Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

[NickAragua]

December 17, 3034
Delta-One's assigned CO calls them up and orders them onto a dropship. They'll be flying down to slightly above the southern polar ice cap. Again. This time, the job is to escort a group of Rasalhague support vehicles to a de-activated facility. Archinerd asks if we can bring an extra lance for backup. "Sure", the normally jackass CO responds. "We're flying in a Union, so there's room".

We bring Delta-Three along. Their Ostscout and Cyrano gunship will be helpful for early warning. Delta-One itself is Archinerd, Paingod, Madmarcus and Freylan (in a spare Phoenix Hawk). Initially, the outing passes without incident. The dropship lands in an out-of-the-way location, and the convoy (four ground trucks of various kinds) makes its way through the forest. Delta-Three serves as pickets. When asked about why we couldn't just take the dropship all the way to where we're going, the attached CO mumbles something about air defenses and need-to-know basis and shutup and keep walking. We don't even bother to ask what the convoy is carrying. However, judging from the composition, it's light equipment

The next conversation is mildly amusing.

"Sensors show dense woods up ahead. I don't think the convoy is going to be able to get through." calls out Madmarcus after receiving a report from our Ostscout.

"So, blow them down!" responds the CO.

"Are you joking, sir?" With that 'special' emphasis on the 'sir'. "That's a solid kilometer of dense conifers. It'll take hours and give away our position!"

"That's irrelevant now." Chimes in Paingod. "Enemy tank company and mech lance, coming in from the northwest."

Looks like we've been intercepted. The good news: it's foggy, at dawn, and the opfor is on the other side of a fairly large forest. The convoy won't be able to do anything stupid like bolt for it and get shot, and the Ronin guys won't be able to get through to us, either. We just have to nail the jumper mechs and then pick the rest of the tanks off at our leisure - the opfor is a lance of jumpy mechs (three bugs and a Griffin), plus a bunch of treaded tanks and hovertanks scattered over the northwest of the area.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

The sunrise gives the snow-covered ground a really unpleasant-looking yellowish tint, which causes more than one of our mechwarriors to wince as we advance, leaving the convoy in a clearing. Our Cyrano gunship is able to hover above the woods, out of range of enemy weapons systems, and plink away with its large laser. It actually makes contact with a laser carrier, though fails to breach armor.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

The bulk of the enemy tanks is here. As usual, mostly crap, although we should avoid getting too close as there are a lot of SRMs and medium lasers in there. The Ronin are really pulling from the bottom of the barrel here.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

We make contact with the enemy light mech lance. And by "contact", I mean we occasionally see each other as the mechs jump out of then swoosh back down into the woods.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

We continue hopping around the woods - an enemy Wasp gets in behind our Cicada and dings the rear armor, but it holds. Freyland gets in a shot at the enemy Griffin, taking a small amount of armor off with a medium laser.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

We get in close and begin exchanging point-blank fire (as you can't really see more than thirty-sixty meters past the mech cockpits). The Ronin Wasp continues beating on the rear armor our Cicada, breaching the torso section with lasers and SRMs, but Madmarcus is on the job, jogging the Wolverine over and cutting the bug mech's right leg off with a pair of laser blasts, which sends it to the ground, where Madmarcus finishes the job by crushing the center torso with a foot. Freyland and the Cyrano gunship work on a Vedette, causing tread damage and a turret lock respectively, then Freyland delivers a kick to the back of the enemy Griffin's leg, although it stays upright.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

"Clear out, Lt, your Cicada's no good in these conditions." Madmarcus advises our Cicada (who's technically in charge of Gamma-Three lance). The Cicada kind of listens, backing up to a section of heavy woods. Freyland jumps into a cluster of enemy tanks, delivering a pair of medium laser blasts to an AC/2 Carrier, followed by a kick. Miraculously, armor holds, although a couple of the wheels look bent.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

This must be one of those "combat loss grouping" things. Combat Loss Grouping is apparently the theory that if you're engaged in a longer battle, units of a similar weight class are likely to suffer failures close to one antoher, temporally speaking. We're not quite getting kills yet, just inflicting minor damage. The enemy Griffin takes a shot to the irrelevant arm, damaging the shoulder actuator. Freyland, the Assassin, and the Ostscout harass the more or less helpless enemy tanks, and Paingod joins in the fun to the northeast.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

Freyland makes our second kill of the day, heating the Phoenix Hawk up quite a bit to pop a laser carrier. Madmarcus, meanwhile, hops over to the enemy Griffin. Most of the laser blasts miss, but a boot strips armor from the enemy mech's right leg and it goes down as the hip actuator snaps. Our Firestarter cores out a Vedette with small lasers and a boot. Our Assassin overextends himself, and gives a Ronin Stinger the chance to get in his rear arc, but it's a trap - the enemy mech can't land its kick and falls over.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

The Griffin is unable to get up, owing to its damaged hip actuator, so Madmarcus walks over (making sure to stay clear of the right arm PPC) to finish it. Well, not quite, but the right torso gets breached, destroying the LRM launcher located there. The rest of weapons fire is relatively effective, but physical attacks really put the hurt on the Ronin guys. Paingod breaks a Stinger's leg, our Ostscout kicks over a Vedette, and our Firestarter detonates the AC/2 Carrier. For some reason, AC/2 Carriers are built with 4 tons of ammo, so when it goes off... yikes.

