Another temporary base, januari 3016: The Real Life

Deborah stepped out of the taxi, and waited for Levi to pick her up in his pacified Packrat. He drove her towards the hangars, violating each and every speed limit and cutting corners through non-driving terrain. She really ought to reprimand him, but for the fact that this was his way of dealing with boredom; She would just deduce the fines from his salery.

The hangars were as decrepid as the previous bunch, but this time two people stood outside on guard in their new uniforms and with the maximum allowed waponry: a personal side arm. Better, much better, the khaki pants were of a better quality fabric and cut, and the Jäger green jacket gave a smart, professional look. Thinking about the last HPG message she decided to spent some money on some promotional pictures and texts, to be included with the standard MRB description.

Inside she was met by corporal van Buren, who wore her four copper bars with a pride which finally told Deborah what the meaning 'dispossed' actually meant.

"The Dancer is a 100% functional again, captain. It wasn't the arms, but the main feed from the magazine: it could not handle trice the amount it was designed for. Senior Mogazaki was really upset when he discovered he had just overlooked that part."

Deborah nodded and looked at the Vulcano and walked over to Imme Smidt.

"Underpressure, failsaves to far in flow", the senior tech explained, "Not easy fix: overpressure just vent, underpressure..."

Deborah just stared at her and an unspoken comment hung in the air.

"27% of parts not original, many control logic missing, this not factory model", Imme defended herself, "will fix, but need test, need calibrate."

'Not a factory model', how more true could you get with these mechs. 200 years of being maintained by barely qualified people. She hoped the results would be better with the next set of rebuilds: the two Wolverines, with a very nervous Micheal Ironford nearby.

"Captain Sir, are you quite sure about this? I mean more mech rebuild, and you sold the Dervish and the Locust and the Stinger. Those two new mechs you got us look old, techs say they're from the starting years of the Star League. They ripped of the autocannon from my beautifull mech -"

"My mech, Micheal", Deborah retorted, "but fight as well as Wanda and you'll get it back. Those autocannons just do not have the punch, and the Kuritan Warhammer left us with two ppc's in good shape. It would be a waste not to use them."

She kept it at that, perhaps later would be a good moment to tell him the missile launcher had to go to: they had won the last battle because of ammo explosions, and she wasn't planning to loose the same way. No 'case', she wondered how much tech loss would have been possible had the 5 houses paid more attention to keeping things in one piece. Silly thoughts, she reminded herself, the inner sphere was as it was and Micheal would protest further rebuilds. Yet it was no use rebuilding only one of the two Wolverines: identical designs were so much easier to maintain.

Her cadre already waited for her in the planning room, next to the trailer with their very own kitchen unit. Expensive both in hiring costs as well as maintenance, the quality of the food had gone up from barely acceptable to having people from other units trying to sneak in to grab a bite; tricky for security, but a hell of a morale booster. 'Perhaps a nice recruiting method'.

"I've got got a small mission, a lance at most", Deborah told the others, "but we have to put more effort our MRB status, and actively try to get missions."

'...Like any other mercenary unit', the sentence hung in the air.

"We're not going home?", Joshua had returned from hospital, but the severe burn had hit him more then physically. He was less daring and clearly needed a morale booster. Deborah decided to get him a good replacement vehicle.

"Home?", Ariben retorted, "We've got a job todo."

David stood up and rolled out the schematics of the new mech: "The Flanker is a pretty old mech, introduced in limited number since 2566. It was used as a perimeter guard and stragler hunter, but it was later replaced by the Mongoose, hovers, and the Husar. Still the two we've got are in pretty good shape."

"Can you give me a summary?" Miriam inquired.

"Well, it weights 35 tons, top speed is about 110kph, it has got a standard large laser in the right torso, a machinegun in each arm, and about 150 meters jump capacity. Its armour is fairly light, about 4.5 tons."

"Sounds like a Jenner", Ariben interposed.

"It predated a Jenner by more than 200 years", David objected, "in its time it was a feared design and with the state of current tech, I think it will be much better then the Stinger or Locust. The Jenner is a hit and run mech, the Flanker a mainline support mech."

"But it could work well with a Jenner", Deborah took control again, "Good, thank you David. Joshua, can you see which contracts are open? Miriam, I want a propmotional vid of the unit. Ariben, I want to talk about improving vehicle quality and David, prepare a light lance for a raiding mission."

TO&E at start of 3016

Wolverine   Aurora    captain Deborah Hansen (4/3)
--
Grasshopper Vulcano   lieutenant Miriam Ami (5/4)
Wolverine   Horizon   cadet Micheal Ironford (5/4)
PhoenixHawk Dancer    corporal Wanda van Buren (5/4)
Interdictor Dwarf     corporal Gabriel Balawski (6/4)
--
Spider      Rusty     lieutenant David Everan (6/4)
Trebuchet   Rocky     cadet Peter Ronson (6/4)
Flanker     1st-Dan   corporal Cato Barasda (5/4)
Flanker     Jester    corporal Galil Elajeh (6/4)
--
Recouperating         lieutenant Joshua Goldbau (4/4)
Scorpion-S  -1        cavalier Sheba K'Tangl (6/4)
Scorpion-S  -2        cavalier Barak Barasda (6/3)
Scorpion-S  -3        cavalier Simon Petrovski (5/4)
--
Demolisher  Thunder   sergeant Ariben Arbi (5/4)
Apc         -5        cavalier Misha Shen (5/5)
Vedette     -1        recruit Renier de Labol (5/5)
Vedette     -2        recruit Samson Bukatin (6/4)
--
Striker     -1        cavalier Eli Lwanbak (5/5)
Striker     -2        cavalier Hamal Gudeon (4/4)
Scorpion    -1        recruit Steve mcLadin (5/4)
Scorpion    -2        recruit Pepe Dadona (6/5)
--
APC-W       -3        cavalier Joab Alison (4/4)
APC-W       -4        recruit Henry Rawwings (6/5)
Packrat     -1        cavalier Joshi Mazim (4/4)
Packrat     -2        cavalier Levi Strauss (6/4)
--
Master tech Gerome Malier
Senior (weapon) tech Kuzo Mogazaki
Senior (mech) tech Imme Smidt
Senior (vehicle) tech Earl mcAlister

Modifications and non-canon designs:
- Wolverines: replace AC5+ammo by PPC and 2 SHS (no crit and weight change)
- Grasshopper: replace LRM5+ammo by SRM4+ammo (no crit and weight change)
- PhoenixHawk: replace each ML by twin MGs, downgrade MGammo and upgrade armor (0.5)
- Interdictor(75): 3/3, ra:AC/20, rt:SRM6+ammo+jj+2*ACammo, ct:jj, lt:jj, la:4 ML, 21shs, 13.5 armor
- Flanker(35): 7/5, ra+h:MG, rt:LL,2jj ct:/MGammo,jj lt:2jj la+h:MG, 10 shs, 4.5 armor

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