22/02/3050. Day 91

After the morning meeting Hauptmann Samara Hellstrom ordered Professor Anna Morozov to her office for the express purpose of letting Ruin Dmitar go to Medical without her involvement. Instead Ruin returned to his room where Adept VI-Iota Michelle Abnett cooked up a meal, but Ruin sent her to give the food to Jacques Dubois who appreciated it greatly.

Jacques Dubois had gotten ahold of a copy of “Odyssey from New Miami”, speculative fiction of what befell the residents of New Miami during the Fall of Atlantia, which he enjoyed with the unexpected breakfast.

22/02/3050. Day 91, 19:00

Hauptmann Samara Hellstrom found she had a few days in which the Hellstorm suits would be modified for the wargames. This time and Ruin Dmitar’s premonition of something beckoning from the south gave Samara a great opportunity to field test the PAL suits.

The lance set out using the small fusion powered fixed wing aircraft assigned to the base. Able to travel at 600 kph at altitude, they were able to reach the continent of Clotho and the Clio islands in roughly 30 hours.

During the flight Ruin experienced a growing sensation of beckoning, which increased to visions.

24/02/3050. Day 93, 01:00

Ruin’s visions seemed to lead towards the crater at the site of the (destroyed) city of Newport. The plane landed on a makeshift airstrip near the crater. Being closer to the source made it harder for Ruin to sense the direction.

The four pilots were equipped for the climate, and a partial field test of equipment:

• Samara Hellstrom using her Valkyrie MkII PAL
• Ruin Dmitar using his Nighthawk MkII PAL
• Jacques Dubois using his Hellstorm HM1 Medium Battle Armour
• Ingrid ‘Mouse’ Marsh using a Light Environment Suit but driving a snow-jeep.

The team began by abseiling into the crater and starting to explore there but that didn’t feel right. They returned to the top and found the airstrip followed the remnants of an old highway and this seemed to match the road imagery in Ruin’s vision.

Following the road led to a range of hills and mountains, among which Ruin Dmitar spotted something odd, an un-natural landscape item. It appeared to be a nuclear detonation site with a surviving structure. Directing Mouse’s attention to it distracted her, the snow-jeep spun out and only Ruin’s quick reactions saved them both. Luckily Samara and Jacque had been travelling independently.

24/02/3050. Day 93, 03:00

The group discovered the remains (mostly intact) of a fortified structure that was formerly a underground bunker of some sort. The surface portion, which appeared to have been less fortified, was destroyed. The floor below was breached by the blast and had apparently been ravaged by fire. Before this it had been the operations center with many operators who had either died at their terminals or trying to fight the resulting fires. Below was a six level Hyper Pulse Generator station with a intact HPG system.

During the exploration Ruin Dmitar showed flashes of unusual insight into the unfamiliar yet legendary technologies. Ingrid ‘Mouse’ Marsh‘s excitement impaired her ability to fully hide her familiarity with them and the underlying science. Ruin picked up on this and took her aside, finding out her father was a ComStar person who had leaked some of the order’s secrets to her as she was growing up. She didn’t reveal who he was. She hadn’t mentioned it before because she feared getting her father into more trouble, getting recruited (by choice or not) by ComStar, getting shot by Ruin (who remains famous for hating ComStar), and not in that order.

Mouse revealed that the signal Ruin was sensing was probably the distress mode of the system, in which it leaked a byproduct of the K-F based transmission system, similar to detectable emissions from Jumpship K-F drive operation. Only people with the right equipment should have been able to detect it.

The group recovered a series of HPG logs from the system, which had been storing them. They inspected some select items.

• Precentor Ezikiel Dawn had been contacted by First Circuit Precentor Joshua Blair warning of Ruin’s arrival and that Adept IX-Epsilon Bryce Alexander was being dispatched to help deal with the threat.
• Hpt. Kommandant Dieter Herrman had been contacted to solicit his aid getting the Scholz Streikende onto Strata. His response was “Denied”, though he didn’t warn anyone either. He later contacted a number of Samara Hellstrom’s political adversaries and informed them of her knighthood.
• The Strata HPG system had been disabled during the invasion (as recoded by history) but it seemed no distress signal had been sent out either.

The system recorded the destruction (not deactivation) of the HPG system on Lachesis but the HPG system on Atropos was apparently operational. Neither the Clotho nor Atropos HPG systems would have pinged since neither had sent out a signal, and apparently the rest of the network had lost contact with them during the fall.

The team lacked any recording equipment capable of downloading all the accumulated recorded transmissions (with the destruction of the jeep) so returned by foot (albeit accelerated) to the plane.

24/02/3050. Day 93, 07:00

The group returned to the plane and the expedition began preparation to lift off. This was towards the end of the six hour life support envelope of Mouse’s Light Environment Suit, but only half way through the operation envelope of the two PAL and the Battle Armour.

The only issue with the joint operation of the suits was the different ground movement and jump movement capabilities.

25/02/3050. Day 94, 15:00

The flight landed at the Atlantia Military Base. Jacques Dubois was contacted by Shane O’Rourke telling him about a new ‘watering hole’ set up by the Wolf’s Dragoons and he immediately invited Ruin Dmitar.

The pair took the buffalo hovertruck. At the still unnamed watering hole they discovered a mix of base staff, Hellions, Gray Death Legionaires, and Dragoons.

As the alcohol flowed, Jacques Dubois began a tournament to pass on the champion bare knuckle fighter title. The dragoons elementals proved very supportive of the event, naming it a ‘trial of position’ for the title of fight club champion. Shane O’Rourke battled his way to win the title over runner-up Elise Bertrand.

Meanwhile Ruin Dmitar met up with Shin Naoki Yukimura of the Legion and Mechwarrior Zachary of the Dragoons. They spectated on the tournament and later Ruin sparred with Shin.

26/02/3050. Day 95, 02:00

After a solid evening of drinking Elise Bertrand and Shane O’Rourke cooked up a scheme to roll their hoverjeep and blame a crash for their bruises.

Ruin and Jacque set up in the hovertruck and managed to get lost enough to go to New Miami and then actually crash into the floating town. They then lost the keys but managed to find them and hightail it into the darkness before anyone from New Miami could get to the truck. They then were lost enough again to swing past the Gray Death Legion base before getting their bearings and headed back to their own base.

26/02/3050. Day 95, 07:00

Once back at base Ruin left Jacque in the passenger seat of the truck and snuck to his quarters, only to run afoul of his assigned elemental Adept VI-Iota Michelle Abnett. She was very disapproving but when she challenged him “what time do you call this” his snappy answer “bed time” temporarily placated her.

Jacque was found in the passenger seat thoroughly intoxicated. This kicked off a investigation as Samara Hellstrom started investigation an alcohol among her company. Reports started flooding in from the Dragoons and then the Legion as bits and pieces of fall-out from the previous nights excesses continued to flow in.

All intoxicated Hellions were sentenced to panelbeat the damaged vehicles, which Jacque enjoyed but was torture for Ruin.

Michelle watched over this, though mainly over Ruin. She had also raided his alcohol stashes (while he was unconscious) and informed him of a sophisticated electronic lock on it. Later when he disarmed the lock, and found a beautifully written letter informing him that she’d be helping control his alcohol consumption from now on, Ruin snapped.

Ruin Dmitar stormed into Samara Hellstrom’s office to complain about Michelle, wanting her gone and telling the Hauptmann about Michelle claiming the alcohol. This backfired when Samara ordered Michelle to destroy the stash and any more alcohol found on base and to prevent Ruin from drinking. She also expressed her disappointment and frustration with her subordinate.

Ruin returned to his quarters to try to get some rest, only to be confronted again by Michelle. She promised to watch him closely and always, and regretted giving him too much leeway. Also that even both Samara and his Dragoons superiors had ordered her to look after Ruin, it was still very difficult. And she didn’t like failure. His first impression was to object but he decided to back down and ask (quite politely) if Michelle would move to the next room so he could sleep in peace.