Round 10:

Spoiler:

Archinerd takes a break, as nobody's shooting at him, to fire short ranged weapons at a nearby Vedette.

The enemy Griffin gets up, trying to get in behind Madmarcus, but gets his right torso drilled through by a laser from our Wolverine, then loses a leg to our Cicada. Freyland and the Assassin start working on the Manticore - the heaviest enemy unit on the field. Freyland damages the Manticore's treads, while the Assassin blows away a nearby Scorpion.

Round 11:

Spoiler:

The Ronin Griffin has had enough and bails out. We push west, trying to catch the last of the Ronin tanks and get them to clear out.

Archinerd hops over and fires his right arm weapons at the Manticore, disabling it with SRMs. The Firestart helps as well. It's the death of a thousand cuts - no individual SRM or small laser impact can breach the tank's substantial armor, but little bits of tread being blasted away each time will stop
it dead in its tracks anyway. The enemy Stinger that Paingod legged earlier is still struggling to get up and point weapons at people's mechs. Paingod finds this unnecessary and puts his mech's foot through the center of the mech.

Round 12:

Spoiler:

Our Assassin takes a nasty leg hit from the enemy Vedette, damaging the hip actuator, and drops to the ground. Paingod's got him covered though, stomping the tank to scrap. Freyland kicks through the Maxim's armor, while our Firestarter breaks through the Galleon trying to weave around Madmarcus' mech (and avoid Archinerd's SRM stream).

The remaining enemy units are mostly hovercraft (and a single jumping mech), which quickly flee to the north and west.

In an unusual incident of sound judgement, the convoy finds an alternate route around the forest, and we arrive at the destination facility by early evening. It's a severe, sprawling, gray facility, with a lot of gray-metal half-hexagonal buildings. Our mechs and VTOL are directed to a group of above-surface hangars, where our mechwarriors are directed to remain "until the techs have completed their work". The guy in the Ostscout, of course, runs a sensor scan and tells Delta-One that there's an underground bunker down there.

Do we:
a) hang out in the hangar or in our mechs and wait as told.
b) poke around and see what the tech guys are working on.

[Hyena]

I'm not there, but I vote "poke around."

[El Guapo]

100% for poke around. Nothing bad ever happens from poking around with people messing with unknown technology.

[Paingod]

100% for poke around. Nothing bad ever happens from poking around with people messing with unknown technology.

I vote poke around, but with a long stick.

[AWS260]

100% for poke around. Nothing bad ever happens from poking around with people messing with unknown technology.

This is exactly correct.

[Cylus Maxii]

What's the upside to poking around? Is there any chance we would end up with cool tech or cool cash? My understanding is that we are on exchange salvage and don't get to keep anything. I say we stay put and follow orders. If we aren't getting paid, we shouldn't poke.

[El Guapo]

What's the upside to poking around? Is there any chance we would end up with cool tech or cool cash? My understanding is that we are on exchange salvage and don't get to keep anything. I say we stay put and follow orders. If we aren't getting paid, we shouldn't poke.

80% chance of hilarity / hijinks.
10% chance of winding up with Star League tech.
10% chance of a gruesome demise.

[Paingod]

Sounds like 100% awesome!

[NickAragua]

What's the upside to poking around? Is there any chance we would end up with cool tech or cool cash? My understanding is that we are on exchange salvage and don't get to keep anything. I say we stay put and follow orders. If we aren't getting paid, we shouldn't poke.

80% chance of hilarity / hijinks.
10% chance of winding up with Star League tech.
10% chance of a gruesome demise.

That sounds about right.

[El Guapo]

What's the upside to poking around? Is there any chance we would end up with cool tech or cool cash? My understanding is that we are on exchange salvage and don't get to keep anything. I say we stay put and follow orders. If we aren't getting paid, we shouldn't poke.

80% chance of hilarity / hijinks.
10% chance of winding up with Star League tech.
10% chance of a gruesome demise.

That sounds about right.

