D6:LE - An Exhausting Day - OPEN

[Richard Winter]

The order given this morning to attack Budai and the barracks at the same time came as a surprise to many. Richard didn't think the AFFC would go along with Tanaki's suggestion, but they did. Although, it should not have surprised him. The AFFC didn't care about the well-being of the Obsidian Angels, only the results mattered and a result was achieved.

It was supposed to have been a tough day for the battle group in Budai, but it hadn't been an easy day for the reserve that had made its way to the barracks either. Mechs and men alike bore wounds and Richard wondered how hard the losses would weigh against what was gained.

Richard made his rounds of the complex, cigarette in mouth, surveying the damage.

[GM Yuusha]

Artillery and airstrikes had to be used so there were craters and damaged buildings. The turrets had all been taken out from afar and the defenders overwhelmed by mechs and aerospace attacks. It had been methodical, but costly. Certainly mechs were damaged, pilots injured and infantry killed in the assault.

Smoke wafted in the air. Even now prisoners were still being collected and sent back for holding. At this rate a detention centre would need to be set up. Hopefully the Akos Militia would quickly respond to standard ransom demands. The highest ranked officer who had been in charge of the site had been captured when her tank had come under repeated long range fire and been disabled. She'd insisted on being the last removed from the area, which the Angel's CO had allowed.



She sat with a blanket outside a barracks under armed guard with a few of the site's remaining support staff and disarmed infantry. A few were being treated by medics. Most look shell shocked and utterly defeated.

[Richard Winter]

Talking to traumatized and most likely hateful POWs was always a good idea. At least that thought didn't occur to Richard, or he was bored, or he thought he could squeeze some more info out of them that they wouldn't tell the CO.

Whatever tempted him, he walked straight up to the infantry soldiers guarding the group, saluted and presented himself to them "2nd Lieutenant Winter." he introduced himself to the infantryman. "May I talk to the prisoners?" he asked.

[GM Yuusha]

The leader of the group, a corporal, returns Richard's salute under the flickering floodlights of the site. Beyond it was dark and foreboding.

"Corporal Bridgeton. Sorry sir, we're under orders to keep them detained until pickup." He spoke in a gruff voice, matter of fact. "They'll be cared for, interrogated and held back at our dropsite."

His gaze shifted to the huddled prisoners of war. "Unless you know any of them... they're not very talkative anyway." It was true. They were all being quiet. A few look scared. Most were just in shock.

[Richard Winter]

"I wasn't planning on taking them anywhere, but," he reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. "Wanted to share these. It's just a drop in the bucket, but it's something," he said with a shrug.

[Klaus von Zinzer]

Klaus looks over at the wreckage around him.

"Shit. It's as bad as I thought." He runs a hand through his hair. He had known the cost would be high, but it was another thing to see that cost with his own eye.

It was the right call. I stand by it. But...

[Klaus von Zinzer]

She sat with a blanket outside a barracks under armed guard with a few of the site's remaining support staff and disarmed infantry. A few were being treated by medics. Most look shell shocked and utterly defeated.

Klaus looks over the captured commanding officer. "Commander? I confess I am unsure of your rank and title. I am Senior First Lieutenant von Zinzer. Are your men being seen to adequately? "

[GM Yuusha]

"Best to save them for when we're all back somewhere warm, Sir."

He might have said more if not for Klaus moving over and trying to speak to one of the prisoners. "Excuse me." He snaps a quick salute to Richard and approaches Klaus.

"Sir." Another salute. "They're fine, sir." He tried to keep his face impassive. First a mechwarrior out of his mech and now a strategist. Do they think this place is a petting zoo?

Nearby, the Akos Militia Captain glares up at the invaders and says nothing.

[Richard Winter]

Richard said nothing, lit a new cigarette and stood a little apart to watch the battle of words that Klaus might start.