Welcome to SNN, it’s January twenty, thirty fifty. I am Paul Donahue.

Interstellar News: Technology Advances

Developed in secret and only recently revealed publicly, the new powered Battle Armour of the AFFS will be an amazing addition to the defence of the federation. Available information is sketchy, with only a limited news briefing released by Hpt. General Lucius Morgan, but SNN hopes to provide details and technical information shortly.

Now that the Battle Armour has been revealed, a series of weapon field tests are planned. The location has not been disclosed.

Planetary News: Mysteries of the Fog

New research is beginning into the fog of the lowlands and midlands of Strata. Based upon new revelations, the Strata Institute of Science has launched into a flurry of activity.

An unconfirmed preliminary report suggests that the fog may have biological properties, and these may be linked to the observation that the fog of Strata dampens electromagnetic transmissions.

Daedalus Local News: Peace declared in the lowlands!

Breaking news, the unrest in Argyre has ceased! Spearheaded by Hauptmann Samara Hellstrom, the Hellstrom’s Hellions countered the remaining militant dissidents and supported the Orange Council, a civilian body which formed and attempted to end the unrest.

Central to the peace deal was a proposal to improve the industrial capabilities of the strife-ridden lowlands community of Argyre. This civilian industrial project has been named Wolkehoffen Einrichtung and will see establishment of Landtrain manufacturing and maintenance facilities in Argyre. Industrial giants Behemoth Vehicles, Terra-CAT and Larsson-Baxter Mining are on-board.

Persons interested in career opportunities relating to Wolkehoffen Einrichtung can find contact details and further information via the link provided below.

Operation Seven – Part Seven
18/01/3050. Day 56, 08:00

In light of the events of the previous day, an Orange Council meeting was convened. Hauptmann Samara Hellstrom laid some groundwork before the meeting with Rene DuVal of the Worker’s Resistance Militia.

She also organised passage to the Chain Gang territory, to root out the only remaining uncontrolled zone of the Old Quarter of Argyre. Her information gathering turned up the disturbing information that multiple Worker’s Resistance Militia sorties into the zone had failed catastrophically, indicating some serious threat within. Hauptmann Samara Hellstrom decided it prudent to move in in force.

18/01/3050. Day 56, 09:00

The council session began. Rene DuVal spoke first and advocated the Worker’s Resistance Militia who were united behind him and Jacques Dubois to participate in Wolkehoffen Einrichtung. This resulted in a high number of candidates for military recruitment, many being industrialmech pilots perfect for the Legion project.

18/01/3050. Day 56, 09:20

Secretary Robyn Hedley called Hauptmann Samara Hellstrom to the stand and she detailed the Wolkehoffen Einrichtung plans. The New Orange Union were on-side but the Worker’s Liberation Movement were opposed, though marginalised.

It was clear during the meeting which way the political winds were blowing. The separatist agenda had failed and the revolutionary factions followed the unionists lead behind Wolkehoffen Einrichtung.

With the council session descending into details and logistics, the Hellions withdrew to pursue their plan to root out the Chain Gang.

18/01/3050. Day 56, 12:00

The Hellions launched their operation, a pincer movement moving into the Chain Gang zone.

North Force

• Samara Hellstrom
• Ruin Dmitar
• Layne-Lars Kinnesson
• Ingrid ‘Mouse’ Marsh piloting Jacques Dubois’s Battlemech
• Two squads of Hellstorm Battle Armour

South Force

• Cadet Kevin Carter
• Cadet Chris Jacob
• Cadet Samantha
• Cadet Judith Keller
• Two squads of Hellstorm Battle Armour led by Jacques Dubois

The pincer movement converged on the Chain Gang base which was defended by eight militarised industrialmechs. The confined terrain limited the Hellions speed advantage. Superior training, tactics, and equipment gave the Hellions the edge, and after quickly dispatching five of the enemy units Samara Hellstrom ordered the survivors to surrender.

Crosscut S3 Mod-A, Industrialmech destroyed, pilot survived, damage exceeds salvage value.
Crosscut S3 Mod-A, Industrialmech damaged, pilot survived.
Dig-Lord-S6 (Sprayers loaded with Inferno fuel), cockpit destroyed by battle armour boarding action, pilot killed, salvageable.
Dig Lord S6 Mod-A, cockpit destroyed by combined Battlemech fire, pilot killed, salvageable.
Dig Lord S6 Mod-A, destroyed by ammunition explosion, pilot killed, unit unsalvageable.
Dig Lord S6 Mod-A, destroyed by ammunition explosion, pilot killed, unit unsalvageable.
Dig Lord S6 Mod-A, Industrialmech damaged, pilot survived.
Dig Lord S6 Mod-A, Industrialmech damaged, pilot survived.

The battle armour forces were able to storm the makeshift base and use non lethal weaponry to capture the infantry forces.

Upon interrogation it was revealed this group was linked to the bandit forces that had been preying upon landtrain traffic to Perdix which the Hellions had previously dealt with.

19/01/3050. Day 57

Now that peace had been restored in the Old Quarter of Argyre, Hauptmann Samara Hellstrom commenced the next stages of Wolkehoffen Einrichtung. Industrial partners Behemoth Vehicles and Larsson-Baxter Mining began putting plans into motion of constructing manufacturing facilities in the Old Quarter.

Ruin Dmitar was watching over the Orange Council chamber which had changed from political center to more of an administration hub for Wolkehoffen Einrichtung and the rebuilding efforts. While there he overheard Robyn Hedley giving her resignation from the Orange Council. When he asked, she explained that now the uprising was over she was no longer needed by the Orange Council and was moving on to a posting in Perdix as an executive in the Strata branch of Terra-CAT, the current form of the old Earth / Terra company CAT or Caterpillar.

28/01/3050. Day 66.

The Hellions and cadets were recalled to Fort Enyo on Ares continent.

29/01/3050. Day 67.

Work began on a series of planned Battlemech design modifications.

• Samara Hellstrom’s Super Locust LCT-S1E (aka Weta) was modified to a Weta WTA-IIB, using newly available Hardened Armour.
• Ruin Dmitar’s Jaguar-4R was replaced on a heavier Barghest Gauss Cannon sniper ’mech prototype. The Barghest was developed while the Hellions were deployed using performance data gathered by the Jaguar-4R.
• Jacques Dubois’s Super Locust LCT-S1E (aka Weta) was replaced by a significantly modified Hatchetman variant known as the Cambion CMB-H2.
• Layne-Lars Kinnesson’s Raven RVN-3XML was studied to aid the design process for the leg structure, balance, and load bearing of the Peromyscus Light Electronic Warfare Battlemech.

01/02/3050. Day 70.

An award ceremony was convened. The Silver Sunburst was awarded to Hauptmann Samara Hellstrom, Leftenant Jacques Dubois, Leftenant Ruin Dmitar and Ensign Layne-Lars Kinnesson.

Hauptmann Samara Hellstrom was then inducted into the Order of the Silver Chalice, and awarded a knighthood.

02/02/3050. Day 71.

Layne-Lars Kinnesson was transferred to the Strata Institute of Science where she would be using her technical skills and her field experience to assist electronic warfare related projects, such as design of mobile electronic warfare platforms. The Raven RVN-3XML was transferred with her to be used in those projects, and training exercises for electronic warfare specialists studying in the Strata Military Academy.

03/02/3050. Day 72.

Hauptmann Samara Hellstrom pulled Ingrid ‘Mouse’ Marsh aside and informed her she was to be Layne-Lars Kinnesson’s replacement in the lance. Later that day Mouse along with the four cadets were promoted in a public ceremony to the rank of Mechwarrior.

06/02/3050. Day 75.

Frantic work on the Peromyscus PRY-S1 was completed, resulting in one working prototype of the new battlemech which could be taken to the weapons testing exercises on Atlantia.

