role at a lower price point and far higher efficiency and that the excessive maintenance costs of the class make it difficult to justify keeping it in service.

And then the bombshell, he plans to retire next year. He’s been in the military for 50 years and feels that it is time for a younger back to carry the burden of Admiralty. Plus he wants to spend more time with his grandkids. He promises to get you a list of recommended replacements as soon as possible, which in your experience has you bracing for something flamboyantly spectacular. Probably including kazoos, now that you think about it.

You get reports on the expanded strategic material production numbers, which are looking rather promising. You can’t take your foot off the gas in that regard, as production levels are also increasing which will no doubt stress the new strategic production.

The two new Colonial Divisions and the associated Planetary Defense Wings have been dispatched. Third Armored has started to take shape, and you need to find an appropriate CO for the three new units.

For the Colonial Divisions you have a fairly wide pool of qualified officers. Most are a bit young for their rank, an artifact of the rapid expansion of the military, but according to their files all should be quite capable of the job.

QM Note - Pick 2

For 3rd Armored you have a smaller pool of potential Division commanders available.

QM Note - Pick One

QM Note - Unit designation format is - Division/Brigade/Regiment, so the 111th Armored Regiment is 1st Infantry Division, 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Regiment

There was a bit of a scare at the Refit yard during the expansion work when a faulty indicator light seemed to indicate an imminent catastrophic overpressure event, but luckily it was just that the wrong lead had been connected to the wrong indicator at the factory and QA had missed it. A 10 second rewiring job had it all corrected and everybody involved breathed a massive sigh of relief. The expansion is completed on schedule.

The yards have also all been expanded on schedule, with construction crews smoothly slotting the new yard modules into place and hooking everything up properly.

A number of consulates have been established in the NRR, expanding your presence there. Now that you’ve developed HPGs the NRR is very interested in being tied into the HPG network and, grudgingly, is willing to allow you to control the system in their space despite institutional memories of how Comstar operates.

New government offices have been opened on Calliope IV and in the TTP. The significant increase in staff is allowing Jake to establish new teams to tackle political tasks Empire wide.

Likewise, COINTEL procedures have been put in place in both the TTP and Calliope IV and have already started yielding some results. A number of potential ISB agents have been caught in the TTP thanks to the security screening protocols, investigations are ongoing to verify whether or not they are as innocent as they claim to be.

Work on integrated CASE systems has gone very well indeed, with the new more streamlined equipment successfully completing trials. Refitting the new systems onto existing platforms will be… problematic, however, and work is proceeding on developing methods for doing just that.

The brightest spot of the year, however, comes from the immense surge in durable goods orders throughout the Empire as the latest automation technologies are released to the public. Until Q4 of the year the economy had been, at best, moribund, with plenty of signals for a recession, but thanks to the massive order surge, the economic correction appears to have been held off for another year of growth.