The weeks after the ball were both incredibly hectic and incredibly annoying. Hectic, in that you had to organize an attack on Frostmarch. Annoying, in that the pisswhistles with rocket artillery were back on their bullshit and shelling you every so often. Fortunately, between your 120s and picket positions, they didn't get to wake you up often. The thunder of guns became a calming feature of life at the base, and the gun crews' decision to reinforce the gun pits with local ready racks meant that you didn't even have runners in the bunker core for most of it.
Hell, the building team told you they'd actually gotten some good work in on the second line of defenses, and had cleared out most of the blighted areas. There was now a nearly-complete series of listening post bunkers across the front line, and you had nearly no winter attrition to your troops now. Equally importantly, with access to field telephones along the line and some clever work from Mihay to build a fire control call center, you'd effectively developed the ability to triangulate the position of anything within binocular distance of your listening post line.
This was rather important. A Tier 1 bunker base, which you'd long surpassed, had a 500m maximum build radius: any further than that, and things wouldn't count as being connected to the bunker base: including field telephones. A Tier 2 bunker base, as it was now, had a 1,000m maximum connection radius. Your 120mm guns had a 2,400m maximum firing range. Therefore, you had pinpoint fire direction out to 1,300m (binos from the furthest listening posts) from your base, and therefore about 1,200m from your guns.
In other words? You'd just found what could be the cornerstone of your new operational doctrine, if you took the time to develop it. It'd take more time than you had though, so your loose collection of notes would have to be shelved for now. As much as people meme'd about it, developing doctrine was work: work that would be expensive and time consuming to properly test. Still, if your assumptions held water on what you could and could not do, you now had a way to theoretically break positions like Foxcatcher.
The best-laid plans oft went awry, though. Even before your normal operational duties as the head of the regiment started digging into your time as you prepared to spin up a third administration section to help coordinate supply use (before realizing you didn't have enough people), you had brigade duties to attend to. Brigade duties that included figuring out what the fuck had happened to your commandos, who went radio silent two days ago.
This turned out to be a bit harder than you had expected. The lot of them had moved out of Weathering Halls almost immediately after the ball, for some reason, so your first attempt to figure out what the hell was going on involved accidentally kicking the door in on a bunch of terrified Brazillians who had been using the garrison house as a waystation on their way to Port of Rime where they were going to get naval transit training. Unfortunately, the rail boys didn't know where they'd gotten off to either.
Back in Clanshead, they weren't in The King or The Pike according to telegram calls, and Great Warden Dam didn't report anything either. Calls to Reaching Trail generally took at least a half hour apiece, as you explained that yes, you really were the Golden General (you hated that nickname almost as much as "The Valkyrie" by this point) and no, you weren't recruiting. Argo's help desk, until the woman herself got on the line, was closer to a hell desk- but it finally got you a tree to bark up.
Apparently, the entire god-damn regiment was going treasure hunting. In Morgan's Crossing. The most benighted dumpster fire of a hex known to man. A call to Allsight got you nothing, but the 63e in Quietus actually did have some info for you to go off of: the group had taken an Ironship of supplies and an Aquatipper with a crane out.
At this point, your swearing was enough to make Silica blush. Sending her out with an admin team and a few sergeants, you hoped for quick news back. When you got it, your fury was apocalyptic enough you felt the need to go out and personally direct a 120mm for the better part of an hour, working over known and suspected rocket-launching sites. As a form of stress relief, it was almost therapeutic- except for the part where you scared some of the trainees witless as some Systems Assist fed you gun corrections before the shells finished landing.
What had happened was Kirito had heard a rumor there might be loot on Callum's Descent: a piss-poor rock in the Bastard Sea right next to the hex border. The nowhere near secured hex border. The hex border that had, on several occasions, raiding parties jumping it for no discernable reason.
Naturally, literally moments after dropping the ramp on the Aquatipper- to hear Silica's very tired explanation of how things had gone- a pair of battle barges had swooped in, sunk the barge with the crane on it thereby destroying the crane, and then sunk the boat containing the supplies. Fortunately, one of Kirito's friends and regiment-mates (Klein?) had a shovel and a willingness to use it, digging foxholes for the lot of them to hide in. From there, a handful of Tier 1 bunkers had been dug: barely enough to let someone open up a can of Bunker Supplies. Not G-sups, no, shitty B-sups.