Since the Atlantia Military Base was run as a dry base, Adept VI-Iota Michelle Abnett tried and abjectly failed to offer assistance to Ruin Dmitar to smuggle alcohol (for his alcoholism which she had often observed) leading to a tense and extremely awkward silence between them. There was no polite way for her to explain “while spying on you I discovered you’re an alcoholic”. Ruin chose to smuggle six bottles of aged single malt whiskey to Atlantia, just incase.

Operation Eight – Part One
07/02/3050. Day 76.

The launch window for the dropship trip to Atlantia opened and the Hellstrom’s Hellions Company (including the Zmey) were transported from Strata to the neighbouring world.

The trip took a fortnight, during which the technical staff were frantically touching up and modifying the new battlemechs. The Weta WTA-IIB was considered the least problematic, the un-tested motive systems of the Barghest and Peromyscus PRY-S1 and the TSM technology of the Cambion CMB-H2 were the greater concerns.

21/02/3050. Day 90, 8:30

The dropship touched down at the Atlantia Military Base, and the Hellions officers met with the commander of the base, Captain Julius Edward Augustine. The Zmey Land Train would remain at the base for the time being.

From the moment of planetfall, Ruin Dmitar began feeling an impulse/instinct/sensation of being watched from the south, then as he became more attuned to the feeling it seemed to be a beckoning of some sort.

During their time on the ice world of Atlantia the hellions would be involved in weapons testing (focusing upon battle armour) with visiting delegations from the Gray Death Legion and Wolf’s Dragoons. They would also be assisting the archaeological efforts and exploration efforts on the planet, when time permitted.

While her officers and enlisted were settling in to their new posting, Samara Hellstrom took Adept VI-Iota Michelle Abnett aside and gave her some woman to woman advice about the Adept’s obvious interest in Ruin Dmitar and their obviously strained relationship. Michelle then convinced Samara that she needed Ruin for a spy mission to try to get more information on the Wolf’s Dragoons battle armour for Special Project 17 before the war games began.

21/02/3050. Day 90, 20:00

Michelle and Ruin set out in the Buffalo Hovertruck. Michelle had loaded it with cargo for a plausible excuse (if captured) of attempting to ferry supplies to New Miami. The thick cloud cover of the nuclear winter world rendered night pitch dark.

The pair made landfall at the small island being used by the Wolf’s Dragoons as a base and landing point for their dropship. Michelle sent Ruin to sneak forward in his stealth suit and surveil the Wolf’s Dragoons forces. This, however, was a ploy.

Unbeknownst to Ruin, Michelle was a double agent and was bringing her Purifier Adaptive MkIII, and a ComStar Nighthawk and Tornado which she had smuggled from Strata. These were hidden under the cargo in the truck. Her plan was to hand these over to the Wolf’s Dragoons while Ruin snuck forward, got surveillance shots, then returned after the hand-off. Ruin would then be a perfect alibi for Michelle to maintain her masquerade.

Unfortunately a particularly alert battle armoured sentry detected Ruin (aided by the much greater than normal heat differential between Sneak suit wearer and the ambient -20oC night temperature, as opposed to more hospitable temperatures the suits were designed for) and gave pursuit. After communicating this discovery to Michelle, she concluded her scheme would not end neatly and so she and the team that rendezvoused with her to unload the truck moved it to the dropship instead.

Ruin Dmitar meanwhile feared the search parties would find Michelle and the hover truck, so revealed himself. He was led back to the dropship by five battle armoured troopers who seemed more concerned with his wellbeing in the harsh conditions than the security breach.

He was greeted at the dropship by Erica Leroux, a woman who could have been Michelle’s twin sister. As she answered his questions he was firmly but politely taken to the medical area for blood testing. What followed was a stunning avalance of revelations.

• Adept VI-Iota Michelle Abnett was in reality Point Commander Michelle of the Wolf’s Dragoons, who had been deployed on a infiltration mission of nearly a decade to retrieve samples of ComStar technology (particularly battle armour).
• Michelle, Erica, and apparently large portions of the Wolf’s Dragoons were artificially created people referred to as ‘Trueborn’, as opposed to naturally born ‘Freeborn’ people.
• Michelle had told her Wolf’s Dragoons peers that Ruin Dmitar was a clone.
• Ruin Dmitar, as a clone, was considered a Trueborn. Though as a clone he was an oddity or freak to any Inner Sphere society, this was not only normal but valued in this odd culture.
• Ruin was a Trueborn, and his equivalent rank was Point Commander’, the same as Michelle’s.
• Michelle had brought a blood sample (taken earlier by Professor Anna Morozov) for testing, and hadn’t intended for Ruin to be tested directly.
• Michelle had also brought the remnants of Jacques Dubois’s hand as a sample for testing.
• Testing indicated Ruin could expect to live to a ‘genetic age’ of 120, and his ‘genetic age’ at the moment was merely six years old.
• Michelle and Erica were ‘elementals’, genetically modified to be giant soldiers and battle armour pilots. They were also not twenty five, but closer to twice that at 46.
• The Wolf’s Dragoons were involved with the rumoured ‘Clans’ who were invading and responsible for some worlds going-silent from the HPG network.
• The Wolf’s Dragoons claimed to be intent on protecting the Inner Sphere, even if this meant helping the Inner Sphere to resist the Clans.
• The Wolf’s Dragoons were linked to Clan Wolf, which was the only remaining Warden clan, while the remaining clans were Crusaders intending to conquer and rule the Inner Sphere.
• Clan Wolf had taken Samara Hellstrom’s home-world of New Dusseldorf.
• The Wolf’s Dragoons considered ComStar to be responsible for prolonging and perpetuating most of the wars of the Inner Sphere since the fall of the Star League, and that ComStar would need to be stopped from continuing its political manipulation of the Inner Sphere.
• Michelle had now been assigned to Ruin as his ‘elemental bodyguard’…and he didn’t really have any say in the matter.
• The Wolf’s Dragoons personnel had no idea who in the Inner Sphere could have created an ‘Inner Sphere Trueborn’ or made the brain chips Ruin described. They seemed extremely interested in such a technology, however.
• The Wolf’s Dragoons knew of the “Iron Womb” device Professor Anna Morozov had referred to, and one had been stolen in transit on the way to the Dragoons world of Outreach. And though they had others, they were keen to get it back.
• Erica had no idea why Ruin was sensing something to the south, but she expressed she trusted and believed him. She repeated that she wasn’t sure what capabilities the Inner Sphere Trueborn was designed with, but that she had no reason to doubt him.

Much of what Erica described about the Clan and Dragoons society struck Ruin as odd, particularly that they were in a merit based caste system with warriors as the highest caste.

During this, Ruin had become drinking heavily. Michelle had used her diplomatic immunity as a ambassador (of sorts) from ComStar to bring in a large supply of alcohol, including enough to hide the battle armour and PAL suits within ‘shipments’ of alcohol. As his sobriety faded, Ruin suggested getting word out to the base and setting up a bar. Seeing this as a opportunity to check out potential Freeborn recruits, particularly potential battle armour capable ones, this idea was enthusiastically received.

The failure of the spy mission was reported back to Samara Hellstrom, but with the clear subtext that this was considered part of the war games and not taken with any rancour or perception of hostile intent.

As the night proceeded several other members of the Wolf’s Dragoons were seen, including non-elemental Trueborn people identifying themselves as the ‘mechwarrior phenotype’.

22/02/3050. Day 91, 06:20

Ruin Dmitar awoke from alcohol induced unconsciousness, realising he was in his undergarments and in a bed. He deduced that Michelle had likely carried him, and undressed him and laundered his clothes.

When he emerged from the dropship cabin he found Michelle awake and waiting for him while reading from a leather bound tome she referred to as ‘The Rememberance’. After getting her mechwarrior coffee and breakfast, Michelle took Ruin back to the Zmey.