I forgot there's probably about a 5% chance of awakening an Old God. Though I guess that would be part of the "gruesome demise" outcome.

[NickAragua]

You never know, it might be a benevolent Old God.

Delta lance returns to base the next day. Apparently, Freyland and Paingod distract the hangar guards with a rousing game of "lasers and heat sinks" (it involves playing cards and drinking), while Archinerd and Madmarcus go snooping around. The Rasalhague techs are working on trying to open a rather large hangar door, with a recessed ramp leading to it and then presumably continuing downwards underground. Well, "working" is a strong term for sitting around in their temperature-controlled APCs while a computer is hooked up to a key card panel on the side of the door, running some kind of brute force analysis tool. There is also a large pile of explosives stacked nearby - probably to blow the door in case the electronic approach failed. Madmarcus, thinking ahead, swipes some off the top of the stack. That door looks thick enough to withstand concentrated battlemech fire, never mind piddly little infantry explosives.

The Ostscout's sensor readings would have probably helped them out, as the seismic readouts showed several other access points to the underground part of the facility. Our mechwarriors investigate several of those access points, and they are pretty secure as well. Key-card readers control those doors as well. But knocking on them reveals they're not nearly as thick. Trying to blow one of those would probably tip off the Rasalhague guys. So, the two hatch a plan. Pre-set the explosives on a door. Wait until the techs decide to blow the door they're trying to open, and set our bombs off as well. Get in, grab whatever we can, get out.

It works better than expected. Jerkwad CO comes out to yell at the techs a couple of hours later. They walk over to the computer working on the hangar door keycard reader, at which point a voice informs the tech that "Access has been denied. Repeated invalid access attempts have locked the user out of the facility.", at which point Jerkwad tells the techs to "just blow the damn thing, we've only got a few hours!"

So they do. And we do. Our bombs work better than theirs (every system can be compromised if you try hard enough - just because they built an ultra-tough hangar door, doesn't mean the doors that the janitors used are as tough). Archinerd almost gives his position away trying to stifle laughter - the recessed hangar door looks like someone tossed some ash at it, but is basically undented. Madmarcus gets about ten minutes to explore a powered-down, mostly empty hangar before we're ordered into our mechs. A pretty large hangar, but still. Everything is covered with a layer of dust and it looks like and smells like nobody's been in there for a long, long time. The only items of note that can be found are a bunch of "portable storage media" devices (data crystals and whatnot) scattered across a couple of offices in the back of the hangar that make their way into our mechwarrior's bag, then back to the hangar and "safely" into the cockpit of the Wolverine.

Paingod and Freyland have to run interference for a few seconds when Jerkwad comes stomping into the hangar demanding that we get a mech to blast the hangar door open. Freyland powers up the Phoenix Hawk and drills it for a while with the large laser just for show (chuckling all the while), but it's a damn tough door. We elect not to share our findings for now. Not until we get a chance to run analysis and see if there's any value to the data.

The Rasalhague crew pack it up and leave, narrowly avoiding a substantial group of Ronin who move in to retake the base. Our two lances and the Rasalhague guys board the dropship and return to our new base of operations. Madmarcus says it'll take some time to run decryption on the storage devices we got, borrowing the Stalker, a Rifleman and Cylus' Thunderbolt to hook them together into some kind of weird mech network and crunch numbers. How much time?

"Probably a couple of days, unless they used the better encryption. Then it goes up to a couple of weeks."

December 20, 3034
While Madmarcus is decrypting data stored on random data crystals found in an unidentified underground bunker, Beta and Gamma companies make their way on foot. Gamma-One stops at an industrial processing plant that the Kungsarme captured recently to help the local infantry garrison repel a Ronin attack. Gamma-One is Cpt. Scrub in the Warhammer, Hyena in the Striker, Xwraith in the Thunderbolt and Cylus in the Phoenix Hawk. Dorfmeister has gotten his ground-bound Wolverine patched up as well. We call in Gamma-Two for reinforcements, just in case. We *should* be able to take the incoming Ronin, but you never know.

The approaching enemies are a heavy mech lance with a company of tanks (and a couple of light mechs) in support. Well, technically, an Assassin is a medium, but come on. The local garrison is four infantry platoons spread out among the buildings. They look to be armed mostly with crappy infantry weapons, but there does look to be a few shoulder-launched LRMs and light APCs in the mix.

"What are you guys guarding, anyway?" Hyena inquires as they wait.

"Cheese processing plant." Responds one of the infantrymen. We're not sure if he's joking.