Said shitty B-sups supplied, of course, by the emergency Navy watchtower-and-chest on the island, because they knew this could happen.
Silica had ended up needing to get a bus, put the bus on an Aquatipper, drive the Aquatipper out to the island, fight off another raiding battle barge (why, where, and how Silica had decided it apros to equip her floating disaster with a Foebreaker you would not ask) and then load up your commando regiment to take home.
Then Silica's barge got sunk in a friendly fire incident, which killed her, most of the Commandos, her pilot, and resulted in the admin team becoming improvised lifesavers with motor launches. Only through divine invention were all the dog tags recovered, at which point you had to wait two days for them to finally drag their feet getting home.
The admin team got two day's leave for the adventure, Silica got a pat on the head and a stern warning not to do it again, and Kirito's punishment was for you to sic Asuna on him. The sounds of her ass-chewing were audible over the 120s, and the rest of the Commandos got to sit through a nice, wonderful little powerpoint you asked Lt. Klasse to put together about risk management on the frontlines.
Yes. Kayaba had included a functional way to re-create powerpoint in this game. Yes. You were going to use it as the correctional tool it was designed to be.
And yes- you really were the Devil Herself.
Either way, once tempers had cooled (and Asuna had been convinced to go visit Theresa to handle a supply-side thing), you got Kirito alone in your office. His pride was still trampled and you felt bad making him do this without an interpreter, but you weren't sure you wanted Asuna this deep on things yet.
"Kirito," you said, looking him over carefully. "I'm glad we got you out of Morgan's safely."
"Mistakes were made," he muttered, making way to a desk chair. "What do need talk about?"
You breathed in, deeply. "What would you say if I knew a way we could get out of the game early?"
"Like Hooker's absurd plot to dev-console hack us out?"
"A little worse," you admitted. "Have you ever been to America?"
"No- why?"
"Taking care of people in comas is expensive," you said, the words falling out of your mouth slowly, before picking up like water from a melting floe. "And the state doesn't like to pay for good hospitals. I- I got hurt in mine. Nobody looks after an orphan, you know?"
The kid physically flinched, as if you slapped him.
"Either way, Sundowner's keeping a closer eye on this simulation than we thought. He knew I made General. He knew my body was starting to fall apart."
"What did- no- that bastard!" Kirito hissed. "Mind upload is a myth! He can't have made it work!"
"What?" you asked, baffled.
"In the SAO beta test, there were a myth," Kirito explained, snarling. "The brain scan was so good, so precise, it could allow a sufficiently powerful computer run a copy of the human mind. A synthesized human. Bullshit. Total bullshit. But the myth stuck."
"Fortunately, that's not what he did," you said, sighing. "He made me a job offer. Work for him, and I wouldn't die."
"Did you-"
"Yes."
"I'm sorry."
You smirked slightly. "Don't be sorry. My job is to find Kayaba- the designer of this place. Sundowner wanted to end this after a year, but the simulation's stuck. Kayaba's hiding out here, as one of the players. If we can find him and hold a gun to his head, he might be able to get us loose."
"But where do I come into this?" Kirito asked.
"I need help," you said, sighing. "I'm stuck here on the front, commanding everyone. I need someone to help me, to track down Kayaba- and you're a decent starting point."
"And if I don't want to help?" Kirito asked.
"Then you don't have to. Just keep this quiet, though: I don't want Kayaba deciding to live in a bunker base somewhere we'll never find him."
"Alright. What happens when you find him, though?"
"I kill him in the game, I kill myself, and then I message Sundowner and sit on the fuck in the Waiting Room of the Damned until he my new most horrible boss comes to deal with it."
"Can I talk to him, first?" Kirito asked. "I… there's a question I need to ask him."
"Go ahead," you said, shrugging. "I won't lose any more sleep over it than I would without it."
"Any more?"
You laughed a little at that, a maladjusted humor creeping through. "Are you familiar with the trolley problem, Kirito?"
"The meme one?"
"Yeah."
"Yes, but I don't see the comparison."