22/02/3050. Day 91, 08:00

Ruin Dmitar reported back to Samara Hellstrom, he ordered ‘his elemental’ out of the Hauptmann’s office then divulged most of the secrets he had learned but omitting some (particularly the situation on New Dusseldorf).

Michelle was asked back in, and among other questions Samara Hellstrom asked if the Wolf’s Dragoons were interested in protecting the Inner Sphere, could Michelle help the battlemech development project in Argyre. Michelle countered that she was helping Special Project 17 for just such a reason, but she’d see what she could organise to aid the establishment of a battlemech factory on Strata.

The meeting broke up with an odd and secret but seemingly trustworthy alliance between the Wolf’s Dragoons and Hellstrom’s Hellions. Thus far double agent Michelle was maintaining her alias as Adept VI-Iota Michelle Abnett, trusted covert operative of ComStar.

Chief Research Officer: Professor Anna Morozov.
Sample Designation: Subject S-69, ‘Lin Tanner’ aka ‘Blade’.
Sample Origin: Captured by Hellstrom’s Hellions company.
Sample Date: 16/01/3050.
Combat Capability Assessment: Extreme.
Genetic Integrity Assessment: Excellent.
Mental Integrity Assessment: Acceptable.
Containment Protocols: Maximum Security Required.

Subject S-69 secured by Hellstrom’s Hellions company, captured enemy combatant. Requisitioned for use in Special Project 17. Extreme combat cabability. Excellent genetic markers. Acceptable mental condition. Severely wounded during acquisition.

Subject S-69 assigned to Special Project 17, primary experimental section. After treatment, usage and experimentation to be determined. If consciousness, mental capability, and combat effectiveness can not be restored, Subject S-69 could best be utilised as a breeding and incubation unit.

Note, Subject S-68 and S-69 are twin sisters. This has been verified by genetic testing.

Ovary sampling completed, stem cell re-implantation used to regenerate extracted ovary. Expected regrowth time, 16 to 18 weeks. Integration of extracted sample into recovered Iron Womb unit successful. Cross fertilisation of genetic reproductive material samples from candidate S-56 and S-69 to commence immediately. Product to be designated S-56-D.

Chief Research Officer: Doctor Ruth Croft.
Sample Designation: Subject ‘Shojisi’.
Sample Origin: Two captives taken by Hellstrom’s Hellions company.
Sample Date: 17/01/3050.

‘Shojisi’, presumed to be a name, was referred to by two captives taken by the Hellstrom’s Hellions and interrogated by Ruin Dmitar. The name does not correlate to any available information regarding Agent DC37.

Disturbingly, a possible correlation has been discovered. The leader of the chemical weapons team responsible for developing K-Z, aka Krazy, was Dr Hayate Shojisi.

The meaning and implications are unclear at this time.

More information will be provided when it becomes available.

16/01/3050. Day 54, 07:00

Ruin Dmitar had organised a meeting with Secretary Robyn Hedley, they met at the beginning of her hectic schedule for the day. The conversation took place in the hybrid continental breakfast and cafeteria setup the Orange Council had organised. In the public setting both master spies were limited in what they could say, and Hedley proved infuriatingly evasive about the Sons of Brion and Silent Watchers while being helpful as much as she could about Argyre events and the plans for Wolkehoffen Einrichtung.

Hedley suggested that Paul Hines of the New Orange Union and Mist-Dreamer Blue-Stream of the Grey Party and Resplendent Order of Twilight’s Harmonious Embrace be contacted next as they might be helpful for Wolkehoffen Einrichtung.

16/01/3050. Day 54, 08:15

Samara Hellstrom met with Paul Hines of the New Orange Union and he was enthused by her proposal. He bargained in an experienced and pragmatic manner, a testament to his many industrial dispute resolutions. His main motive at the moment seemed to be some of the older and more infirm veterans of lowlands mining industry around Argyre.

16/01/3050. Day 54, 08:30

Ruin Dmitar met with Mist-Dreamer Blue-Stream who lived in a tent embassy of the Resplendent Order of Twilight’s Harmonious Embrace near the Orange Council headquarters. He was treated to some excellent coffee, and also excellent tea, and discovered they grew a huge variety of crops including fine quality coffee and tea. It turned out she was formerly a landtrain driver, and was excited about the idea of cooperation and trade, and becoming part of Wolkehoffen Einrichtung.

16/01/3050. Day 54, 08:45

Jacques Dubois‘s third in command, Bishop, was found dead. Second in command, Slab, brought Jacques Dubois to the scene. The Worker’s Resistance Militia gathering there didn’t have the investigation skills needed, but they called in Ruin Dmitar who determined what happened. Bishop had fought back hard against a skilled assassin who had tried and failed to garrotte him (due to his militia armoured vest), was disarmed of a vibrosword, then fought him to the death using a normal knife and their fists and feet. For his part Bishop fought to the death with courage and honour, and was posthumously praised by Jacques Dubois and the other Fists.

16/01/3050. Day 54, 09:05

The Drunk Rat Saloon was firebombed. It was investigated in force by Jacques Dubois and Ruin Dmitar while Samara Hellstrom stood guard in her Weta.

The central support pillar was shot out by pinpoint SRM fire before lit up with incendiary grenades. Four of the eight people in there got out safely, and one had luckily carried the saloon’s beloved rat mascot ‘Blender’ to safety.

16/01/3050. Day 54, 09:25

Ruin Dmitar contacted Hedley and was told a lot, he was told “Rogue Assassin. Use Extreme Caution” followed by a description “Female, 5’5”, Brown Hair, Green Eyes". This sounded very similar to the previously captured Sons of Brion agent Min Tanner. It turned out the assasin was Min’s sister Lin Tanner.

16/01/3050. Day 54, 10:03

A squad of Fists was attacked, killed with an inferno grenade. Ruin Dmitar and Jacques Dubois responded quickly, the latter having already donned his Hellstorm battle armour.

The two cornered and engaged Blade on the rooftops overlooking the murder site. She proved to be a very nimble combatant, darting away from the battle armour and firing on it with her shoulder mounted SRM launcher. Her first shot hit Jacque in his right hand, blowing it off. Her second shot targeted the damaged spot, disabling his machine gun, and her third hit him in the torso. Jacque had cornered her at this point, and as she went to draw her vibrosword against the heavily damaged battle armour Ruin took his shot hitting the formidable assassin in the head. This sent her toppling over the edge of the roof but Jacque jumped down with his battle armour and saved her, then rushed her to Professor Anna Morozov for medical care.

It was then that he realised his own condition, his hand was not just numbed by the built in medpacks of his suit, but had been blown away. He fell unconscious (helped in no small part by the professor’s intervention, remote-commanding the suit to sedate him).

Samara Hellstrom and Ruin Dmitar were both rattled by the fall of the invincible Jacques Dubois, and proceeded with non-battlefield projects for the rrest of the day while Professor Anna Morozov worked on their friend.

16/01/3050. Day 54, 11:30

Ruin Dmitar went to lunch ‘to chill’ after going through Lin’s belongings and taking her two communicators, both watches, one for the Sons of Brion and one for the Silent Watchers.

16/01/3050. Day 54, 19:00

Professor Anna Morozov finished the first of two operations, implanting a cybernetic hand onto Jacques Dubois. An unconcealed improved enhanced prosthetic, with melee hardening and a shocker system installed (Punch 2M/4 when unpowered, 2E/5S shock when powered, 3 PPS, uses HC Micro Power Pack with 15 PP). Her excellent skill (and experience) led to an excellent operation and an expected rapid recovery.

16/01/3050. Day 54, 20:00

Adept VI-Iota Michelle Abnett returned from scouting zones 3, 5 and 6 and discussed her findings with Samara Hellstrom in preparation for the upcoming military action/intervention in those territories.

16/01/3050. Day 54, 23:00

Professor Anna Morozov finishes surgery on Lin Tanner with excellent results. Her toughness and pain resistance being key factors in the outcome.

