BlackJacks Legion (Mercenaries to be Sure..)

Original posts by Colonel BlackJack and Major Dante:

Update : March 31 3050 : 2:30:00

En rout to the planet Arc-Royal, I have been receiving distressing messages form the outlying areas in the periphery, it appears that the planets: Ferris, The Rock, Placida, Botany Bay, Last Chance, Nyserta and Drask's Den have all fallen to and as yet unknown army. considering the current state of affairs, I think it would be prudent to move Tin-man's RCT to Somerset in the event that Adam will be needing help in defending his home planet.
I will also send element of Red's RCT, (most likely the 151st and the 232nd recon company's) to Star's End and Santander V to secure any and all information that's available.

I will send Cloak & Dagger a HGP burst as soon as we land in Arc-Royal, Damn Capellan insurrectionist 3 more grueling months on that damn contract but hey... at least Victor keeps paying the bills. Buggs has informed me that our current supplies will need to be restocked as soon as we make landfall. I believe we are in good shape for the coming year our stocks are on the rise, metals trading is going smoothly, my new LAM Factory on Canal is ready to go online this week and our sixteen new mech factories are up and running.

I think the only real worries right now are what are the Capellans up to...

BlackJack out.

Commanders Log:
March 31 3050 : 8:00:00 HOURS
Location::Classified::---Poznan:

After formal review and getting this place organized I find that I will have about 1 week to get familiarized with this location, the planet Poznan is not really that bad considering…. We are currently located on the northern hemisphere on what the natives call “Mieszko” a moderate to cool climate area with some rolling hills that offer great visibility with little to no protection in case of an attack. It’s a lot nicer then some of the shitholes we’ve been sent to but after all, this is just a garrison gig.
The lake around here is said to be the largest on this planet, I like that! If we are attacked we can just send the assault units into the water and blast away.

I have already ordered Cpt. Isaac: Commander of Inferno 503 and Cpt. Davi: Commander of Inferno 458 to move their companies to the south about 15/20 km from here and 20km apart in delta D formation, as soon as they arrive on site they should start RAP (recon air patrol) operations immediately.
Cpt. Richards: Inferno 407 recon unit has been ordered to set up to the north about 60km, I personally told him to send the LAM’s (land-air-mech) out to the other continent “Boleslaw” and recon the mountains for suitable secondary HQ locations in case we get routed for any reasons. I’ve been really impressed with Maj. Masterson’s son, Lt Michael Masterson lately, he’s a good LAM pilot (if not a little too cocky) but weren’t we all at one time… (piloting a LAM is like nothing you’ve ever experienced in your life, the sheer rush of landing a 35 ton mech in airmech mode skimming off the ground at 100 feet at 1000km/h then flipping it into mech mode and coming to a complete stop in seconds is a rush better than any drug/drink/party/woman could ever be!.)
I have also ordered Cpl. Dixon to set up a logistics support network in their general vicinity to help run supplies.
Medical aid stations will be finished and set up by weeks end, Cpl Dixon has also been charge with the logistics in that area too.

His reports on our current food/medical/parts shortages have me a little worried though, I told Cpt. Shackleton that I wanted at least 6 months of supplies loaded on the dropships before we detached from the Divine Comedy, (note to self: write Shackelton up).
Now I will have to report to Cpt. Peregrine that to “unforeseen loading issues” we did not bring enough supplies down with us, I will have to rethink my situation and balance the needs of sending a dropship back up to the jumpship or invoke our supply clause in the contract. (lord knows the Col. would never have made that simple mistake) (note to self: Really write Shackleton up!)

I have sent Cpt. Peregrine the copy of our merc contract the Col. wanted signed and I’ve also turned over a copy of our TO&O chart, budgeting matters and getting the troops paid will fall on the payroll and personal department as SOP.

Time to go site seeing, think I’ll take a LAM out for a little fresh air.


Maj. Dante
Commanding.

Commanders Log:
April 01 3050: 08:00:00 HOURS
Location: Poznan: Upper Boleslaw

After flying out to “Boleslaw” I find myself really quite amazed at the simplistic beauty these mountains and canyons have and how unique and varied they truly are.
This particular low forest hill located above some small local encampment is an example of the exceptional view given to such a location. In addition to good views of the south and north, when you look down from the top plateau you’d almost have a 300m free fall down to the encampment. The hill is not easily accessible thought I did notice that there was an old mill truck path leading up the eastern side of it. This is a great secondary HQ location.

I just hit subsonic when I took note of some slight vibrations in the left wing actuator and the lower left leg control surfaces, which made this baby just a little hinkey to jog to the left. Oh she can pull hard through 8g’s in a “Lomcevak”, snap conversion to a dead stop in mech mode, but I can only hold 5g’s to the left. I’ll need to get Humphrey on that when I get back, I’ll never live it down if I break buggs’s toy.
As I crest the rocky out cropping on the northern side I activated the low intensity IFF (identify friend/foe) locator beacon that buggs had designed a few years back and suggested that the techs install on all the command LAM’s, just in case we needed to find and detect them even if they were in full stealth mode and in hiding. I can’t believe the colonel had all those engineers and scientist working for so long and hard and for so many years getting this special null signature system to work right on these LAM’s.

