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.

Journal Extract 75324-Rho

Remember what I said about the kids being walking security leaks? Well, if anything, I seem to have underestimated the risk they represented.

Jessie isn’t that stupid. Hopelessly naive, in over her head and being pushed way past her capability because of her parentage, yes, but not actually stupid. And let’s be honest here, she’s far from the first child of a mercenary commander to be promoted simply because of her parentage. In a family run unit like this, it’s inevitable; you just have to hope that the child is up to the task. In Jessie’s case, the answer is ‘no’, and I can’t see any way that she would ever run the unit on her own.

Ronnie is that stupid, but that’s another matter.

Journal Extract 75323-Rho

[Honestly? Between them the kids are walking security leaks. If not for their parentage, they would have both been discharged long ago or otherwise ‘retired’. Then again, they’re far form the first idiot offspring of mercenary officers. At least one of them might not be a problem too much longer]

When (deleted) the Major first found out about the Ashburton government hiring mercs, she was furious. Then when she found out who they were, she was strangely okay with it, which is rather strange what with our past and all that. She figured that we would lie low for a while and get a read on the Irregulars, their full capabilities and what they were doing, and then make her move.  She was even okay with them taking out one of the pirate bands, though it ain’t like they’re exactly a big loss to begin with.

So the Major had the idea of luring out one of their lances into an ambush. The plan was to use recon lance to act as bait to draw them in and then have my lance to take them out. Seemed simple enough, right? We even had a fallback escape route into the canyons should things go bad. ‘course, none of it went even remotely right to begin with. (Deleted) (deleted) frig it, trying to keep this professional sounding Scout lance managed to bait one of the units looking for us all right, but it was a freaking heavy lance. So they weren’t just running towards us for the trap but also running for their lives, and Scout Lead was screaming like he allways does when he gets in over his head (happens a lot too).

Operation LONELY ISLAND

From Mercenary Campaigns of the 32^nd Century, Galatea Free Press

After their ambush and defeat of a pirate attack on the Batman docks, Magyari’s Irregulars chose to capitalise on their momentum and strike a blow against the Ashburton pirates. While the main goal was it simply eliminate one pirate band, the hope was that they would send a message to their opponents that they were not safe, they were not beyond the mercenaries reach and that there was nowhere that they could hide. By taking out one band in their supposedly secret hideout, the Irregulars were hoping to demoralise others.

Of course, the problem was going to be finding one of those secure hideouts. Interrogation of the captives from the Batman attack had revealed that the pirates had a base on Phillip Island, but the exact location was unclear. The pirates were known to be well-informed, to the point that it was known that they had people watching the Irregulars’ dropships. As such, they would likely be tipped off about any potential move against them, and could clear out before an attack was mounted.

Project HOUSEBOAT

I found a file that matches up to our mysterious Yeoman. It also gives me an idea as to where the pirates are getting their supplies – Nikola

Field Testing Summation: YMN-10-OR Refit

Producer/Site: Curtiss MilTech, Paradise

Supervising Technician: Doctor Gary Pappas

Project Start Date: 3072

Non-Production Equipment Analysis:

                Mechwarrior Aquatic Survival System

                Underwater Manoeuvring Units

                Multiple Torpedo Tubes

The Jihad was a boom time for military technologies, with many different developments going from prototypes to common mass production items during its course. However, the level of destruction unleashed during the Jihad meant that many other projects fell by the wayside or were simply destroyed, with their details often lost. Added to this, not every new technology was a success, and many were dead ends or catastrophic failures.

From the personal journal of Sargent David Correra

Working with the assault lance is never dull, and I’m not just saying that because of all the time I spend riding on Lee’s Vulture. Those guys have an amazing ability to come up with insane plans and get themselves into trouble. And because my squad is effectively attached to their lance, I’m usually along for the ride.

Take this latest one as an example. We were trying to look for a way to lure out the Ashburton pirates. They’d managed to find out the target of the next pirate attack, being a warehouse district on the Batman waterfront (Yeah, the pirates were going straight after the capital even knowing that there was a mercenary company present. Talk about ballsy!), so they had decided to plan a surprise party. They had their ‘Mechs shipped in (Along with my squad, of course) and hidden in the target warehouses in ambush.

SAFE Intelligence Briefing ASHB-3145-129A

The pirate situation in Ashburton has been ongoing since the end of the Jihad, but in the last three years it has escalated considerably. The pirates have been better armed, better coordinated and definitely becoming more bold in their attacks. Unfortunately, due to their lack of mobility and years of operating on a shoestring budget under the auspices of ineffective governments, the Ashburton Defence Force has been unable to effectively deal with the situation.

While the various pirate groups do not act as a single organisation, it is clear that they share intelligence and coordinate operations. They have divided the planet up into a number of different territories based on each band’s capabilities. While usually their targets are confined to ocean-going vessels and costal ports, there have been attacks on overland shipping and other inland targets. In recent years, the pirates have become so bold as to attack such high profile targets as the Batman ports themselves.

The pirate bands are armed with a mixture of equipment, bur primarily are focused on hovercraft, VTOLs and surface naval vessels, supplemented by small infantry forces. They are known to use battle armour, and some unconfirmed reports suggest that they may have BattleMechs. However, these are more likely modified Industrial designs. Much of this equipment has only begun appearing in the last three years, suggesting an external backer. The most likely candidate is the Regulan Fiefs, given Ashburton’s precarious position in the narrow ‘neck’ of the League between them and the Wolf Empire.

While the pirates do not enjoy any popular support, it is clear that they are well supplied with local, on the ground intelligence. Their attacks are often very precisely targeted, going after specific cargoes or shipments that they have been presumably directed to by insider intelligence. Given that the planet has only begun to emerge from years of economic chaos, it is likely that they run off a network of paid-off informants. Given some of the issues that the ADF has had in past with dealing with the pirates, it is possible that there are informants within their ranks as well.

It is possible that there is one other area providing support for the pirates. The ReMonarchist party had advocated a return to the rule of the Wainright family, and have bene headed up by a scion of the family for decades. The party was marginalised by Prime Minister McNally’s Progress Party, and left holding only two federal seats and having no real power in the house of representatives. A member of the Wainright family were among a group of pirates captured by the ADF, only to be subsequently released during a targeted breakout.