17/01/3050. Day 55, 05:12

Jacques Dubois in the recovery ward, feeling 100% (due to medication) but fully physically recovered. Using his new hand is as natural as his birth hand, except the shock system which he began learning to control.

17/01/3050. Day 55, 07:00

The operation began, led by Samara Hellstrom and including Ruin Dmitar in his sniper battlemech, Jacques Dubois leading four squads of battle armour troops, and Layne-Lars Kinnesson as an eye in the sky with her Raven ’mech carried by VTOL. The cadet lance was also grought in for their firepower and to give them battle experience.

The first area (zone 3) was apparently unguarded. An unarmed man challenged the expeditionary force and attempted to pass himself off as an innocent civilian. Meanwhile Ruin Dmitar spotted two trucks headed south. They were attempting to seize the cache of weapons in (zone 1). Ruin Dmitar used his ’mech as a road-block and the fourth squad of battle armour troops air-dropped in and subdued the targets (14 men).

17/01/3050. Day 55, 08:30

The expeditionary force entered zone 5. A series of pitched battles began with remnants of the combat-drugged defenders, most who were armed with anti-vehicular grade weapons of one sort or another. The defenders fought fearlessly, ultimately proving to be on the combat drug K-Z (aka Krazy), managing to score a SRM head-shot on Samara’s battlemech and some damage to battlesuits.

During the engagements Ruin Dmitar exited his combat to fight a emplacement of three SMR armed gangers in a sniper duel. When one proved to be a crack shot, Adept VI-Iota Michelle Abnett who had stowed away on Ruin’s battlemech interposed herself and took both SRM hits herself. She luckily escaped without injury but four sevenths of her armour had been blown away.

One of the Javelin battlemechs piloted by the cadets had severe damage done to one leg, but at the cadet pilot’s insistence she stayed in the fight.

A tower with fize LRM equipped fanatics fired on the Raven and its transport, forcing them to evacuate temporarily before ground forces took out the anti aircraft missile nest.

Only 4 of 45 militants in the zone were taken alive.

17/01/3050. Day 55, 10:00

Moving into zone 6, Ruin spotted another IED and evaded it, but Samara got too close to one and took heavy damage to her battlemechs left leg. Other hazards of the area were dealt with by the increasingly on-alert forces. One last desperate berzerker charge was not halted by teat gas grenades, forcing the battle armour troopers to gun them down with machine gun fire.

The boss of the zone 6 forces wielded a light machine gun, like the leader of zone 5 whom Ruin Dmitar had dispatched. Samara Hellstrom was engaged by the leader of zone 6 who fought fearlessly but fanatically. Meanwhile a creepy gothic-horror girl stood by and watched. Jacques Dubois dispatched the light machine gun wielding fanatic, upon which the 15 year old girl demanded that Jacque or Samara show her their face.

A surreal battle ensued, with the girl trying to place a magnetic-charge on the battle armour with her left hand (the right being behind her back) while expertly evading the battlesuit’s melee attacks. Finally Jacque disarmed the girl, upon which she said “show me your face” and he responded with a battlesuit helmet headbutt and dropped the girl.

Despite unconsciousness, she recited “In defeat I have become a stain, a stain of blood upon the honourable blade of Shojici”.

Ruin Dmitar detected a transmission, and spotted an observer watching on from a three story building. He got Adept VI-Iota Michelle Abnett to jump him over upon which they captured a similarly creepy woman.

Ruin discovered from her that she had released the dreaded Agent DC37 into the local water supply. Once informed of this Jacques Dubois sprung into action using his South Side crew to contain the problem in his areas. Hedley was contacted to protect other areas, particularly zones 7 and 8.

17/01/3050. Day 55, 12:30

Hedley’s negotiations with zone 7 and 8 went well, but when Samara Hellstrom talked to the people in zone 8 they took it as part of the propoganda about the military inventing threats to trick the populace into compliance and didn’t believe the problem with the water was real. This saw them drinking the contaminated water and about 200 people becoming contaminated by Agent DC37. As a result four of the affliceted gouged out their eyes like Technician David Curran had.

17/01/3050. Day 55, 13:00

On a roll, Professor Anna Morozov finished surgery on Technician David Curran implanting cybernetic eyes into the man. She had slept between performing surgery on Lin ‘Blade’ Tanner and Jacques Dubois.

17/01/3050. Day 55, 14:00

Adept VI-Iota Michelle Abnett delivered her Purifier Adaptive MkII armour to Professor Anna Morozov and discussed plans to upgrade it to Purifier Adaptive MkIII.

17/01/3050. Day 55, 15:00

Ruin Dmitar did his best to interrogate the creepy 15 year old and equally creepy 23 year old. Both spoke of Shojisi.

17/01/3050. Day 55, 16:15

Ruin Dmitar met briefly with Adept VI-Iota Michelle Abnett and asked why she was still there, and she replied she was an official liason and ambassador to the Hellstrom’s Hellions from ComStar.

This resulted in Ruin Dmitar storming into Samara Hellstrom‘s office to voice (among other things) his continued distrust of ComStar and his disagreement with her decision to let the Adept remain close by. The discussion quickly led to Ruin’s status as a clone and other linked issues.

17/01/3050. Day 55, 23:45

Ruin Dmitar met with Secretary Robyn Hedley who he knew to be a coffee addict, offering real coffee in exchange for a frank discussion. She agreed and they discussed many matters off the record including Hedley’s current motives in favour of the Wolkehoffen Einrichtung agenda.

12/01/3050. Day 50, 07:00

Following the operation, Dr. Jonas Lange was flown back to his posting. Layne-Lars Kinnesson and Adept VI-Iota Michelle Abnett pulled an all-nighter investigating the chip.

Jacques Dubois was tied up managing his increased territory, initiating the civic works and infrastructure repairs that his South Side group had become famous for.

Samara Hellstrom was occupied with the duties of command, and laying the groundwork for her plans for a military-industrial cooperative project to revitalise the Old Quarter of Argyre.

Meanwhile Ruin Dmitar was in the recovery ward. During breaks in the erratic schedule he was visited by Adept VI-Iota Michelle Abnett.

The Orange Council was striving to regain the faith and trust of the disparate factions after the failed attack on the previous council meeting. Currently there is no scheduled next meeting.

13/01/3050. Day 51, 07:00

Adept IX-Epsilon Bryce Alexander was released from medical care and began assisting Layne-Lars Kinnesson and Adept VI-Iota Michelle Abnett with the investigation of the chip. It became increasingly clear to Layne-Lars Kinnesson that the two Com Guard officers were primarily concerned with neutralising the chip as a potential threat more than retrieving anything off it.

Jacques Dubois, Samara Hellstrom and the Orange Council all continued their political and maintenance duties.

Towards the end of the day Ruin Dmitar’s medical status was reevaluated. He was deemed stable and he had the tubes and monitoring gear removed, and was expected to wake some time the following morning. Adept VI-Iota Michelle Abnett continued her irregular schedule of visits when her duties permitted.

Having completed the disarming project, Adept IX-Epsilon Bryce Alexander and Adept VI-Iota Michelle Abnett returned to the Com Guard base of operations near Argyre. This (finally) freed Layne-Lars Kinnesson to try an idea she had for retrieving the data, free of interference from the Adepts.

14/01/3050. Day 52, 01:00

Layne-Lars Kinnesson finished planning for her idea, a simulated brain. The chips inputs and outputs, which she had tested, seemed to operate in the range of neural signals and she suspected that was what the chip used as a power source. She commenced construction of a simple proof-of-concept device to test the idea, the technology and programming related to that of the neurohelmets used to pilot advanced vehicles, as well as the neural interface of cybernetics.

14/01/3050. Day 52, 07:00

Jacques Dubois‘s forces had completed preparations and were ready to push forward into new territory. Slab was left in charge of the South Side turf, and Bishop went as Jacques second in command for the expedition. Jacque took them north, on foot, into the territory standing between his northernmost territory (the markets) and the hospital. The northern territory, owned by the ’masks’ faction of Worker’s Resistance Militia where they were met by armed resistance.

