Spuk has only recently been re-colonised (3205). There is one primary colony on the surface of the planet with a very few other minor groups of settlers. In total there are about 400,000 people in the system. See map

General
There are two main settlements, Phoenix and River City are on the same continent but about 600km apart, there is a clear gap between the outer settlements and the areas that they claim jurisdiction over.

Phoenix
The main settlement (Phoenix) is in the mountains around a rich seam of red mercury and other minerals. Most of the colony’s industry is geared around mineral extraction, refining and export. There are some outlying communities in the foothills and into the plains, mainly agricultural for feeding the mines and heavy industry.

The colony is rooted in the centre of the continent and has several small settlements within the core area. Mostly these are located on rivers to allow ease of transport. The majority of the settlements, including Phoenix itself, are company towns and are wholly owned by the corporation (Phoenix Resurgam LLC, registered in Percentage as a colonisation company).

The governance of Phoenix is still on a corporate basis. The executive directors make all the day to day decisions and 'taxes' are paid in the guise of making investments in the company. The amount paid in tax affects the overall share in the colony, and therefore the voting at shareholder meetings. There is no compulsion to 'invest' as direct delivery services are charged for at the point of use. Certain services (such as dispute resolution) are only available to shareholders. There is no police force other than the corporate security team who tend to focus most on internal fraud and disciplinary matters amongst the company's workforce.

River City
River City is part of the Phoenix colony, some of the shareholders wished to diversify from the minerals production and set up a subsidiary to establish a coastal settlement in the mouth of the largest river on the continent which was downstream from Phoenix. This site is a more attractive option for many of the newer colonists and it is flourishing. Most space landings are in the vicinity of River City and there are plans to build a spaceport here as soon as sufficient capital can be raised.

BFF
BFF are a minor shareholder in the colonisation company owning just under 5% of the stock. Their site is based in the plains area near the river that links Phoenix and Rover City together. They are approximately half way between both cities.

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Tender 22 - revised tender description

Buck Fast Foods has established a corporate megadon ranch on the surface of the main colonised world in Spuk, Q8. The ranch sits in the plains area between the two major settlements and is intended to service the colony on the planet with fresh megadon meat as well as providing export potential.

BFF don't have the monopoly on meat from the colony but they are the only corporation to have established a farm, the other companies engaged in meat production all hunt wild megadons (normal practice in newly established colonies, very low set up costs compared to farming and you need not do it constantly). Over the year and a half since the farm was set up (well outside normal hunting areas for wild megadons) there have been consistent low level losses of megadons (profit loss on a mature megadon is in the region of 4000cr per animal). This in itself is not disastrous, there is room in the business plan for some losses due to accidents, sickness and animals wandering off. However the rate of loss has increased over the last year to around four animals per octant.
More importantly a valuable breeding group has recently gone missing (one male and three mature females - the potential income from this group if most of the eggs are grown to maturity is over 100,000cr per octant, although this assumes an integrated farming approach with a high hatching and survival rate, it is unlikely anyone who is not a specialist megadon farmer could make this sort of return).
It is clear that there is a group of megadon rustlers at work and the corporation thinks it knows who they are. However because the colony is so recently established there is not yet a local police force able to take action.
The rustler group is believed to be one of the other megadon hunting companies. It is not certain which of the companies it is but the suspects have been narrowed down to two. The larger group (on a worst case basis) operates with a dozen hunters (using GF HMA and SLA3) backed up by four armoured ground vehicles (tracked) which are equipped with short range heavy tasers. There are also some large haulage and mobile cranes to assist with moving carcasses. In all each company employs about forty to fifty people, most of whom are drivers or butchers.
The tender is to recover the breeding group unharmed, and to put a stop to the poachers/rustlers, ideally using law enforcement approach rather than brute force. Fees are negotiable, but would expect it to be about four octants worth of losses or less.

Contract Budget of Cr 464k appears sufficient. We now need to choose a Contract Director to prepare the tender and run the mission.

My initial thoughts on the mission requirements are as follow (subject to modification by more information):

1. OVERVIEW
This is not a mission that exclusively requires a strike force, as the last two contracts did. We first need to discover where the breeding group is, "remove" any opposing guards, and then return the megadons to the ranch. Concurrently or subsequently, we need to improve the security of the ranch and herd, and to "encourage" the rustlers to stop their criminal activities. The option to exterminate them is not acceptable apparently.

2. RECONNAISSANCE
Therefore I think we need a reconnaissance flyer to help search for the breeding group. Bod X O'Brian can advise on this, and no doubt fly it. Also Hiro Nakamura would be useful at Spuk. We should organise trackers to follow the trail if still practicable. Some investigation of the two suspect companies is necessary: we can advise on this, but it is not our expertise. Should we ask BFF to organise this after they accept our tender?

3. STRIKE FORCE
Probably some 20 HMA; we have all the kit. Shuttles are very expensive to transport; do we need to take one? Flyers? Deployment speed is desirable; can we obtain on Spuk? Vehicles I'm not sure about: Hover APCs would be good, but we have sold the ones we had, and I don't think the benefit justifies the cost; tracked APC perhaps. We need to know what can be obtained on Spuk; we could possibly adapt APCs as used by ranchers. BFF will presumably have to provide the vehicles to transport the breeding group back to the ranch.

L.M-D

A report from Bennie Parker

The planning and execution of the last tender was pretty loose or sloppy. We gor away with this cause our target was ambushed and I got lucky with people around me.

Anyway we did make goodish profit, my accounant is coming up with some figures.

2 Things stand out for me,

a) my reliance on others for good ideas and plans, I kept it simple and if some one had a good idea then rather follow my usual practice, of endless anaylsis, I told them to get on with it and hope they would work our the creaks and groans themselves. I am not sure this was really best practice but... it worked very well with the recce team.

b) and total reliance on others for management of numbers and logistics, skill sets, and so on, beyter supervision might would have been useful

I really dont think such a careless and carefree approach will work on this tender/possible job.

"Grand Field Marshall Parker"