Okay. Once I realized what happened with the vehicles and 'Mechs that I should no longer have popping up in the hangar, I removed the ones that I feel like I legitimately should have lost and kept a couple that I know I could have saved, even under their own power in a couple instances. Reasoning: If that Cicada in the first battle on Thule could get away with one leg and no gyro, my Shadow Hawk can get away while the fusion bottle is still technically intact.
Total losses from that little spate of (painful) conscience include the Brutus (ow), one of the Hetzers, the Vedette, and the Prowler I 'salvaged' for parts. The other Hetzer I abandoned, as did I Night's Locust, so I'm saying that both of those were recovered while the pilots and crew were at the same time.
That leaves me with a total of: One infantry platoon, one aerospace fighter, one combat vehicle (which will still be out of action next week as penance), and a total of ten 'Mechs of varying sizes and damage. Of those 'Mechs, the Locust and Shadow Hawk will be out of action for at least a week each, and the Shadow Hawk will be out for a month, due to the fact that it was literally a fusion engine and cockpit held together with a few spare rivets at the end of the engagement.
With all that in mind, the new TO&E for equipment is as follows:
11th Heavy Combat Lance "Daybreakers"
Major Caden "Easy" Webb, Awesome AWS-8Q, 3/5 (The_E)
Master Sergeant Anders "Rapier" Bullman, Awesome AWS-8Q, 4/4 (Dragon)
Corporal Jean "Werewolf" Vidal, Crab CRB-20, 4/6 (SpardaSon21)
Corporal Richard "Night" Adeboro, Locust LCT-1E, 5/6 (NGTM-1R)
12th Medium Combat Lance
Captain Bowen "Polly" Borham, Phoenix Hawk PXH-1D, 2/5 (Polpolion)
Lieutenant Andrew "Duck" Gibbs, Grasshopper GHR-5N, 3/4
Corporal Alan "Bongo" Fisting, Vindicator VND-1R, 4/6 (dsockwell)
Corporal Dereje bin Hassan, Wasp WSP-1M, 6/5 (Esarai)
2nd Light Aerospace Wing
Lieutenant Chris "Tophat" Valsan, Sparrowhawk SPR-H5 (HerraTohtori)
3rd Jump Infantry Company
Lieutenant Rostislav "Soos" Kalakay, 4
Unassigned
Coporal Ian "Patriot" Fatin, Wasp WSP-1M, 5/6 (Patriot)
Everybody who was in a vehicle.
All techs have stayed the same.
After the realization that Hard Light Brigade vehicles are terrible, unlucky fire magnets, I have decided to refit the Hetzer we still have to an artillery support vehicle. The AC/20 is gone, replaced instead by a Thumper field artillery piece and a few tons of ammo for it. As soon as that modification is complete, the Artillery Hetzer will immediately begin supporting Brigade assets in a close artillery support function. And there was much rejoicing from the crew, who have been nearly killed both times it went out. Now they won't be dealing with that **** any more.
Repairs begin in earnest. There's a lot of them, but fortunately the biggest, baddest hitters on the team were also the least damaged. Easy's Awesome rolls out of the bay by the end of the week, and Rapier's looks fit to follow it not hours later. On the other end of the spectrum, Bongo's Vindicator is on the slate for a rebuild of the entire lower structure, and Patriot's Wasp is going to be in for even longer. Fortunately, only one of them is actually assigned to a lance right now, so I'm not really sorry to say that Patriot's Wasp is of a very much lower priority right now. The other good news is that Polly's Phoenix Hawk only needs a few repairs done to the Right Leg and then to replace the armor, and it's good to go. If I do come up with a mission where he's to be deployed, I can very well just slap the armor on and hope that it doesn't get tested without repairing the leg fully. Welcome to Thule, everybody.
Medical problems are also dealt with effectively. Dr. Bones manages to heal a sum total of 11 hits on his first day working on lots of patients, which means he's well on his way toward winning a ribbon for it. Good job! Day two brings that up to 21. At the very least, he's now qualified to win a Red Light, with Yellow Light still up in the air. A round of applause to our medical crew. Notable nagging injuries include Polly and Night, both of whom are ready and able to deploy despite their minor dizziness and headaches. At least, they better be.