The forces squared off, and Jacque saw they had heavy weapons so reported that to Samara Hellstrom who dispatched the two Javelin battlemechs by VTOL, electing to pilot the Javelin JVN-S2 herself, and having Cadet Judith Keller pilot her Javelin JVN-10P1.

Following the normal plan, Jacque called out their leader Anthony ‘Clint’ Clinton. Clint accepted the duel, but as the challenged had the choice of weapons and chose a fast draw. Though he definitely won the battle of nerves an the fast draw, his shot couldn’t penetrate Jacques heavy armour. Jacque kept his cool, took the hit, and returned fire with a well aimed shot to Clint’s shootin’ arm, before charging in to finish him in honourable close combat. Clint won some respect since he had accepted the challenge despite being much lighter armour, a standard militia ab/flak vest.

Unfortunately Clint’s subordinate, Kim (now dubbed Kim ‘The Starscream’ Forbes), took the fall of their leader as a sign to take charge and have the Masks counter-attack. The South Side forces opened fire and eliminated the first of two SRM carrying opponents, but the other fired on them killing one South Sider and wounding several others. Small arms fire was exchanged between the two groups while Jacques Dubois single handedly took on Kim, then after dispatching him taking on a charge of six more militia fighters. Of these, the skilled knife fighter James ‘Edge’ Revell caught Jacques eye.

Samara Hellstrom chose to intervene now heavy weapons had been fired, dropping on the building where the SRM had been fired from and obliterating the SRM team with the ER PPC of the Javelin JVN-S2. Cadet Judith Keller landed her Javelin JVN-10P1 near the second firing position. Another Mask had retrieved the fallen SRM launcher and fired on the cadet, engulfing the battlemech in Inferno fire. Keller had been prepared for small arms fire and shoulder mounted explosive rockets, but was unprepared for inferno attack and in a lapse of coolness under fire he returned fire. Unfortunately, despite orders not to fire his own inferno rounds, she had targeted the enemy position and let fly with her SRM6 launcher and one Inferno SRM2 launcher, torching the derelict building and killing eighteen Masks gang members in or near it.

Spirited but foolhardy resistance from one of Clint’s lower lieutenants using grenades resulted in Samara Hellstrom stomping him into the pavement and forcing the surrender of the survivors. Jacques Dubois had dominated the leadership section of the Masks gang. The South Siders were commended for their excellent coolness under fire.

The South Side forces suffered two fatalities and six injuries, as well as Jacque being stabbed by Edge during their informal duel. The Masks fared far worse, with a total of 28 dead, four wounded including Clint, and five survivors who didn’t need medical attention.

The wounded were taken to the nearby hospital, while Jacque secured his hold over the new territory, and Samara proceeded to the Orange Council complex to further her negotiations, trying to secure access to the abandoned airship docking tower.

14/01/3050. Day 52, 09:00

Ruin Dmitar woke and discharged himself, and found Samara Hellstrom and Jacques Dubois had taken the field earlier that morning. He proceeded to the communications centre where Layne-Lars Kinnesson was monitoring the communications of the engagement. The ensign informed Ruin of the preliminary results that the chip appeared to operate in the range of neural signals and that later in the day she would know more once the prototype was upgraded and the chip re-tested.

Returning to his quarters, Ruin Dmitar found a mysterious handwritten note in his mail, which read "Azure Wing of the Sunrise, The Eleventh Master of the Horizon. He searched his quarters and found a second note, incompletely burnt, which read "A Great Distance in the Wind, The Sky at Dawn. He contacted the Hauptmann to reveal the note and its implications to her in person.

14/01/3050. Day 52, 11:00

Samara Hellstrom returned and recieved the news from Ruin Dmitar. They agreed to ask Dmitri Radchenko who had earlier claimed to have installed the chip in Ruin’s head. Upon seeing the note, however, Dmitri silently exited the room and headed for the communications centre. Samara and Ruin and later Layne-Lars Kinnesson subdued him by force.

Professor Anna Morozov was summoned, referring to herself as a ‘mild expert’ in cybernetics, and scanned Dmitri, finding an apparently identical chip in him.

In response to this news and discovery of a second chip Adept IX-Epsilon Bryce Alexander and Adept VI-Iota Michelle Abnett were summoned back.

Samara Hellstrom asked Professor Anna Morozov if she could remove the chip from Dmitri Radchenko, to which she could as a ‘mild expert’ at surgery. Her knowledge of cybernetics and human anatomy had been vital for her to design battle armour, and those were her areas of specialisation predating Special Project 17.

Feeding the code-signals into Ruin’s chip activated it, it began sending signals to the memory centre, reasoning centre and motor control centres of the brain. The second code (from the burnt note) also made it upload the HPG code. Roughly 75% of the chips storage capacity appeared to be dedicated to the neural interface and override, the remaining 25% to the HPG code.

14/01/3050. Day 52, 15:00

Samara Hellstrom and Ruin Dmitar interrogated their captives. Ben McNiel, leader of the North East Section would not confirm use or trafficking of man portable launchers, but copped to being a profiteer for other items, and claimed to have taken up arms to protect his home and loved ones. His second in command, Graham Bayley, confessed to being a drug smuggler but not an arms trader.

The recent captives from the battle were interrogated next. They claimed to have gotten their launchers from ‘Courtney’, leader of the territory east of them (bordering the New Quarter) but Courtney had been killed and a leadership dispute broke out, the gang splitting into two and fighting bitterly ever since. Clint and Kim both held to the story that the South Siders used the military to wipe out people and then replaced them, and they had their launchers in place expecting an attack by battlemechs and tanks. This idea had been propagated since the raid on the Roapers weapon cache. They both refused to accept Samara Hellstrom‘s idea that the military only intervened if heavy weapons were used. From their perspective what Samara was saying boiled down to ’the military wait for people to defend themselves and if they do fight back they use it as a green light to deploy military hardware’.

The territory north of the markets turned out to be in a tough spot, the building of the markets choked off the landtrain route, meaning the landtrain servicing industries north of the markets were starved of business, struggling to survive long before the uprising began. Currently with hostile forces on all sides (except the small shared border with the hospital-territory), and now most of their forces were wiped out, the survivors were a beaten and conquered territory. They agreed to sign on with the South Siders and Clint showed signs of hope when Samara talked about re-opening the landtrain route.

Following this Samara Hellstrom contacted the marketers and negotiated (hard) for the landtrain route to be re-opened. The marketers finally agreed once Samara agreed to ensure some new market facilities would be re-built afterwards.

14/01/3050. Day 52, 18:00

Samara Hellstrom set Ruin Dmitar up on a date with Adept VI-Iota Michelle Abnett…wether Ruin wanted it or not.

15/01/3050. Day 53, 05:00

Professor Anna Morozov handed Layne-Lars Kinnesson the still bloody chip extracted from Dmitri Radchenko and left a note before retiring to bed (after pulling a roughly 30 hour shift, culminating in brain surgery). The note suggested two options, first using recent casualties from the battle to source a brain for testing, second that it had proven quite easy to remove (and presumably re-insert) a chip into the associate professor since it was located conveniently behind the cybernetics, suspiciously conveniently in her opinion. While Morozov saw no problem with implanting Ruin’s chip into Dmitri’s head and seeing what happened, everyone else saw many problems with tampering with people’s brains.

Investigation of the second chip revealed to Layne-Lars Kinnesson that there was a difference, the ‘background’ neural signal of the chip was different but when activated with the codes the ‘foreground’ of the signal was identical. The background signals were suspected to be artificial memories.

15/01/3050. Day 53, 09:00

Knowing she could not glean more information from her field-built prototype she called in for aid from the Strata Institute of Science, and due to her reputation with them she secured use of a brain simulator, used for Neurohelmet research and development. This and some experts were due to arrive in eight hours.