As expected, I heard the soft low pitched beeping that was, in someway a comfort, knowing that one of our teammates was out here, you never know when or where a bad guy was going to pop out, sure you can do all the recon your want to, get all the intelligence you can, get mentally prepared for a fight, but still you just get that one time when something just jumps out of hiding and scares the crap out of you and punches your ticket.
I saw on the LRR HUD the ID’s of Lieutenant Masterson and three other members of his lance (FA-113, Stingers) I used my thumb to toggle and flash my IFF ID to Lieutenant Masterson, no need to get the boy all jumpy with an UFO in his area. I looked down at my LRR HUD display and noticed that there were three additional blips roughly 150Km out to the North West, Hum… I wonder what’s going on. I toggle cmd2,

“Uh, inferno 401 this is inferno command come in.”
Nothing dead air…
“Uh Inferno 4 0 1 this is inferno command come in”
Inferno command this is Inferno 401 go ahead.
“Lieutenant, Maj. Dante here, I’m coming in from the north at 800Km, pleases advise of your situation, I’ve spotted three unknown contacts at location 241 over”
Roger that Sir, please be advised we’ve been under surveillance since we’ve arrived, please redirect to 187 slow to 250. I will flash IFF as soon as I have visual on you. Over
“Copy that, Inferno command out”
I bank left, slow to the requested speed and the low beeping starts again, I toggle the locater off, then I see LT’s (pronounced: el-tee) Lam walk out of the woods in front of me I pull back on control stick, cut my forward speed by fairing out my lams leg thrusters, retract the wings and gently plopped my WSP-100 (Wasp LAM BJ Mk-II) down in front of him in mech mode, needless to say Lt. took a few steps back, obviously shocked that I could actually land this close to him. (hehehe young pup).

LT spun around and started walking towards camp, I popped my canopy open and took a breath of fresh air, man was I tired, that was a long flight, I really wanted to hit the rack and catch a few hours rest but I needed to find out what was going on right now so after a few minutes of walking LT stopped, popped open his cockpit then after powering down his STG-A1 (Stinger LAM BJ MK-III) jumped out and started walking towards me.

With a smart salute, LT stopped in front of me and smiled and said, Damn glad to see you Sir; Welcome to Boleslaw! I gave a half assed salute back and said, Thanks, now tell me what the hell is going on here, who’s got you under surveillance and why did you let them know you were here?

Update: April 02 3050: 12:30:00

FLASH TRAFFIC… FLASH TRAFFIC…
Incoming encrypted message to all command staff:




Running encryption algorithms:
PROCESSING… PROCESSING… PROCESSING…
Greetings my friends, there is still no word on the location or circumstances surrounding the misjumps of the Annie Laurie, Archie, Bimble, Pinger, Ripple and Rhino. I have been in contact with the House leaders and ComStar and as soon as I have anything new to report I will.

Let us all keep faith in the knowledge that I will do everything in my power to bring our friends, families, sons and daughters back home.
Col. BlackJack.

Commanders Log:
April 02 3050: 16:32:00 HOURS
Location: Poznan: Upper Boleslaw

After getting some rest and chow, I walked over to the command tent to see LT working the communications array.
“Recon one, recon one do you have eye’s on target yet?”
Negative. Recon two.
“Recon three, do you have contact yet?”
That’s a negative, recon two.
“Well keep at it. We know their out there”

Anything yet LT, no Sir… he said. I have everybody out but no contacts yet, but we’ll find them, we always do Sir.
Stop the Sir crap with me Masterson, only when the colonels around, your square with me, got any java around this joint or are ya gonna make me go without! Yes Sir...Uh...sorry Maj. on the table over by the holoprojecter, cream (the powder crap) and sugar (the powder crap) too.

So LT, as I was standing over the topographical map looking down at it and saying, “as soon as you get this all sorted out, I want you to setup a temporary command post here in sector 118, ferry out some personal and supplies. I want to know everything about this region also implement action 214. I want to know what were sitting on, see if there is anything of value under our feet and set out the perimeter sonic devices for detection.
I’ll send Captain Richards the directives also, so he can send you the correct equipment.
He said, as you see fit Major, may I ask, have you received any word from…..I’ve received a communication burst through the legions privet comm system, I said; the colonel is in orbit around Arc-Royal and should make planet fall in two days. And no son, nothing about your father or the others yet, but we’ll keep looking you know that. He said, yes sir, I understand.
No, I don’t think you do LT, I said; Your Father and the Colonel go way back and I mean way way back, well before I joined up. And if I know the colonel, he’ll send the entire Legion out to find his friend. if that’s what it takes, so don’t you worry another minuet about it. Keep your mind focused, stay on the mission!
He said; Yes Major I will.
Just then the radio burped to life.
Crackle…recon two, contact!

Commanders Log:
April 03 3050: 09:30:00 HOURS
Location: Poznan: Upper Boleslaw

I feel good leaving LT to do it, I don’t know too much about his father though, but what I said is true… that’s the type of man the colonel is. He has never left a man behind as far as I know and that’s all that counts in my book.
I’m off to the island continent of Galicia, I’ve received a transmission from Captain Isaac Commander of Inferno 503 and my second in command that our illustrious “Liaison Officer” wants to have a meet and greet at his HQ (so much for my vacation time) I’ve radioed ahead and have set up two tankers to rendezvous with me to fill the tanks, now I just need to set the auto pilot, lock in the waypoints, sit back and think of what I’m gonna do to Captain Shackleton or is that Lieutenant?