Gamma-Two informs us that they are seventy seconds out.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

We camp out behind some buildings on the far side of the river, hoping that the Ronin aren't out to destroy the place. Not entirely, it looks like - there's a hover APC in the mix capable of carrying an infantry platoon. Maybe just a raid? A mixed lance of fast mechs and hovercraft advances while the rest hang abck. We hit absolutely zip while our Warhammer gets beat up by SRMs a bit.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

The Maxim zips over to the other side and unloads an infantry platoon nearby Hyena's Striker. Hyena's on the ball though, letting rip with the AC/10 and punching enough holes in the hovertank to take off the right-side hover skirt, causing it to puff as it grinds frozen dirt. The Ronin blow away a machine gun turret in the front of the base, collapsing the building entirely. Xwraith doesn't do too well at shooting, but crunches the armor and a lot of internal structure in the Assassin's leg with a kick.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

The enemy Thunderbolt fires at Cpt. Scrub's Warhammer, first the lasers, followed up by the LRMs, but the laser impacts the water instead. She takes the left arm off the Assassin trying to jump in behind Hyena, who takes a kick to the leg but delivers a backhand to the Assassin as well. The Ronin take down a second turret. The rest are going to be a little tougher.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

Our Warhammer and the Ronin Thunderbolt continue their impromptu duel, the Warhammer landing two PPC hits while the Thunderbolt boils more water. The Assassin gets punched again.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

The Assassin has had enough and jets off to the west. Cpt. Scrub backs up and gives the Thunderbolt two more PPC blasts. Armor holds but is looking red in some places. Hyena "pings" a Stinger that tries to cross the river, blowing off its left arm, while Cylus gets behind the enemy force. An enemy Quickdraw is in the base, making a bit of a mess and shooting up infantry, so Xwraith jumps over to take care of it. But first things first, leg the Stinger.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

Hyena joins in the beating on the Thunderbolt, blasting off the remaining left torso armor. That leaves just the rest of the armor, and we're unable to capitalize. We do manage to force the enemy mech to take a knee, though.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

Gamma-Two arrives. Good thing, too. Hyena is forced to switch targets to an Ostsol that runs up. The autocannon burst goes wide, but between the PPC and three laser shots, the Ostsol's hip throws out sparks and it goes down. Cpt. Scrub fires PPCs and an SRM salvo at the Thunderbolt - the SRMs go to the left torso, taking out one of the three lasers mounted there.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

The Ostsol's hip damage must be pretty nasty, as he's unable to get up and crunches the armor off his right arm. Hyena continues working on it, blasting chunks of armor and bits of the left arm off with autocannon and laser fire. Cpt. Scrub gets the Thunderbolt pretty good, putting a PPC shot into each side torso section to take out the majority of its armament. Cylus blasts the engine out the back of the SRM Carrier way to the southeast (the Phoenix Hawk has been playing "chase the jumping mech" with the tank swarm back there, and winning). The Champion works on the infantry platoon harassing Hyena, cutting their numbers down to size.

Unfortunately, looking to the north, the facility itself is in sad shape - Xwraith and our Wolverine were unable to stop the Quickdraw, and it takes out another critical building. Comms traffic from our Rasalhague pals spikes, and words such as "useless" and "overpaid" come up fairly frequently. We let it go. Infantry don't get to decide whether we get paid.

As fast as it jumped in, the Quickdraw disengages, as do the rest of its Ronin buddies. Except for the ones that can't move, of course. As the mech jumps away it gives a little "ta ta!" gesture to Xwraith with one of its arms, as if saying, "better luck next time!"

Well, at least we get paid 2.6M for our share of the salvage, as that Ostsol was never able to get up.

[NickAragua]

Once everyone is situated in our new staging area, Invasion Command orders us to begin operations immediately, "requesting" five lances of mechs for various operations in the southern theater. The overall objective appears to be the capture of various facilities.

No problem - we've only got one mech out, Zarathud's Awesome (the techs are still working on replacing the PPC). After some thought, Zenn7 tells LordMortis to pile into the 6R Wolverine. It doesn't quite have the firepower of an Awesome, but we don't really want any lower-end medium mechs in Beta Company.

First off, the FRR is moving a large convoy of supplies and units towards the front. We are ordered to provide two lances for escort. Alpha-One will move along side several kilometers off, escorting the bulk of the force, while Alpha-Two will escort a smaller supply group. Alpha-Three and Alpha Air will be on station to provide support if necessary.

Beta and Gamma companies will be off duty (with patrols rotating to defend the staging area)

Delta will be conducting a snatch-and-grab against a Ronin-held tank base.

December 24, 3034
It's almost Christmas time and Santa and his little helpers are bringing goodies to all the Kungsarme units who've been good this year. They've upgrade d their sleighs a little bit, though. Alpha-One's trip with their convoy segment is pretty boring, and the commander of the convoy issues Alpha-One a little challenge.