[Klaus von Zinzer]

Klaus nods, looking over the assembled group. "Good. We intend to ensure that we follow laws and customs of prisoners of war. Any nobles who families offer ransom should alert us. "

Kurt's eye sweeps along the ranks. "And any who wish to offer information, speak to a guard in private. We can assure confidentiality"

Low odds to be sure, but keeping dissension and suspicion in the ranks could potentially derail escape attempts.

"With luck, you will be returned to your families soon."

[GM Yuusha]

It was a fine statement. Alas, there did not appear to be any immediate takers.

A hover APC pulls up to collect the last group. It had been doing trips nearly all day from one place or another.

Wind blown smoke drifts over the area from a downed mech. It wasn't in Obsidian Angels' signature coal colour scheme, so it had to be a Militia mech, but seeing its collapsed form was nonetheless unsettling. A Griffin. The same mech type stood on either side of the royal palace on Thakad. If Klaus or Richard still felt some of their Lyran spirit it might be a sobering sight.

[Klaus von Zinzer]

Klaus sees the Griffin and walks over to it. He kneels, kissing his knuckles. It is a sight to behold, and his pride of a Lyran can't help feeling a twinge.

"Alas, fallen beauty. What brought you here?"

[Richard Winter]

After watching the last group get picked up, he walked over to Klaus, to what was left of the Griffin. He blew out a puff of smoke before saying:"Let's hope this isn't a Sign" He pointed at the mech "The Militia seems to be fighting very grimly, if this continues only harder battlefields await us."

[Klaus von Zinzer]

"It was the right strategic move. But we took our knocks on this one" Klaus looks around on the battlefield, keeping his voice low. "We need to salvage what we can and prepare for counterattack"

[Richard Winter]

"That sounds reasonable, but from what we've seen so far, I wonder if the AFFC's Intel has been open to us." He took another puff. "Have you heard of the Raider Company 2nd Lance, under command of Ezmeralda? She lost her Hunchback and Trooper Company 3rd Lance has a badly damaged Vindicator. That's a lot of damage, too soon from a couple of untrained 'rookies' as it was passed on to us."

[Klaus von Zinzer]

"That sounds reasonable, but from what we've seen so far, I wonder if the AFFC's Intel has been open to us." He took another puff. "Have you heard of the Raider Company 2nd Lance, under command of Ezmeralda? She lost her Hunchback and Trooper Company 3rd Lance has a badly damaged Vindicator. That's a lot of damage, too soon from a couple of untrained 'rookies' as it was passed on to us."

"I've have only heard of one fatality from the Mech lances, along with a smattering of infantry." Kurt responds, opening up his noteputer to confirm. "But at my last check, she is still bedridden. I will need to check up on a diagnosis from the good doctor later. It's miraculous really, to have no personnel losses, even with mechanical casualties"

He looks around and winces. "But that might not last for long if we don't get to fighting fit."

[Richard Winter]

"Yup, we need to move carefully in the future. I would hate to repeat the events of Kelenfold."

[Klaus von Zinzer]

Klaus nods and looks over to the prisoners.

"How must we look to them? I never saw prisoners of war up close when I served but even then I was serving the Homeland. Now, they're volunteers defending their homeworld and we..."

Klaus looks Richard dead in the eye. "Are in it for ourselves. I can live with that. But this? It's different."

[Richard Winter]

"Well... they won't be bad, no worse than us, better than being dead, I guess. If all goes well for them they will be released for a ransom. If the milita doesn't go for a ransom..." he shrugged. "They will probably be handed over to the AFFC."

He reached into his pocket again and pulled out the box. "One too?" he asked.

"I for one think that it' hardly different. Whether the AFFC takes this planet, or the Kuritans want it again after 5 years, or a civil war breaks out, or pirates occupy it, makes no difference. Not a real one, really. Besides,.." he finished his cigarette before starting a new one, "This conflict would have taken place with or without us"

[Klaus von Zinzer]

Klaus holds out a hand. "None for me, but thank you."

His gaze falls back on the on the assembled group.

" You're right. The AFFC was not going to stop. They would have hired someone else, perhaps someone less concerned with live prisoners and proper treatment thereof. It's just different...to look them in the eye while I do my work"