In the intervening time Layne-Lars Kinnesson had to make a visual output interface. Jacques Dubois was ordered to medical care. Adept VI-Iota Michelle Abnett made breakfast for Ruin Dmitar after which he went to get ‘tactically drunk’ making sure he’d be in decent condition for the big show in the evening. Samara Hellstrom was occupied with command duties, ongoing negotiations with bickering territories and factions, and watching over the two Adepts.

15/01/3050. Day 53, 17:00

The device and staff from the Strata Institute of Science arrived. Layne-Lars Kinnesson helped them set up and to connect the chip-reader and visual output.

15/01/3050. Day 53, 18:00

Everyone assembled, including far more than Ruin Dmitar was comfortable with. Dmitri Radchenko was out of the recovery ward now and seemed to just want answers and didn’t care who else was there.

Ruin’s chip was used first, and began playing his life from his earliest memories. This confirmed all his worst fears, it seemed the chip had stored a recording of life memories and could have been used to program a clone with them. Ruin asked everyone else leave and fast-forwarded to the ending, the artificial memory file ended shortly after his incarceration, and the next thing he remembered after that was waking up in the prison hospital after (supposedly) being treated for a head wound from a prison fight. He called Samara in, told her the situation (but didn’t let her see the recording, due to privacy concerns). Ruin wasn’t sure who or what he was, if he was a clone or the original, or who orchestrated it all.

Dmitri Radchenko was called in, and his chip played. Skimming through it, it appeared to hold his whole life as Damyan Radkov, up to being killed in action. He told them he then woke up and was told he had been brought back and how his death had been faked, apparently by ‘Friend’. He was now convinced he was a clone, and that the real Damyan Radkov had been killed, and he was programmed with the dead subaltern’s memories. He remembered implanting the chip in Ruin, but, had not seen Ruin conscious. He now suspected Ruin was a ‘empty’ clone body at the time until the chip was implanted and gave him the real Ruin’s memories.

15/01/3050. Day 53, 19:00

The coded message Ruin discovered first was entered into Dmitri’s chip, with the artificial brain seeing a simulated environment. The layout of the Zmey landtrain was entered into the simulation, and the chip proceeded to direct the simulated host to retrieve the chip and then exit the landtrain with the chip. When the second message was entered the chip directed the simulacrum to go to a personal communicator and upload the HPG code to it. Ruin’s chip acted identically to the two messages.

Realizing someone probably sent the message to both chipped persons, Samara Hellstrom checked Dmitri Radchenko’s mail. He had a matching note in the same handwriting, and had not checked his mail due to his erratic hours and heavy workload under Professor Anna Morozov.

Being the most interesting test specimen in the area for Professor Anna Morozov, Dmitri requested a medical leave of absence to avoid winding up as a medical experiment.

With everyone dwelling on the implications, Ruin and Damnyan went to go get drunk.

11/01/3050. Day 49, 5:05

The Zmey Land Train arrived on schedule at the military encampment in Argyre. Samara Hellstrom, Hauptmann began organising her command into the new facilities.

11/01/3050. Day 49, 7:15

Ruin Dmitar was contacted and curtly ordered to a nearby diner. On the way the person who contacted him, Agent Mary Brown (presumably an alias) beckoned him into an ally and demanded his report. She also handed over a specially prepared pistol Black Rose. The pistol appeared designed to aid the detection of targets using optical camouflage, but was also designed for armour piercing rounds. This seemed unnecessary because the problem with sneak suits was they are notoriously poorly armoured.

11/01/3050. Day 49, 8:30

Layne-Lars Kinnesson woke late as she had been working around the clock to complete the data analysis on the communications dampening phenomenon, and presented an Initial Report to Samara Hellstrom, Hauptmann. When she delivered the report she was noticeably more professional as a soldier.

11/01/3050. Day 49, 9:00

In light of Layne-Lars Kinnesson‘s report about the lowlands communication issues and Jacques Dubois’s report about the developing condition in Argyre, Samara Hellstrom, Hauptmann began formulating plans to improve the situation. Her plan revolved around annexing some of the now unused buildings in the Old Quarter of Argyre and establishing a military-industrial cooperative. Like the model for the New Quarter there were advantages to centralised facilities, and it would be possible to set up a government funded complex to process the raw materials from the smaller independent mining companies without forcing them to merge into consortiums as had happened in the New Quarter.

Samara Hellstrom, Hauptmann intended to present her plan to the Orange Council meeting scheduled for 1pm that day.

11/01/3050. Day 49, 9:15

While inspecting the Zmey’s facilities Layne-Lars Kinnesson and the communications staff detected a faint sensor contact closing on the base. Samara Hellstrom, Hauptmann ordered weapons active and had the searchlights focus on the location of the signal.

Ruin Dmitar was sent out on foot and found footprints in the area that appeared to belong to a battlesuit. Realising it was still in the area, but unseen, he concluded it must be equipped with stealth technology and that likely meant it was a ComStar operative. He addressed the presumed target, but when the Zmey got a clearer sensor-fix and refocused the searchlights the target jumped away and withdrew, letting Ruin see it was indeed some sort of battle armour.

Layne-Lars Kinnesson went to her battlemech to add a second set of sensor gear, supporting the Zmey and watching for a return of the stealth suit.

11/01/3050. Day 49, 9:30

Jacques Dubois met up with his forces and completed their negotiations with the territory to the north, which had been mainly a marketplace and commercial district now guarded by former shopkeepers. They were eager to join up with Jacque’s ‘South Side’ bloc for protection and also to hopefully restore order (the current chaos was ruining their businesses).

He also helped consolidate his group’s move west into a largely abandoned area which also quickly joined the fold. This however increased Jacques votes in the Orange Council from two to four.

11/01/3050. Day 49, 10:30

The stealth suit tried and failed to approach the Zmey again, but withdrew without being captured. Samara Hellstrom, Hauptmann declared that was ‘strike two’ and if the target returned they were to open fire.

11/01/3050. Day 49, 11:00

Ruin Dmitar left the Zmey to meet up with Jacques Dubois. Almost immediately he was tailed by the stealth suit. Thoroughly fed up with shadowy individuals tailing and surveiling him, Ruin Dmitar moved into an ally and chastised the target, demanding they just approach, ask, and get on with whatever they were there for. He realised the gun was intended for just such a target but decided against using it.

The chastised spy began scanning Ruin’s head, and when queried nodded to affirm that. When questioned Adept VI-Iota Michelle Abnett identified herself and the fact she was not authorised to speak to him. On the other hand this was the first opportunity she had had to close with her target and get detailed scans.

Her initial scans indicated the chip in Ruin’s head might not be the instrument of terror that her order feared.

Ruin Dmitar invited her to simply make her presence known and ask in future, which Michelle resolved to do at the coming Orange Council meeting.

11/01/3050. Day 49, 11:15

Ruin Dmitar rushed back to the Zmey and had Layne-Lars Kinnesson check him for bugs. As he suspected, he had been bugged and that was how he had been tracked so quickly and easily. Layne-Lars Kinnesson detected a reciever picking up signals from the bug (same frequency) located near the annexed barracks.

The pair then rushed to the abandoned building, and due to their haste caught Adept VI-Iota Michelle Abnett in the act of retrieving it. She was embarrassed to be caught but again impressed by Ruin, starting to fancy him. Still awkward with the direct-contact with her surveillance target, she did her best to explain this was not more secret surveillance but packing up the now-concluded surveillance.

During the conversation Layne-Lars Kinnesson was fascinated with the technology in the Adept’s suit and snuck in questions about the equipment. Now revealed as the sensor and communications expert ComStar was very interested in, Michelle tried to tempts her to come and learn more, but Ruin saw through that and chastised Michelle for attempting to abduct and recruit the ensign.