"Let's make this interesting. Your mechs, versus our mechs. Simulated ordnance only. Winner gets bragging rights. Obviously, if there's any hostile contacts, the exercise is terminated."

After consulting with the rest of the crew, Gbasden agrees. Three of their mechs to four of ours is pretty good odds. The terrain is a pretty awful swamp (don't step outside the mech, you'll probably get eaten by mosquitos), and the extremely high winds make missile and ballistic fire pretty useless. And also jumping isn't advisable, either. Or, really, any kind of display of piloting skill. So this will be a slog. They've got a Thunderbolt, an Awesome and a Shadow Hawk (the attached CO), while we've got a Warhammer (Gbasden), Trebuchet (Stefan), Rifleman (El Guapo) and Hatchetman (Isgrimnur).

Round 1:

Spoiler:

El Guapo and Gbasden take the north, while Isgrimnur and Stefan handle the south. Gbasden lands a PPC hit on the Awesome, while the enemy mechs whiff their fire at El Guapo.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

Stefan takes a couple of nasty shots from the Awesome and his mech's software tells it to fall over, although not before he lands a laser shot of his own. El Guapo grazes the Shadow Hawk as it tries to pass by.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

Stefan struggles to his feet and moves off into some cover. Yikes. El Guapo has to take a knee as the opfor Awesome turns its attention to him. We need to get in there and kick its ass, or stay out of line of sight.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

Isgrimnur and Stefan "stack up" just out of sight of the woods where the Awesome is camped out. Somehow, that bastard manages to land another shot (12+) on El Guapo, and the Rifleman's computer registers "foot actuator damage", causing our mech to stumble and fall, again.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

Isgrimnur and Stefan score a couple of good shots on the Awesome, but Stefan loses center torso armor.

Round 6:
The enemy Shadow Hawk appears to have gotten stuck in a swamp. That's too bad. Gbasden turns to fire at the enemy Awesome, adding his PPC to a laser shot from Stefan.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

El Guapo's going to just stay on the ground. Better that way. Both Isgrimnur and the enemy Awesome go down, as we're finally able to apply enough firepower to the assault mech to destabilize it.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

The Awesome's pilot powers down. I don't know, he could have stayed on the ground and kept plugging away with the PPCs, but whatever. Gbasden technically gets credit for the kill. El Guapo and Gbasden take down the Shadow Hawk with energy weapons fire this round.

The Thunderbolt, having gotten itself stuck in quicksand, signals its intent to give up. Just as well - Gbasden could simply stand outside its weapons range and fire away with PPCs. Other than some scuff marks on the armor from falling down, our mechs are fine. Hopefully, the Kungsarme guys learned some valuable lessons about fighting in high-speed winds and providing cover for their long-range fire support mechs. But probably not.

Meanwhile, Alpha-Two and Alpha-Three wind up having to repel an actual attack on the convoy they're escorting. Alpha-Three completely fails at picketing and arrives pretty late but still makes a difference. We lose only about a quarter of the convoy, and salvage is pretty good (2.7M C-Bills). There's some ribbing directed at Alpha-One concerning "screwing around while the rest of us fight", but all's well that ends well.

[NickAragua]

While Alpha Company is escorting convoys, Gamma winds up having to defend the staging area. A mixed company of tanks backed up by a mixed light/medium mech lance moves towards us. Gamma-One moves to intercept, making contact in a lightly marshy locale. We call in Gamma-Three for backup, as they are pretty fast and will be able to get there quickly.

Gamma-One is Hyena (Striker), Scrub (Warhammer), Xwraith (Thunderbolt) and Cylus Maxii (Phoenix Hawk). Gamma Three is a fast medium lance, featuring a Phoenix Hawk, a Clint, a Spider and a Vulcan. Gamma-Three's Pixie is a standard PXH-1, but with half a ton of MG ammo removed to make room for armor, while the Vulcan is a 5T model (four lasers, flamer and machine gun), again with half a ton of MG ammo removed to make room for armor. Gamma-One is joined by Englebert Dorfmeister, driving his Wolverine 6K (the one without jump jets). He sounds pretty pround of himself, apparently, he's improved his gunnery so that he can now hit a stationary target, at medium range, while stationary, more than half the time.

The enemy probe consists of a bunch of light and medium tanks. Nothing stands out too much, although there are a lot of Hetzers, and a Manticore. A pair of medium mechs as well, but I don't really view the Wolverine 6R as much of a threat.

The main annoying thing is that, as soon as we engage the enemy, a Kungsarme unit setting up a field base nearby puts out a distress call. So we need to wrap this up quickly.

Round 1/8:

Spoiler:

We move forward at maximum speed, while Cylus flanks from the east.

