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Officer's Log, Apprentice Quinn "Strobe" Cuzen, 26 August 3000. Now that the militia torched that little supply depot we found, the pirates have come out of the woodwork. Easily a full battalion of 'Mechs, two or three times that in vehicles and even the scattered infantry platoon. There are way too many of them to be home-grown and raised, or even Outworlds Alliance raised. I don't have any proof, but I'm pretty sure they're ex-pat Kurita house troops, or even chain gangs given shoddy equipment and bare minimum training before being sent out to cause trouble.
Whatever the source or reason for them being here, they've gotten a lot more active since someone with a fighting chance of taking them on has shown up. Prinis Prime's satellite grid is a shoddy excuse for a real surveillance network, but a weather satellite here and there has been able to catch troop movements, and militia scouts have found a bunch more closer to settlements and cities. None of those movements are something we can intercept alone, either in terms of size or in terms of speed, and the militia prefer not to risk taking casualties if they can't help it.
Our scout platoon, however, is earning their stripes. One of the teams picked up a dust trail in that big bowl of theirs, and it turns out it was a mixed armored column - and more importantly it was something we can catch with a reasonable chance of crippling. Even more impressive, this particular scout team was able to give us concrete IDs on make and model for every vehicle and 'Mech in the column - and in one case, a serial number based on a particular patch of warped armor on the column commander's 'Mech, a battered CN9-A Centurion. Apparently that particular 'Mech served in the 3rd Donegal Guards in the 2980s. Joan knew it on sight, on account of having served with it during her time in the LCAF. How it ended up on the other side of the sphere is a mystery, but if anything it makes my theory about Kuritan chain gangs and POWs being pressed into combat a little more supported. We're going to want to bring one of these pilots in for questioning, this time.
Out of our three lances, only Combat has any real chance of success. Scout is far too light to cripple anything, and the Headquarters Lance is heavy enough that the bridges on the way there are too light to support their weight. Well, that, and Kali is currently tearing his hair out trying to organize the company stores. He stumbled into the supply depot when the techs were grabbing some armor to bolt back onto his Stinger's arm, and practically had an aneurysm at how easy it'd be for some opportunist dirtbag to walk out with thousands of c-bills worth of equipment. He immediately volunteered to handle supply and logistics, and I'm happy for the reduced workload. That also came with a reorganization of our infantry. Now each squad gets their own equipment locker. It's more paperwork, but it's also smaller paperwork.
Combat Lance should be nearing visual range of the column here in the next ten minutes or so. We don't quite know how the pirates are going to react to someone suddenly getting in their way. That column isn't small, so the prevailing hope is that they just sort of ignore Combat until something bad happens, at which point Combat leaves. Hopefully. These pirates have a real affinity for moving around at night ? intercept will happen around 0204 local. I need to head to the operations room. End log.