"On track one are ten thousand or so lives- all the players of the game. On track two is Kayaba. All I have to do is throw the lever, sentencing Kayaba to his death, and we all get free. That is, after I find his ass and tie him to the railroad tracks."
"Ah."
"It's classic gang indoctrination bullshit," you grumbled. "Commit some minor offense with the initiate, get them comfortable with the in-group. Then go big or go home, something that the initiate can't turn back from. Sundowner just thinks I won't squeal to the ICC if this comes up."
"Alright, General."
Shaking your head, you looked at Kirito. "Sorry. I got distracted."
A shrug met you.
"Anyway, marching orders," you muttered, pulling some of your Command Presence back into yourself. "It's not your highest priority, but try and sniff out people who you know are or were connected to dev staff. Don't try and pin down which one is Kayaba, we'll do that later. Right now, we just need to map out a pool of suspects, then we'll start winnowing it down. I refuse to bring in the wrong guy- if only because that'll probably get me in the shitter with Sundowner."
"I understand. I'll start putting a list together."
"Thanks, Kirito."
///
In between all this, your Brigade was still moving. Reinforced heavily by new tanks, Tymur took a swing at Frostmarch. Vasily and Boris companies went in, danced around the issue for the better part of two days, and then got their shit kicked in when artillery slapped their FOB bunkers and supply parks. To the surprise of nobody, an armored force deprived of their supply park was kind of useless. Unfortunately, adding Galina into the mix with more supplies and the headquarters artillery didn't fix the problem: Tymur's 250mm mortars couldn't fix the problem, and he couldn't reconnoiter the area well enough to set hand mortars to fixing it considering the amount of incoming fire and the fact the enemy Dragoons weren't satisfied to just sit around at home in a trench.
Fortunately, your current lack of activity meant you could do things. Sending out 2 Battery and half of 4 Battery under Asuna, you quickly dialed in the enemy fortifications, and started smacking. With their artillery thus suppressed, they'd need to sally to silence your guns- and whatever contingent of the Dragoons that was here wasn't willing to do the needed Charge of the Light Brigade against your 40mm guns. It took getting Company Anton into the fight to actually press in and destroy the enemy fortifications, though, at which point you just wanted it to be over.
At this point, you really needed to get more units into the brigade. It could be by fully divorcing yourself from the 15e so you could operate them more freely, it could be additional frontline regiments, but you needed a way to increase your combat power so "throw the armor at it" wasn't your default solution to problems. That got expensive, fast.
With Frostmarch down, though, you realized the end of your fortnight-long planning period was coming up and you had nothing pressing to do that wasn't just overlooking more admin stuff. As such, you had time. Time to, well… go up to Great Warden Dam.
Time to talk to Loup.
///
The train ride up to Great Warden Dam was quiet as usual, not many people on the oh-dark-thirty passenger car that had been appended to the boxcar train explicitly for the night shift personnel transfers. Your hands clenched and unclenched around a briefcase, the damnable thing holding a bevvy of paperwork you claimed to be handling on the train ride as a bribe to Theresa- who, upon her promotion to brigade staff, had immediately moved up to Weathering Halls and started raining fury down on the frontline supply system.
It was disturbing how well Theresa got along with Asuna. You did not like it one bit.
"All passengers, we're now entering the Saint-Canard station, please have your bags ready. Our next stop is Kakario Villiage in Reaching Trail. This station has no connections.
Muttering to yourself, you just shuffled off the train. Great Warden Dam was almost quiet, the crowds at a low roar as police directed traffic hither and yon. You just jumped trucks, hitchhiking along until you finally got to the home of the 241e Research Regiment. Nerves dancing, you worked up the courage to ring the bell, only for the door to fly open as you approached.
"Oh. Its you."
Blinking at the surly rosette who was shooting daggers at you, you nodded. "Yeah. It's me."
"Asshole. Takamachi's inside."
Shaking your head, you just pushed in past her, before gulping. Loup was sprawled out on the couch in the common area, a bottle of grappa in one hand and her maid cap over her eyes. As you looked at her, she drunkenly rolled over, glaring at the world.
"Ano baka yarō," she muttered.
"That's not a compliment, is it," you muttered. The rosette kept glaring at you. Sighing, you bucked up your courage. "Hey, Loup."