Round 2/8:

Spoiler:

We make contact, and Hyena's crosshairs briefly flicker green, allowing him to release a PPC bolt downrange at a Locust. Well, he gets a random patch of dirt, anyway.

Round 3/8:

Spoiler:

The odds to hit are slightly better, but still a bit obnoxious. Xwraith and Cylus do land a couple of hits on their targets, Xwraith with LRMs on a Galleon, popping a tire, while Cylus scratches the front armor on a Hetzer. Scrub opens up with short range weapons on the Locusts but misses with all except a medium laser.

Round 4/8:

Spoiler:

A Ronin Phoenix Hawk jumps in to try to flank our units, but Hyena is on the job and moves to intercept. The enemy mech unloads but whiffs every shot, taking two medium lasers in return. Hyena swats aside the lighter mech's clumsy kick then counters with a boot of his own, cracking the Pixie's right leg hip actuator and sending it to the ground in a cloud of dust.

The enemy Locust runs by us and engages Dorfmeister. The Dorf scores a medium laser hit, but then takes a shot directly through the center torso armor, dinging the gyro. The Wolverine is unable to maintain balance and falls over.

Cylus and Scrub open up on the Hetzer, with Cylus' large laser slashing across the two wheels in the back, taking the tank out of commission.

Round 5/8:

Spoiler:

As the screaming for help from the Kungsarme field base intensifies, Gamma-Two arrives. Neither the Dorf nor the grounded Phoenix Hawk are able to get up.

Cylus moves up to a Wasp that's gotten stuck, firing lasers at a nearby Galleon, slicing off bits of tread, then kicking the stuck bug mech "just right" to sever the leg at the knee. The mechwarrior blacks out as the Wasp hits the swamp and starts sinking.

Scrub unloads on the Manticore, trying to take it out of action - the PPCs inflict some tread damage, but not enough to take the tank down. The crew is stunned, though, leaving the tank easy pickings.

Round 6/8:

Spoiler:

The Dorf knocks himself out. Probably better that way anyway. The Ronin Pixie struggles to its feet and steps away from the Vulcan going to step on it. A Firestarter that has been exchanging fire with Xwraith hops over a lake to engage up close, which turns out to be a mistake - Xwraith tracks it as it arcs gracefully over the lake, then pegs it center of mass with the large and two out of three medium lasers. The armor separates and the last laser cracks the engine and gyro, sending the little mech tumbling to the ground as it "lands". The LRM salvo heats our Thunderbolt up considerably but does solid damage to the recovering Ronin Pixie, knocking out both of the left torso jump jets. Said Pixie also takes a few hits from our Gamme-Three, although nothing critical gets hit.

Cylus works on the Galleon tank with lasers, breaching its right side armor and knocking off wheels to give the crew some much needed breathing air. He takes a punch from the Wolverine, but armor holds.

Round 7/8:

Spoiler:

The Ronin Phoenix Hawk has had enough and bolts, as does the Firestarter (somewhat slowly and gingerly). We'll let them go, we need to mop up the rest of these guys quickly. Xwraith hops into the nearby lake to cool off and lets rip on the Manticore with a reduced weapons load, scoring some good hits but not taking the tank out entirely. Hyena disables a Scorpion by blasting through the armor with the AC/10 and perforating the engine. Scrub blows away another Scorpion with PPCs, torching the fuel tank and sending a fireball into the sky. She takes a beating from the Manticore, but armor holds, and then Gamma-Two's Phoenix Hawk gives the heavy tank a burst from its machine guns. Normally, that would do little other than ping off the armor, but with that being weakened by several PPC shots and laser blasts, enough ordnance goes through that the engine decides to spray lubricant out and seize up instead of providing motive power.

Cylus blasts through the rear armor of the Wolverine as it gets stuck in the same swamp that the Wasp is slowly sinking into, but doesn't quite manage to finish it off.

Round 8/8:

Spoiler:

Scrub somehow manages to not destroy the Vedette that drives up to her Warhammer, even though it's right there and she hits with everything but a single PPC and the machine guns. Xwraith and Hyena both whiff against their targets (a Vedette and Hetzer respectively), but Cylus comes through, disabling a different Hetzer with a medium laser to the rear. The enemy Wolverine blows our Phoenix Hawk's left arm off, but it's too little too late - Gamma-Two manages to kill the crew of a Hunter tank, while our Clint knocks over the Locust that's been plinking away at it.

The remainder of the opfor retreats (the Locust getting up and following its Firestarter and Phoenix Hawk buddies to the south). Gamma-Two and Cylus remain to secure the area for salvage while Gamma-One and Gamma-Two's Phoenix Hawk proceed to bail out the Rasalhague forward base - the attackers retreat as soon as our mechs arrive. Our share of the salvage is 2.7M C-Bills. Damage is pretty light, although it does take a couple of days to re-attach the arm to Cylus' Phoenix Hawk.

