You're going to be facing (what sounds like) steel-armoured troops, if that makes a difference. But you'll have other steel-armoured troops on your side...

The tech disparity at this point pretty much nullifies armour. A bullet will rip through platemail like it was cardboard. Conversley, a broadsword will cut through a ballistic vest like it was silk. About the only difference is in encumberance, and the knights are used to fighting in their armour, so again, not an issue.

I just want to give the skipper his land title, stock up on explosives, and maybe pick up a spare technical or three and possibly a mortar.

We can radio ahead to the Captain and have him set aside two vehicle sized wagons to carry what we need. Maybe a quick stop off at a village to trade some crossbows or tools for more food, since the trip to the castle would take longer and we'd have to pack light to fit as many Knights as possible.

As far as weapons? Honestly we can just pack every road with explosives to take them all out in one attack. If it looks like civilians might get injured, then we use our grenade launchers to fire flashbangs into the enemy crowd, then while they're disoriented our Knights run in to engage in melee or if they're outnumbered we soften them up first with a number of blasts from our rifles.

I was thinking claymore mines in the courtyard. The attackers are expecting Count Radun to just let them in. So we do just that, only the entire inside of the courtyard will have been fortified. As soon as we get as many in as in feasable, we drop the portculas, and call for their surrender. If they refuse, then we set off the mines. Anyone left alive gets arrested.

Don't get fancy; if you want to slaughter a bunch of unsuspecting targets out in the open, the highly mobile machine gun on the technical is already considerable overkill, especially backed by an assault rifle or two. What such weapons do to cavalry, well, let's hope you don't like horses.

As for the trucks, I was thinking of them as the equivalent of the Toyota pickups that most technicals get made of. There would be little to no room in the bed of the technical at all (though one person could get in the cab). The supply truck could fit half a dozen or so; but it wouldn't be fun unless some effort was made to provide seats and securing straps.

One final thought; while chain armor is actually worse than being naked in front of high powered missile weapons like firearms or heavy crossbows (they drive the steel links into the wound), ballistic armor which can stop rifle bullets can also turn any medieval weapon which won't crush the wearer. Magic might be a problem, though.

Yeah, those ceramic plates modern infantry wears can stop just about anything once.

The machine gun puts us at risk, though. If any of them know magic or have crossbows, they can fire back and hurt whoever is in the turret. With the explosive trap, we'd only need one spotter to make sure they're in range and they'll all go down. Though I'd rather incapacitate and imprison than outright kill. The two leaders will make fine evidence. Flashbangs from grenade launchers would be great for that.

The machine gun can mow them all down from a kilometer away; assault rifles from hundreds of meters. Return fire would not be a problem. Besides, it can be dismounted and put on a tripod if we want it more obscure before firing.

One idea: put the real knights out on the road, when the false ones form up for a fight they get shot down from hundreds of meters away on the flank. Simple and effective, and if we're looking to maximize prisoners we simply aim at the horses. The real knights then advance and capture the men tangled up in dying horses, a number of whom would be shot in the legs.

From what I know of ballistic inserts, only the crappy American ones from Long Island are so brittle they'd stop at most one hit. Most are rather tougher than that (and then there's the dragon hide type armor which recreates scalemail).

Random thought. Arkady and Felix can spend their time over the coming weeks using the radio to send design documents for the colonists to follow, so anything they build will be done in reduced time.

We could also spend our time building things for Count Radun to buy so we have pocket money for buying food.

We could, but when we point out to the knights that some supplies will be needed for this trip I suspect the short term ration problem will be solved. Who knows, there may even be a reward/booty involved in all of this somewhere.

Sir Ulath could conceivably want to leave the document with the Pandions for now, if it comes to that.

Was thinking more like the food for the colony and less about the food for ourselves during the trip, if that's what you mean.

I've been talking specifics with CCC regarding the hydroponics. In a little over a week the single bed we've been able to get running will start producing enough food to feed the people we have, plus two or three more people. Give us another month and we could, assuming the three people we wake up are farmers and they work their own hydroponic beds, have enough food for a couple dozen more people.

The only problem is I don't think we can last that long if we don't have a proper security team in place, but Captain Argent won't be willing to wake up more people unless we have several months supply of food in storage to feed everyone while we wait for hydroponics to start producing. So I'm kind of bouncing around, trying to think of whatever we can do to get more food for the colony so we can wake more people up more quickly. Felix wants all of his time to be as productive as possible, so if he's not sending building instructions for the colonists to work off of, he's going to be bouncing around Castle Radun looking for whatever work he can find to make some money, regardless of how demeaning and unpleasant. He'll then use that money to buy shipments of food to send to the colony to help out however he can.

Bear in mind that the locals don't have refrigeration technology. There's a limit as to how far food can be transported.

Certain things last longer than others. Felix will have to look into the various vegetable types, but some of them should last several weeks at least. Gourd type vegetables should last for months. Flour from wheat should last for years if it's kept dry.

If nothing else we can just send lots of flour.

Live animals and salted/dried foods keep for a while, too. Though grains last a lot longer before they're milled; once air can get at the germ, they start to go rancid.

Dirty little secret; anyone with pottery and sand has refrigeration, though they may not know it yet. Two unglazed pots with wet sand between them will keep the interior pot cool so long as the sand doesn't dry out.

You do know that the Elenes have pottery, or at least a source of pots; there were a number of decorative vases back at the Palace, and Mark and Marque had quite a supply of pots alongside their Medicinal Mixes.

I suspect you'll get more information about the Queen by asking Felix and Nathan's opinions on the matter once things are settled. They both saw a hologram that the styric woman Lady Sephrenia showed them of herself and the twelve knights raising up the crystal to protect the queen.

I'd have had Felix tell Arkady by now but I've been so absent-minded lately every time I think to myself I should I've forgotten by the time I go to post >.>

Have you gone back and read the threads before you came in, by the way? I'd understand if you haven't done it to preserve the roleplaying aspect, since Arkady wouldn't have known.