"Lizbeth," Loup growled, "more wine. I'm seeing that useless general again."
"That's because it's really me," you said.
"Last one said that too."
"Damnit, Loup," you muttered, opening up your officer's coat and throwing your pistol and sword on the table. Blinking curiously, the drunken techmaid tried to figure out what you were doing, before a hand stole the bottle of grappa and set it down next to your Ahti.
"Hey, hold on, yamero, what are you-" Loup sputtered, before you draped your coat over her.
"You need to sleep this off," you said, frowning slightly as you rolled your shoulders so your suspenders didn't catch on the sides of your breasts. There was a modeling hitch somewhere that made a shadow hitbox on the side- probably for something lewd- and having a big canvas strap there wasn't fun. Picking Loup up, it was easy enough to shift her into a princess carry.
"Now I know I'm dreaming," Loup muttered.
It was easy enough to carry her up the stairs, and sliding her into bed was simple. The only problem was she grabbed at you: like a limpet, or a leach. Soft nothings and kisses to the cheek wouldn't free you- eventually, you ended up letting her hands catch up in your suspenders before you took them off. Blinking at you like a lost little owl, Loup eventually curled up in your coat, feigning sleep or passed out beyond caring. Going back downstairs with a shirt-tail out and a tired sigh on your face, you blinked when you reached the common room.
In the chair across from the couch, Misericord sat, her face pinched and nervous in her plain soldier's uniform. "Ah, er, hello there, General."
You felt, to be frank, very conflicted. "Miss Misericord, I believe?" you asked, feigning confusion as to why she was here.
"I call someone to take care of Colonel," Lizabeth yelled from the kitchen. "You got here first you got the mess. Don't kill each other!"
"Ah, yes," Misericord said, fidgeting. "Well."
Considering your options carefully, you pulled your pack of backup cigarettes out of your pocket, and lit one off the gas lamp on the wall. "Should we address the elephant in the room?" you asked.
"If- I'm sorry- I didn't know she was taken!" Misericord said, standing up and waving her hands ashemedly. "I was just- heat of the moment-"
"That's less a concern, and more the fact you're a kid," you said, sighing. She didn't look like a kid, with twintails of luscious blonde hair held back by pink ribbons and a slim-and-shapely figure that probably beat yours out.
"I'm fourteen! I can make my own decisions, and I want to use this body as much as I can!" Misericord said, putting her hand to her chest. "Even if I can't keep it, that doesn't mean I want to waste it!"
"Yeah, and I'm seventeen, and Loup's in her twenties," you shot back dryly. "You're a kid."
"Then this kid can take care of her better than you can!"
Your ocean of fucks was rapidly salinating and preparing to evaporate. "Taking care of Loup doesn't enter the equation. Hell, I won't lie I've done her dirty with all this- but we need to stop, and talk, and not go blindly flailing about."
"What, you want to declare a truce or something?"
"Or something. I don't know what's going on your end, but I'd like to have a general idea why you kissing Loup threw her so bad."
Making your way over to the couch, you flopped down with your smoke forming a thin haze around you. Across the way, Misericord just stared, before she sighed. "It, uh, probably didn't help I said I was trans after that," she muttered. "It was- well- I wasn't thinking clearly-"
"That explains the 'I want to use this body as much as I can' remark," you said slyly, earning a glare.
"I like it here. I can finally look like- no, be- what I am without worrying about passing. Nobody takes a second look, you know? It's just- there's so much I got used to doing, that I don't need to worry about anymore. Everything just clicks."
"And I wish you the best of luck with it," you said, offering a light to the teenager in front of you. "And hey, you're in here so puberty just sails right on by."
"Please don't remind me. I couldn't get on blockers before I got stuck in here," Misericord moaned. "I'll- it'll be hell getting out. Another new body to get used to and fix."
You winced. "Yeah, shit, didn't think of that," you muttered.
"So, you can understand why I wanted to give something back to one of the people who makes me feel right, don't you?"
Damnit that was a pinch of sympathy entering your heart. "Yeah that doesn't change the fact you kind of fucked up there. Seriously, can't you be interested in someone who's not the better part of a decade older than you?"