[NickAragua]

December 26, 3034
Delta-One is tasked with raiding a Ronin-held armor repair facility. The goal is to a) cause a ruckus and b) extract marked assets (crates and personnel) from identified buildings. It seems that a Kungsarme special ops team has infiltrated the base and needs an exit. As a bonus, they've managed to compromise local network security and corrupted the IFF systems on some of the automated base turrets. We get Delta-Two in there for backup just in case. The attached CO is driving his Dervish, although, for now, his orders are at least non-suicidal.

The bad part is that it is an armor repair facility, so there's about five bazillion tanks there. Seriously, almost a battallion's worth. We'll need to be selective about what we engage, get our guys and get out. The individual units are nothing to write home about, mostly medium and hover tanks, backed up by helicopters. But there's a non-trivial number.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

Our raid starts with a compromised Thumper artillery turret launching two shells in a high arc to the middle of the base. Pictured is the cluster of buildings we need to get at in order to get our guys out. There's also an outlying building to the west - we're not entirely sure what's where, other than the fact that designated extraction targets are marked by strobes.

One of the compromised turrets opens fire on a nearby tank and the building gets collapsed by return fire.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

A Warrior attack helicopter jinks to avoid autocannon fire from one of the compromised turrets and crashes into a light storage building of some kind, collapsing the building and snapping its own rotor off. Another compromised turret fires at an uncompromised compatriot, disabling it. Our attached CO also gets in on the action, firing an LRM salvo at a Vedette to disable it. Well, every little bit helps, anyway.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

An artillery shell catches an LTV-4 hovertank in the blast radius, causing heavy mobility damage. However, an enemy Stinger has figured out where the artillery is coming from and moves to put a stop to the friendly shelling. Still, I'm not going to complain about some free artillery rounds. The rest of the compromised turrets have been destroyed, although they've done some good damage - that Wasp took a nasty hit from the SRM turret and its heat signature is spiked, indicating heavy engine damage.

Freyland moves to engage the Bulldog while jumping by, taking a few SRMs but rattling the crew around a bit and snapping off bits of tread with a boot.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

Base buildings crumble as shells continue to land. We jump into the base proper, taking care to avoid the artillery shells, although those should stop coming as the enemy Stinger basically disables that installation. Paingod engages the Scorpion tank while hopping by, breaching armor with a PPC and boot. Freyland gives a Saladin a laser to the back to remind it to pay attention. We'll be bypassing this cluster of dudes and heading south, then probably evacuating to the east.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

Delta-Two arrives from the east. The jump capable mechs will try to help out with the extraction, while the Locust and Hussar will stay outside the town and take pot shots, covering our retreat and maybe providing a distraction. Paingod zaps a Peregrine VTOL with the PPC as it buzzes a little too close, getting rid of the annoying little gnat. Madmarcus, meanwhile, blasts a Scimitar hover tank with the large laser, then sends a six-pack of SRMs at it - four missiles hit, puncturing the hover skirt and immobilizing the normally nimble hover tank.

A large explosion to the southwest signals the demise of the Thumper turret, and our CO, unfortunately, gets knocked over by the tanks he's fighting and blacks out. That's gonna be unpleasant. We'll try to get Delta-Two's guys to bail him out if we can.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

Freyland hops over to one of the marked turrets, putting suppressive fire on it with medium lasers and grabs a marked crate from inside the building. Madmarcus hops over as well, allowing some of the FRR spec ops guys to run up the Wolverine's extended hand and grapple on to the back of the mech. Try not to get shot off, guys!

Our CO's Dervish gets detonated when an enemy Hetzer drives up and blasts it with the on-board AC/20 from just about point blank range. The autocannon round penetrates the SRM magazine, resulting in a spectaculare ammo explosion. Delta-Two do their best, but can't put down enough fire to prevent this.

Well, at least we've got two out of the four extractions done.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

With Madmarcus and Freyland full up, it's now up to Archinerd and Paingod to finish the job. Or, one of the Delta-Two guys, I guess. The Delta-Two Locust and Hussar go to pick up the unconscious CO. Who knows, maybe he'll be happy we got him out instead of being pissed that he got his mech blown up. The Hussar blasts a Hetzer in one of the wheels, greatly reducing its mobility as it's forced to hobble along on three wheels, while the Locust disables a Scorpion tank.

