Part 627: Combat Theater Vote 19 Results

Combat Theater Vote Results
Plan Katrina wins with 42 votes!
RWA Listening Post 84 is obliterated by 32 votes!
Misery’s Company Lupin XVII pulls the wool over 12 voters’ eyes!
Liberators of Oriente one of the FWLM’s premier regiments goes silent with 8 votes!
Tamarind Exchange might just take a world with 6 votes!
Operation: Brass Bull drew little attention to the Taurian cause with 4 votes!

“There’s been a change in plans.”

Hauptmann Jacob Van Tonder raised an inquisitive hand, drawing Colonel Roaker’s attention. The severe woman stared in silence for a long moment before sighing, “Yes, Hauptmann. What?”

Jacob stood, and snapped a smart salute. “Does this have anything to do with the mystery DropShip—”

“Sit down, Hauptmann,” the Colonel glared. A snigger rose from the assembled officers corps. of the 37th Lyran Regulars. Roaker rubbed her brow with a gloved hand and demanded, “Let me finish before you start asking questions. I’m going to answer that anyway.”

Jacob sat and fell silent and sank back into his chair. The inexperienced officer had been near the bottom of the barrel at the Nagelring, but his family had been able to afford the bribes for a Hauptmann position, so unless he fouled up royally Jacob would remain one of the 37th’s Company commanders. The Colonel rested her riding crop atop her lectern and rapped it once to put an end to the laughter at Jacob’s expense.

“Our target is no longer Great X, the Lyran Guards will be taking it—and its vital recharge station—instead. We’ve been presented with a new target selected by the LIC: Yaguas.”

Jacob raised his hand again. Colonel Roaker ignored it and continued, “Yaguas is deeper behind the Clan lines and we have reason to believe it’s only lightly defended. The LIC has determined that a single regiment should be enough to seize the world, and we’re it. Our goal isn’t long-term conquest, although if we manage to seize the world entirely all the better for the Commonwealth. While First, Second, and the bulk of Third Battalion engages Clan forces directly, Hauptmann Van Tonder’s short company will be sent to secure a small Saeder-Krupp Interstellar facility in the southern portion of the planet’s largest continent. That facility has information the LIC is desperate to recover, so I’ll be turning over the floor to our esteemed SKI representative to explain the real importance of our mission.”

The Colonel stepped back, turning over the lectern to a woman dressed entirely in green. A murmur rose briefly before the crack of the Colonel’s crop brought the assembled company commanders to silence again. Jacob stared, his attention utterly captivated by the new arrival. Her face was hidden behind the opaque mask of a Star League-era Neurohelmet, but the eighteen year old academy graduate didn’t need to see her face to know she must have been beautiful. A vibrant green cooling suit clung to her figure, and she towered over the speaking podium in a way the Colonel hadn’t. She must’ve been nearly two meters tall, but rather than the slender lankiness he’d come to expect from women hailing from Tharkad, the Saeder-Krupp representative had curves as far as the eye could see. And as far as Jacob could tell, most of those curves were solid muscle.

He let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding as she started to speak. A voice changer in her helmet warped tones he suspected must have been silky smooth into an electronic snarl. “Thank you, Colonel. You may call me “Morgaine,” or by my battlefield callsign: “Green Knight.” I am here to represent Saeder-Krupp’s interests on Yaguas. My mission does not concern you, but to facilitate my mission I have been empowered to offer the LCAF something it desperately needs: information.”

Jacob’s hand shot up again. The Colonel leaned forward, her mouth opened in warning, but it was too late. The Green Knight’s helmet swung Jacob’s way and he felt his heart skip a beat as she acknowledged him. “Yes, Hauptmann?”

“What is your official job title with SKI?” Jacob stammered.

Her helmet uttered a single blast of electronic noise Jacob thought must’ve been a laugh. “Troubleshooter,” she said simply. “So don’t make yourself trouble, Hauptmann.”

“As the Colonel mentioned,” she pressed, “Saeder-Krupp Interstellar has a small facility on Yaguas. This is public knowledge. What is not public knowledge is that this facility also boasts a planetary ComStar HPG uplink station. Saeder-Krupp knows this facility is still active and remains in ComStar’s hands—and has been actively intercepting messages sent by the Clans since the world fell into their hands. We know this, because Saeder-Krupp has been staging occasional probing missions to Yaguas to check on the status of the personnel trapped there and have been feeding data back to ComStar in anticipation of the Commonwealth’s counterattack.”

“What do you think the odds are that one of the SKI CEO’s heirs is that facility’s manager?” someone behind Jacob murmured to a neighbor.

Whoever she was speaking to laughed, and answered with a question of his own. “Dunno—can I guess a number over one-hundred percent?”

“Saeder-Krupp has successfully negotiated with ComStar to offer all of the information collected by this substation to the LCAF in exchange for your assistance extracting SKI personnel,” the Green Knight continued, oblivious. “We have provided our own DropShip for this task, and I will personally see to the data retrieval during the extraction.”

The second voice snorted, “Better make that two-hundred percent.”

“The importance of what we offer cannot be overstated: the Clans are very careless with their HPG broadcasts. With this facility’s capture, the LCAF will have full access to Clan troop strengths, positions, and likely reinforcements. You’ll know how good they are, whether or not they’ve gotten fresh replacement troops, or whether they’re running short of ammunition. Hell, with our help you’ll be able to tell the invaders what had for breakfast this morning and all Saeder-Krupp asks is that the LCAF defend our extraction DropShip for the duration. Your high command has already agreed.”

The Green Knight paused, then appended. “I look forward to working with you.”





37th Lyran Regulars
Earthshaker Lance


Reaper Lance



Allied Units




House Rule: Minimum Range – Rather than scaling based on distance, the minimum range penalty is fixed at +2
Buildings – Unless otherwise noted, all buildings are Light CF and level 2



Primary Objectives
- Recover intercepted Clan HPG transmission data from the Saeder-Krupp Interstellar facility (0/1)
- Extract Saeder-Krupp Interstellar personnel (0/10 turns)

Secondary Objectives
- Protect the Green Knight (0/1)
- Extract if Necessary (0/8)

Expected Resistance
- Elements of Clan Cloud Cobra’s Delta Galaxy



Pilot List
Neopie
pun pundit
Sparq
Volmarias
koolkevz666
Remmon
habituallyred
tokenbrownguy

Alternates
Xarn
mekilljoydammit
chutche2
Moleboy