"What, like you? I mean, I like girls, but you'd just run away."
Oh look, the flower of sympathy couldn't grow in the Great Salt Lake of Fucks that was shrinking by the day. "I think I'm the most lead-footed officer in the game," you remarked drolly. "I seem incapable of taking a step back."
"Except in love, yeah." '
The Great Salt Lake of Fucks was now the Lake Mead of Fucks. "Are you seriously trying to start a fight?" you asked, before getting another cigarette out. "No, don't answer that. You are. Loup might be a light sleeper, but getting her down here with us in a screaming match doesn't do a damn thing for either of us."
"I would never!"
"Yeah we'll file that under 'bullshit' right next to our radios magically having unlimited range for bad news and the weather."
"Well, I'm here, and that has to count for something!"
"It would count even more if you were in a regimental uniform," you smirked, before flicking the collar of your shirt. A pair of black crosses sat there: the sign of you being a Brigade officer. Standard officers got one black stripe there, while colonels got two stripes. "Wheras you are currently an independent little blueberry."
All that earned you was incoherent growling, before Misericord finally clammed up. You got six cigarettes in before something happened- Loup coming down the stairs in a nightgown and your coat, blinking at you on the couch.
"Melanie?"
"Hey. I came to talk as soon as I could."
"Don't forget me!" Misericord shouted, earning a wince.
"You two…" Loup muttered. "Melanie, please come with me for a bit? We'll be right back."
Following Loup into the kitchen and out the back door, it wasn't long before you were a few buildings away in what looked to have been the ground floor of a florist's shop before it had been bunker-ified. It was heated enough you were only cold instead of taking damage, though, and as you looked at Loup you shot her a shy smile as you pulled the last coffin nail out of its pack. Fiddling around for a lighter, you muttered a curse to yourself- your backup flint match you'd left inside by accident, and your regular plunger lighter was still in your coat.
"Need a light?" Loup asked, fishing it out with a small smile.
"If you don't mind," you asked.
"For once, I do," Loup sniffed, stealing it from your lips and lighting it herself. "How do you feel, now that the shoe's on the other foot?"
"Like I should probably make up with you before I make out with you."
"That's fine, then, but I need some details," Loup said with a sigh. "Starting with, and I know it's belated, how old you are. Maybe a real name, too."
"My name sounds fake as hell, though," you complained. "I'm sixteen- well, probably seventeen by now, though."
"Then you're actually older than me," Loup muttered with a half-smile. "I turned sixteen about when winter started."
"Wait hold on what the fuck time out no bullshit you need to be at least like twenty-something, come on, quit fucking with me, I am not the old lady here!"
"Sorry, señora," Loup said with a smirk, "but you have perverted my innocence and must take responsibility."
"What, you speak Spanish now too?!"
"I speak a little bit of a lot of languages. It's what happens when your family owns a bakery."
You rolled your eyes. "Still, names."
"I'm Hanoka Suzumako, then. You?"
"Isabel Malenfant. A terrible name."
"I don't know, it's cute."
You laughed a little at that, before a gust of wind hit you. "I don't know if being cute will get me out of everything else I did," you admitted.
"Like sleeping with Tymur?"
You winced. "Well, yes-"
"Eh, I don't mind. He's cute enough."
Your jaw dropped, again. "Is this, just, bizzaro world where relationships are different, or are we in the old days of tie die and free condoms and lots of acid or something?"
"No," Loup said with a grin, "I just maniacally collect cute things and want a harem of adorable girls so I never sleep in another cold bed ever again."
Processing that took a minute. "Are you serious, or are you joking, or-"
"Yes I'm serious. The worst thing in this game is a cold bed, and being lonely, and the fucking snow and wind that makes everything so miserable because it keeps blowing up your god damn fetish skirt!"
"Is the uniform really that much of a problem?" you asked, sidetracked.
"Only when I'm outside, so you know, all the time. Either way, cute harem of girls. And Tymur I guess, he's cute enough to slide under the bar even if I'm not as straight as you."
"If there's only two or three years between you and Misericord though-"
Loup cut you off. "Mis is- well, she's conflicted. If she can get her head screwed on straight, I might- well- she's a good kisser and-"
You groaned. "She says she's fourteen. I'm almost willing to believe it. Like it as not, we've all gotten a year older. If we're still here when she's fifteen, and she's sorted her shit out a little better, well…"
"...Well then," Loup muttered. "We'll burn that bridge when we get to it."
