Saturday 27 January 2018

From the personal journal of Irisz Magyari

The last twenty-four hours did a fantastic job of upending this entire campaign in a number of different ways. I shouldn’t be surprised that Assault Lance was in the middle of all of it either.

First of all, the Wolves. Okay, so we have done a good job of annoying them, granted, and I kind of understand why they would come after us. First we humiliated them on Keystone, stole a huge pile of parts and disrupted OmniMech production. Then we repeated the process on Kaldiassia, including destroying a prototype OmniMech. Finally, we started a rebellion on Shasta, destroyed half a cluster and sent the rest into a tailspin of crashing morale. I suspect that the Wolves that followed us here to Ashburton are the same ones that were burning towards Shasta as we left.

We’re going to have to take time out from the campaign to deal with them, because we can’t just ignore them. The best way to do such is to convince the Wolves that it’s no longer worth their time and effort to chase after us, but at the same time do it in a moderately clean manner that will play to their sense of honour. Just bearing down on them en masse with artillery and Aerospace support is only going to make them even angrier at us, and personally, I could use less enemies.

Raymond's Roughnecks
Which brings me to the next big problem, being the mercs apparently hired by the Regulans to play pirate. Based on the information that Oda et all bought back, we’ve been able to make a tentative identification of the unit. Unfortunately, it appears to be Raymond’s Roughnecks, a unit that a) has a long standing vendetta (like about one hundred and thirty years) vendetta against mine and b) was supposed to have been destroyed in the Jihad (Although you could ask the Black Cobras and Bronson’s Horde how that worked out). Now I have no idea if their current commander is intent on continuing that feud given that it was supposedly over before my father was born, but I also would rather not have it hanging over me regardless. And I can’t just assume that they’re over it as well.

So now we need to deal with them, both as an enemy force that needs to be eliminated as an operational objective and as a potentially personal threat.

Supposedly the Roughnecks were destroyed during the Jihad. Annika’s journals mention the clashes between them and the Irregulars, including Nina Raymond’s death. However, I also look at those journals and notice just how much of them has been redacted by parties unknown. So it’s possible if I read between the lines that the Roughnecks escaped and hid out somewhere in the Periphery for decades, possibly even operating under a different name. (Randy did mention that he heard a lot of Taurian accents, which would fit with that theory). And somebody who does that isn’t likely to let go of the past in a hurry.

Based in what they gave me, the Roughnecks have a company of BattleMechs (now less once lance) including at least one Clantech ‘Mech. They have at least a company of armour plus artillery support, as well as a mixture of conventional and Battle Armour infantry. Finally, they have at least two Dropships, one of which is a Union. So that’s more paper strength then we have, although we don’t know much about their deployment and tactics as yet or how deep their support is. Takahashi reported that they were allready beginning repairs on Assault Lance’s ‘Mechs before they were retrieved, save for Zhen’s Vulture (Which could simply mean that they didn’t carry a stock of the specialty parts it needs).

The other thing we need to do is figure out the people behind them; know your enemy and all that. I’ve put together a few preliminary thoughts based on what Assault Lance reported from their observations, just in the hope that we can figure out something.

  • Major Raymond – female, middle aged; commander of the unit both based on rank compared to size and observed behaviour; MechWarrior. Angry but driven. Doesn’t like us. Mother to Jessie and Ronnie. Willing to use her son as a bargaining chip against us.
  • Baseball Cap Flannel Shirt – no name known; male, middle aged. Officer or otherwise important position, does not appear to be a MechWarrior. Father of Ronnie; showed more concern for “his boy” then Major Raymond’s plans. May not be Jessie’s father.
  • Jessie (Jessica Bruce) Raymond – female, mid-20s?; lieutenant ; MechWarrior. Daughter of Major Raymond, sister of Ronnie Raymond. Heavy lance commander, but rank could be due to parentage more then ability. Seems to be a somewhat naive or socially inept. Pilots a Warhammer IIC.
  • Ronnie Raymond – male, mid-20s; lieutenant, MechWarrior. Son of Major Raymond and Baseball Cap Flannel Shirt; brother of Jessie. Was commander of recon lance, but currently effectively dispossessed. Seems to have higher ambitions; has been seen trying to recruit other MechWarriors on his own rather then through the unit. If I was to hazard a guess, I would say that he is the younger sibling.


When we get back to Galatea, we’re going to have to do a lot of research. Of course, first thing we need to do is get through this mess.

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