11/01/3050. Day 49, 12:00

Plans and preparations for the Orange Council meeting were completed.
Samara Hellstrom, Hauptmann went as an independent observer, accompanied by one squad of troops.
Layne-Lars Kinnesson was sent secretly with three squads in a unmarked truck packed with surveillance gear, tasked with maintaining security around the meeting.
Jacques Dubois and Ruin Dmitar went with some of Jacques lieutenants representing his growing ‘South Side’ territory.

Arriving before the scheduled start of the meeting let the various factions mingle.
On arrival Ruin Dmitar was singled out by Adept VI-Iota Michelle Abnett who had come to guard him and pump him for information about various matters including the location of Adept IX-Epsilon Bryce Alexander. There was no doubt she was going to stick close to Ruin and protect him, particularly once Samara Hellstrom, Hauptmann informed her that Dr. Jonas Lange would be arriving shortly and could operate on Ruin to inspect the chip in his head. Michelle accepted the invitation to attend, and to offer her assistance.

The leader of the Grey Party, Mist-Dreamer Blue-Stream detected Ruin Dmitar was a twilight user and began talking to him about it, but (narrowly) picked up on Ruin’s blatant gestures to shut up because Samara was right there. Ruin deflected the violet-eyed twilight-hippie on to Jacques Dubois who turned out to be very receptive to the Grey Party message in light of Layne-Lars Kinnesson’s findings the fog of the lowlands was laced with some sort of Strata native spores.

Mist-Dreamer Blue-Stream also represented the Resplendent Order of Twilight’s Harmonious Embrace who were hoping to begin trading the food crops they were growing in their greenhouses in exchange for other goods. This worked well with Jacques Dubois and Samara Hellstrom’s plans.

Ruin Dmitar‘s main objective for attending the event was to draw out ’Hedley’, and discovered that the secretary of the Orange Council was Robyn Hedley, a woman in her early forties. However Robyn Hedley showed no reaction to a message sent from the Sons of Brion communications devices. Four people in the crowd did display a reaction, and Ruin reacted by claiming one of the catering trays and delivering them to each suspect.

11/01/3050. Day 49, 13:00

The meeting proper began. Secretary Robyn Hedley seemed to be the organiser of the agenda and responsible for maintaining order and procedure.
- Chairman Ross Williams of the Orange Council opened proceedings and outlined his groups agenda (and the purpose of this gathering) to unify the different factions.
- Rene DuVal was called to speak next and represented some of the Worker’s Resistance Militia, the most militant and least united of the factions. He reminded the gathering that the militias were the guardians of the revolution, but, clearly they were bereft of any plans or direction other than guarding their territories or the revolution.
- Collett Durand was called up next, a firebrand speaker for the Worker’s Liberation Movement who espoused the need for Argyre to declare independence and eliminate the class inequality. She also railed against the government and military, while the known hero Samara was sitting behind her and detracting from her message. Samara had of course recently restored the hospital to operation as well as her earlier exploits suppressing bandits in the area and securing the trade routes.
- Paul Hines of the New Orange Union spoke next, a somewhat dry but down to earth speech about workers rights and keeping focused on their core goals. His group was the most united and least militant. They were at odds with the Worker’s Liberation Movement in what they hoped to achieve and the social model they wanted to see emerge after the revolution.
- Mist-Dreamer Blue-Stream of the Grey Party was called up next, began speaking about the mother-wilderness of Strata and how it was being discovered and considered at last now people were moving into the lowlands…then got distracted and called their ‘new guest’ Samara Hellstrom, Hauptmann to speak.
- Samara Hellstrom, Hauptmann gave a great speech calling for the community to pull together, citing the importance of Argyre to Strata then explained her ideas to help revitalise the Old Quarter with government funded military-cooperative projects. She expertly hit all the buttons and had applause from the crowd at various points. She warned of the proliferation of heavy weapons in Argyre particularly inferno ammunition. She offered an amnesty and buy-back scheme for any inferno rounds, which drew mixed reactions from the crowd.

Jacques Dubois noted one man who took the amnesty news very poorly, he was later identified as leading the Worker’s Resistance Militia in the north-outskirts territory
borderign the New Quarter. Tactically this matched the south-outskirts territory where the Sons of Brion had been attempting to smuggle ordinance into the New Quarter.

11/01/3050. Day 49, 13:25

Layne-Lars Kinnesson spotted two young men acting suspiciously near one of the trucks. She called in one squad and left the truck to close in on them. The lads spotted the troops and legged it, directly towards the ensign. She ordered them to stop, and one stumbled and slipped on the wet road, falling on his face and breaking his nose. The other stupidly reached for his gun, and wouldn’t back down. Layne-Lars Kinnesson was forced to shoot to subdue him, hitting him in the arm just before the troops arrived to arrest and interrogate them. They turned out to be simple carjackers.

11/01/3050. Day 49, 14:17

Layne-Lars Kinnesson detected the activation of a shoulder mounted missile system, and relayed this information to the squad of troops she had sent to watch for snipers. They had secured good firing positions, spotted the shooter and the resulting crossfire of assault rifle fire killed the man before he could fire. He fell from the rooftop to the road below, but the inferno rounds went off engulfing everything within fifteen meters in flames.

It was later discovered he was aiming at the trucks not the council chamber, and his inferno rounds had come from the distant twin continents Olympus and Elysium. His name had been Andrew Gardner and he rented a property in the north east territory.

This resulted in Samara Hellstrom, Hauptmann pulling rank and shutting down the meeting, and securing safe transport for the various factions. She also summoned in the cadet lance for higher security.

Jacques Dubois was sent with the suspected militia leader from the north-east territory, who realised they weren’t going back to his headquarters and tried to fight his way to freedom. He was firmly subdued by Jacque, and his bodyguards were subdued by Jacques crew. They were then taken to the brig in the Zmey for later questioning.

11/01/3050. Day 49, 17:00

With the meeting disrupted and the various factions returned safely to their bases of operation, this left the core of the Orange Council there at the meeting building they had annexed. Ruin Dmitar and Samara Hellstrom, Hauptmann took this opportunity to engage Robyn Hedley in conversation, but the elusive woman gave them no evidence or indication she was the spymaster they suspected. She was knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the situation of Argyre and keen to help the Hauptmann realise her plans of improving things in the Old Quarter. Still frustratingly untouchable, Hedley responded to Ruin’s message that it had been ‘well played’ with a polite ‘pleased to meet you’.

11/01/3050. Day 49, 20:00

Ruin Dmitar was prepped for surgery. Adept VI-Iota Michelle Abnett and Layne-Lars Kinnesson were on hand as experts on the chip and operating sensors. Dr. Jonas Lange was there as head surgeon. The HPG system at Delphi was shut down and isolated in preparation, and the Zmey was maintaining communications jamming.

Initial scans revealed the chip appeared to lack significant communications capacity, and could only interact with very close range devices, similar to a RFID reader or equivalent. This added to the security but the other precautions were not lessened as a result.

Keyhole surgery revealed the chip did not connect to Ruin’s brain and did not monitor his life signs. At this point the ‘dead man switch’ story appeared to be disproven. Dr. Jonas Lange found evidence of prior head trauma and it appeared the chip had been inserted while repairing the skull fractures in that area, corresponding to medical reports from Ruin’s time in prison. Ruin however did not remember anything about those events.

The chip responded to a standard ping on one specific frequency, requesting a password. After a few potential passwords Michelle knew from the earlier operations involving Ruin, she and Layne-Lars Kinnesson agreed that more failed-attempts might be unwise.

The three advised Samara Hellstrom, Hauptmann that they believed the chip could be safely removed with no harm to Ruin Dmitar and without the chip being damaged or reacting to the removal.

Expert surgery saw the chip removed with only a thin incision required in Ruin’s skull, which the doctor assured could be healed quickly and fully. The chip was retrieved intact.

As reported by Layne-Lars Kinnesson, find attached the preliminary report on the communication dampening properties of the fog in the lowlands.

Initial Report