"Good plan," you muttered, reaching for a smoke and realizing you'd need to go for the spare pack in your coat. Nuzzling up to Loup, you sighed happily as she melted into your embrace- right until she squeaked as your hand brushed her nightgown on its way to the inside pocket.
When you got back to the garrison house, there wasn't anyone to see, and you extinguished your smoke on the flat of your sword, leaving the stub carelessly on some piece of paperwork with a Navy letterhead. Soon enough, you and Loup were upstairs, warming up the bed- and some other things. There'd probably be more discussions about your collective love life soon enough: but tonight you just wanted to relax.
////
Vote
BUNKER
(Choose One Two Three)
[] Expand your bunker base with additional infrastructure to sustain larger troop numbers.
[] Expand your bunker base with Defensive Patterns (Requires techniques, vote to begin development)
-[] With small patterns (x12 to go to New Base Completion)
-[] With medium patterns (x2 to go to New Base Completion)
-[] With heavy patterns (x6 to go to New Base Completion)
-[] With artillery firing positions
-[] With infantry fighting positions
-[] With Modernist patterns (x4 to go to New Base Completion)
[] Begin developing Concrete (Write-in base to begin concrete development on)
[] Develop a new bunker base in a better location
-[] Write in hex and town/Relic, as well as distance to front line or intended purpose.[] Get your builders to stop expanding the base for now.
[] Gift, Assign, or Abandon a bunker base.
-[] Write-in base by location.
[] Begin design for a new, planned base.
[] You don't need to build right now: put that time and manpower into the Brigade functions! (Grants one Brigade action)
[] Begin building temporary siegeworks to interdict a position or route.
PERSONNEL
(Choose One Two)
[] Go and recruit more personnel
-[] Mass recruitment: whatever you can get, get more of it! (Recruits 4d10+4 White personnel)
-[] Selective recruitment: Look for people who aren't clueless. The Logistics Union has a lot of folks. (Recruits 3d10+3 Green personnel)
-[] Picky recruitment: Get people who are at least as skilled as you are! (Recruits 2d10+2 Yellow personnel)
-[] Frontline recruitment: Go to the front and snag some blueberries! (Recruits 1d10+1 Orange personnel)
-[] Elite recruitment: Go find a group of lunatics, and shanghai them. (Recruits 1d10 Red personnel)
(You cannot recruit units of higher rating than yourself.)
[] Commit training!
-[] Vehicle training: Teach everyone drive good. Car goes on right hand side of road, revolutionary concept. Might as well also learn to drive a flatbed, or your Drummond if you're feeling nice.
-[] Rifle training: Everyone will spend time practicing the fine art of "bullet go plink"
-[] Administration Training: Basic delegation has been mastered, but the more officers you have the more the parts move. Therefore, figuring out how to grease the gears is important. (Cannot take with empty Admin Billets.
-[] Infantry Training: You've spent some time on the front, it sucks. Get better so it sucks less.
-[] Mobile Warfare Training: You know how to fight out of a truck bed. Now it's time to get good at that.
-[] Artillery Training: It is time to actually learn what the limitations of these guns are. It'll be expensive, but you need to know to keep mistakes from happening.
-[] Combat Vehicle Training: Your people know how to drive trucks and push guns, but the sort of work and operations needed to utilize an armored car or tank is completely outside your wheelhouse. Get some domestic tankers ready- you'll need them if you ever use armored contingents or self-propelled guns.
[] Extra work shifts
-[] More Scroop: Get everyone to do more rounds of scrooping at the scrap fields. You do your part, and more importantly, can use the B-mats to get useful stuff like more trucks or dedicated equipment.
-[] More Mines: Get everyone to do more rounds on the component mines and oil wells. Components mean R-mats, R-mats mean flatbeds, and more importantly: trains
-[] More Building: Put everyone to work on getting your bunker upgrades planned. If you don't have some planned, the bunker will get what the troops think it needs.