Monday rolls around, so it's time to formalize the reconsolidation and reorganization. The 11th and 12th, Heavy and Medium strength respectively, are officially kitted out to drop with an hour's notice. 2nd Aerospace Wing is sortied once every eight hours for a two hour high-altitude reconnaissance flight. 3rd Jump Platoon is similarly on one-hour status to be ready to engage SAR.
Turns out there's one battle this week. Hide and Seek as attacker.
There's a reason Tophat has been sortieing three times a day every day since BRAWL went down. His surveillance has kept the Hussar unit that did the deed in view the entire time, and we know exactly where they are. Once Brawl went down, and the 12th and 13th were forced to withdraw, the Hussars quit the field, perhaps fearing an additional combat against the still relatively fresh - and newly pissed off - Daybreakers. They withdrew, allowing the Brigade repair teams to drag a few otherwise inoperable units off the field. Most were still lost.
The Daybreakers continued on mission, using the window gained from the Hussars' retreat to take the research facility that was the initial objective, mere hours behind the initial schedule, and well within contingency schedule limits. Now, objective secured and with the newly reformed 12th Medium Combat Lance conducting a guard operation, the Daybreakers are free to exact revenge on the fleeing Hussars. In the interim, the Hussars have managed to functionally repair most of their units, though any vehicles have long been left behind in the frigid cold. What's left for the Daybreakers to hunt down is a pair of Medium lances.
As soon as the Hussars realized they were being actively tracked by Brigade aerospace assets, they immediately fled to the closest population center on this continent, a city by the name of Umpikuja, where they took up positions designed to inflict serious punishment on anyone that dares root them out. The Daybreakers are up to the challenge, and will approach from the North side of town.
Meteorological surveys report a moderate winter storm approaching the city, which should hit less than an hour before Brigade forces enter the outskirts. Forecast calls for a good amount of snow. Temperature for the operation is projected to be a balmy -37 centigrade.
After reviewing battlecam footage from BRAWL, Captain Roberts has put out a 5,000 credit bonus for whoever can down Captain Lewis Cameron and his Trebuchet.
Mission at a glanceName: Operation: PAYBACK
Time: Wednesday, 20 June 3049
Terrain: Town-Concrete
Size: 20x25
Conditions: Daylight, Medium Snow
Start Positions: Friendly North, Enemy Center.
Victory Conditions: Destroy four (4) enemy units while losing no more than one (1) friendly 'Mech.
Enemy forces consist of surviving enemy 'Mechs from Operation: LIGHT HAMMER, a two lances of Medium and Light 'Mechs. Exact composition:
Captain Lewis Cameron, Trebuchet TBT-5N, 2/4
Hermes III HER-4K, 3/3
Scorpion SCP-1N, 3/5
Scorpion SCP-1N, 3/5
Cicada CDA-2A, 2/5
Locust LCT-3V, 4/3
Mongoose MON-67, 4/4
Hermes HER-1B, 3/5
Summary: This one should be.... interesting. No vehicles to die early and give away the victory, but at the same time the numbers aren't favorable, despite the reorganized lances. I expect Easy and Rapier to be doing most of the fighting, as with Awesomes they can both take and deal more damage per turn than damn near any three of the enemy 'Mechs. That, and both Awesomes have already made good acquaintance with half of these 'Mechs, so getting to put them down for good would feel pretty nice.
In other news: No recruits this week, and our Techs stumbled upon a minor cache of parts in the research lab. No one can figure out what they do at a curious glance, though, so it'll probably be until we get desperate and try slapping them on something before we figure out what they are. Essentially, I got five "parts", of which I choose what they are when I decide to use them. I got them from the Event Roll this week, which came up with the result "Bonus Roll". That result came up with "1d6 Parts" and I rolled a five. These parts can be literally anything, and I get them without paying for them or having to roll for availability. Obviously, I could horridly abuse this gift and demand that I found five 400 XL engines, but I don't like to cheat like that.
Now that all that is accounted for, the next thing to do is play out the next scene of the Hard Light Brigade adventures on Thule.
