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[Bill Bullet]

>>September 10th, 3050
>>Capellan Confederation
>>Memorial City, Capella

>>Personal log of Sao-Wei Bill "Bullet" Chamber

The atmosphere on the base is charged with anticipation. Davion Dropships are inbound for the arctic region. I've checked and double-checked my Centurion-9A until the Techs chased me off with threats of bloody vengeance for looking over their shoulders.

The Colonel himself has taken command of the planet's defense and every man here is a veteran of several campaigns. The Capellan Confederation is a nation of few friends and many enemies and it has bred a generation of MechWarriors ready to die for every inch of their soil. If the scuttlebutt around the base is to be believed, then a lot of blood is going to be shed protecting planets all over Liao space.

I'm nervous as all hell if I'm gonna be honest. I've been with the 4th Tau Ceti Rangers for a while now, ever since they pulled my ass out of a Jade Falcon prison camp in the early days of the Invasion, but up till now I've only ever been shooting at pirates and raiding mercenaries. Nothing that would really smack of treason so far. But now a rank and file FedCom regiment, the Head Hunters of Davion, is burning through the planet's atmosphere and if I don't want to spend the rest of my life in Maskirovka custody, I need to be on the frontlines of this fight.

I think back to the days of my old command, The WhiteBriar Irregulars, and a cold anger settles into the pit of my stomach. The FedCom military offered us up as a sacrificial lamb against the encroaching Jade Falcons. Some bean counter on New Avalon decided a small household guard unit counted as an "acceptable loss" and 45 good men and women died. 45 men and women under MY command, snuffed out in a futile intelligence gathering mission.

It's about time those FedCom b.astards didn't get their way and hell, even when I was a Lyran citizen I was no fan of the Davions anyway. Any lingering questions of where my loyalty lies disappears when I start considering the debt I owe to the Rangers. They saved my life from both the Falcons AND the Maskirovka, then went a step further and gave me a Mech so I wouldn't join the ranks of the Dispossessed. The Rangers are my comrades now, and I'd shoot the Archon if it removed a threat to them.

Final orders are coming down, if I survive this fight, I'll include the details of it in my next report.

Edited by Bill Bullet, 10 September 2015 - 10:11 PM.

[Timicon]

Nice! I look forward to the next installment!

[Bill Bullet]

The raiders landed deep in the Aris Mountain range just as intel suspected they would. However, by landing on the far western edge of the mountains -in an area the garrison commander had assured us was an impossible feat- the Davion commander caught us completely flat footed. Two mixed lances from the planet's garrison were the only ones able to engage the landing Dropships and after getting outflanked, they lost the high ground and were shot to pieces. The Colonel had the garrison commander arrested for incompetence, which was a huge relief to me after my days in the Lyran military and its "social generals" where incompetence in high command was just something you worked around.

The Davions pushed down from the mountains into the abandoned city of Lěng Shì and my unit was sent to dig them out. Lt. Colonel Vandril had us hide behind a ridgeline on the outskirts of the lower city. Several minutes passed at a pace just a hair faster than glacial while we waited. From where I stood, we didn't have the high ground and not so much as a molehill for cover. The Lt. Colonel however had spent ages pouring over maps dredged up from a library and using his own Vindicator as bait, lured the raiders right into our guns. The Davions to their credit, knew they had been played almost instantly and tried rushing us en masse while a pair of their lights harrassed us from the rear. However coordinated fire and some high class piloting from our own lights soon paid off.

By the end of that fight all of our armor pooled together wouldn't have covered a hot dog stand but we had ground their advance to a halt, wiping out two whole lances of Medium and Heavy Mechs. My poor Centurion was a shell of her former self, my damage schematic showing a cherry-red CT and a destroyed left leg. Limping back to the Repair Bay at 35 kph, my life support systems went off-line and I was sidelined for the rest of the fight with hypothermia.

Resting up in the field hospital I later found out that we had routed the Davions destroying some 36 of their Mechs, an entire battalion of the FedCom's finest. After repairs and salvage we had lost only 7 mechs in total, in other words, one hell of a victory. I'll admit (and damn what the Maskirovka thinks of it) that those Davions put up a hell of a tough fight. Those raiders pushed me to the limit of my skill and I don't care who knows it.

Looking out the window, I can see the Colonel stomping around the grounds in the Stalker-4N we captured with a shiny new coat of Liao paint and if I strain my ears I can hear the sounds of the Major ordering drinks for the house on some poor new recruit's tab, so I'm gonna wrap this up and head down to join the celebration.

>>Signing off<<

[Bill Bullet]

>>Priority Message
>>Top Secret

>>September 10th, 3050 FedCom raid of Capella
>>Gun cam footage from Sao-Wei [Redacted] callsign "BlackHawk"

Edited by Bill Bullet, 12 September 2015 - 01:47 AM.

[Bill Bullet]

Maskirovka Personnel File #113928-5021-BB
Personal log of Sao-Wei William Chamber
Callsign: "Bill Bullet"

Date: Sept 15th, 3050
Planet: [Redacted]


Voice recording >>ACTIVATE<<

Personal log, entry...uh 3 I suppose. Deleted a few previous entries full of private stuff when I realized I have to turn over my log to the Maskirovka whenever they ask for it. They were all just details of the numerous times I've shagged your mothers, sisters, and daughters...probably a few of your aunties as well when I think about it...

Anyway, gonna confine these logs to more broad, less personal categories in future. *sigh* Well I suppose the thing to start with is what happened when the Magistracy of Canopus came gunning for us. Details are sketchy this far away from the action, but the long and short of it is that a whole bunch of the MAF came screaming across the border and kicked the ever living daylights out of the mercenaries hired to watch that border. Again the brass is keeping the details close to the vest, so exact numbers are hard to come by, but the way the Major has been cussing up a storm and stalking around the FOB it must have been ugly.

The planets hit were Sax, New Roland, Andarmax, and Shiba. Looking at my data base, Sax is just a training ground for PBIs, [Maskirovka note: PBI-MechWarrior slang for Poor Bloody Infantry. Chance of code use-minimal] Andarmax is just a mining colony, and Shiba is a bloody backwater valuable only for its location. If I had to guess, those three attacks were just feints (if bloody vicious ones) while the attack on New Roland was the primary goal. New Roland is where they're building the Zero Aerospace fighter, and disrupting the production of those would put a real bee in her Majesty's bonnet!

Of the merc units that got stomped to bits, the one hit worst was Little Richard's Panzer Brigade stationed on both Sax and Andarmax. The other two units; the Tooth of Ymir and St. Cyr's Armored Hussars, got trounced pretty badly too though. I'd bet my last C-Bill the Chancellor ropes all three units into selling their souls to the company store. [Maskirovka note: "Company Store" is Lyran slang for forcing a mercenary unit into massive debt by making them buy directly from the CCAF to rebuild their units, typically ensuring that the unit has to stay loyal to their contractor or face massive penalties for failing to pay off the debt. Chance of code use-minimal]

*Sound of chuckling*....That is of course unless her Chancellorness doesn't have them all shot.

[Maskirovka note: Several officers were terminated for gross incompetence and suspicion of treason. Subject is most likely unaware of this.]

Gotta hand it to the MAF though, for a Periphery nation they sure have every intention of making life difficult for the Confederation, a country roughly 3 times their size. I'd speculate as to why a former ally is suddenly gnawing on the Confederation's toes but I don't want to do too much thinking for the Mask. With any luck a few of them might get shot as well.

>>Voice Recording End<<

[Maskirovka final note: Several agents in the Sian Commonality branch were terminated for gross incompetence and suspicion of treason. Subject is most likely unaware of this.]