-[] Frontline Support: Put your people in the trenches on secondary duties: terminal logistics, machine guns, fortification, and other 'mostly safe' jobs to stiffen them up.
[] Begin operational planning for Something Big
-[] Inform a Regimental or Brigade Officer about your mission from Sundowner, and enlist them in helping to ferret out the identity of Kayaba.
--[] Write-in the name of the officer in question.
-[] Start writing the Doctrine (Regimental)
-[] Write-in Something Big.
[] Begin Operation Planning (+1 to all rolls when the next operation starts)
[] You have enough spare brain cells in this department: put some time and manpower into the Brigade functions! (Grants one Brigade action)
UPGRADES
(Choose One Two Three!)
[] Go out and get yourself a lieutenant! (You may have one per twenty Regiment members, minimum one)
-[] Teach them the way of the builder, as much as you know how that works. (Adds one action to Bunker)
-[] Teach them the way of the talker, so you don't have to do that crap! (Adds one action to Personnel)
-[] Teach them the way of the organizer, so you have more time to put out more fires (Adds one action to Upgrades)
[] Find a, uh, techmaid, and get some prototype kits by hook or by crook.
-[] Bonesaw Humerus: A shoulder-fired ARC/AT-RPG weapon with a monsterously heavy hollow charge: perfect for destroying tanks and not much else.
-[] Tannerbaush Optical Rangefinder: A large, tripod-mounted optical rangefinder with integral compass. Perfect for determining range and bearing from a position.
-[] Niska Mk. V Command Vehicle: A Niska Halftrack with the weapons mount and troop compartment removed, in exchange for a four-seat mobile command center with theatre radio, map board, and cable jacks for field telephones or to link into a Bunker Base switchboard.
-[] Devitt-Caine Mk. IV MMR: A Devitt light tank retrofit with an open turret to mount a Caine 60mm mortar. Superficially similar to an infantry mortar, the mechanized chassis provides many hidden advantages.
[] Requisition Material
-[] Logistics Support: Flatbeds, Fuel, and other niceties.
-[] Artillery Systems: 40mm guns, 120mm guns, mortars, and 'soft' upgrades.
-[] Base Support: More concrete, more faster.
[] Get in touch with another regiment that does something you need (Discovers and improves relations with one random regiment inside the search group)
-[] Logistics
-[] Production
-[] Frontline Combat
-[] QRF
-[] Water Logistics
-[] Techmaids
-[] Partisans
-[] War Bureau
-[] Great Warden Railroad (GWRR)
-[] 58e Intelligence
-[] 26e Commando
-[] 14e Medical
-[] 22e Chemical Warfare
[] Find a way to get your guys some quality of life upgrades so things suck less out here.
[] Go talk to someone specific/Meet a Specific Regiment
-[] Go talk to Zairman before you end up with his regiment living out of your base.
-[] Write in named character or regiment number (this includes in-regiment characters)
[] You have enough spare equipment and kit: put some time and manpower into the Brigade functions! (Grants one Brigade action)
BRIGADE
(Choose One Two!)
[] Begin preparing for a gradual push
-[] Slowly, the noose tightens on Port of Rime. Get in, and do a little daily walking fire to keep them on their toes.
-[] Huntsfort taunts you, and you can get some scab garrison troops to hold things down while you reach out and take a nibble
-[] Invest and secure Crow's Nest: You want to eat it.
-[] Invest Foxcatcher through Frostmarch: You've got the armor and the guts, and you know this'll draw enough response for you to see what your Powers of Doctrine can do.
-[] Avenge the Navy, and put the boots to Wightwalk so you can have a hole of naval resupply.
-[] Time to go for the big one: Invest Foxcatcher, and begin the siege on a refinery town. (Locked, must take 2/4 approaches to the area first)
[] Search for more regiments to add to the Brigade: you have to catch them all!
-[] Write-in Regiment Number, CO, or name.
-[] Write-in Regiment Skillset: ex; Transhipment, Rail, Medical, Infantry, Armor, Artillery, Et Cettera.
[] Promote an officer to Brigade Staff
-[] Scout from another Regiment in the Brigade
-[] Write-in Officer Name.
(tech post tomm or so, but spoilers: this tier is Rocket Stuff and more flame weapons. Yay flame weapons!)