Archinerd accomplishes a pretty rare feat: an ammo explosion hat trick. He fires LRM/10s at a Warrior attack helicopter buzzing around nearby, and a medium laser at the machine gun turret that Freyland just cleared. The turret's ammo store detonates, scattering the building to the four winds. One of the LRM salvos hits the Warrior helicopter dead in the middle, and the helicopter just disappears (technically: a crit resulting in two ammo explosions).

As Freyland hops away, he sees a giant explosion to the east for no reason. Eventually, we figure out that it was the wasp that got nailed in the engine earlier. Apparently, jumping at full bore to get away from the battlefield with two hits to your engine shielding is more than a Wasp's heat sinks can handle. Good to know.

This marks the first time in this campaign that we've seen a mech actually overheat to the point of exploding its own ammo.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

Not much happens - Paingod and Archinerd make a beeline for the last two remaining extraction targets while Freyland, Madmarcus and Delta-Two bug out. There's only one unit left able to keep up with our mechs in this heavily wooded terrain, a Stinger, which gets a medium laser hit in on Paingod's mech. But it's unlikely to pursue us once we get out.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

Archinerd fires short range weapons to disables a Striker tank as it fires SRMs at him, then reaches in to the nearby building to grab a marked crate. Paingod hops in next to another marked objective, extending a hand and allowing a couple of Rasalhague operatives to clamber on.

The rest is pretty unexciting. We get clear of the base, and the Stinger gives up pursuit once the mechwarrior realizes that he's in a twenty ton bug mech up against 110 tons of medium mechs. And that's just in the immediate area. No salvage, obviously, and the mission is a bit of a wash given the loss of the CO's mech. The amount of bitching on the way back to the rendezvous point is impressive.

Point of input:
Beta Company (Beta-One and Beta-Two) will be engaging a Ronin force attacking a Raslhague-held production facility. According to the Rasalhague guys we just bailed out, the tank base that we just raided will be sending backup for the attack. We've got two options for handling this:

1) Send Delta-One and Delta-Two to reinforce Beta-One and Beta-Two. This will result in a pitched battle involving four lances on our side and some ungodly amount of bad guys on the opfor (at least thirty tanks, plus probably mech support). Must be an important facility if the Ronin are committing about half of the tanks they've got left (in the area, that we know of). Other than the scale of the battle, the main risk here is that allowing this many enemy units to converge on the facility may mean that they simple roll over it and leave.

2) Send Beta-Three to hit the tank base again before they deploy, with Delta-One and Delta-Two providing backup. This will split the enemy attack in two, but will leave our staging area somewhat lightly defended (with only a reinforced mech company available to defend the dropships if the Ronin come knocking), not to mention is kind of a strain on Delta Company.

As far as mech and mechwarrior state, Delta is almost untouched, so that's not an issue. Beta-One is missing Zarathud (and the accompanying Awesome), with LordMortis driving a spare Wolverine.

[Freyland]

Choice 2, assuming we can unload the goods and people we just snagged.

I obviously don't want to lose a dropship, but they are pretty tough nuts, and our defenses should be able to handle whatever the Ronin have left outside the two fights you described. Likewise, this force distribution seems to provide better victory odds than choice 1.

[gbasden]

I tend to agree with option 2. I think committing to a huge pitched battle as in option 1 would carry more risk. Neither option is great, though.

[Paingod]

While I think tanks are funny when you can stomp on them to make roller skates, it's not so funny when they outnumber you.

I'd go with #2.

[NickAragua]

December 27, 3034
We send Beta-Three to hit the Ronin tank base again. Delta-One and Delta-Two rendezvous with a nearby Rasalhague force long enough to drop off their crates and dudes, then head over to join Beta-Three. This will keep the tank base bottled up. And hopefully destroyed, once we're done with it.

The Ronin attack on the factory comes pretty quickly. It's telling that they're not committing any mechs at all. Just three lances of tanks. Granted, there are three Rhinos and three Demolishers coming at us, but still. Our defense is Beta-One: Zenn7 (Awesome), LordMortis (Wolverine), a Thunderbolt and Freyland-replacement in the Griffin 1S. The opfor is coming at us from the east. Once they're committed, Beta-Two will run in from the south. Hopefully, they get there in time to make a difference, as those assault tanks are no joke.

As a reminder, a Rhino packs twin turret-mounted LRM/20 launchers, while a Demolisher brings twin AC/20s. The Rhinos also have some short range firepower, but it's not very notable. The opfor also has a lance of lighter tanks for support. The fixed base defenses are unlikely to be of any help, with only two medium laser turrets and some hastily-arranged rocket batteries.

It's snowing with wind. But the temperature is near 0 degrees celsius, so the snow turns into this wet slushy sleet that sticks to cockpit windows and is generally annoying. At least it helps keep our mechs a little bit cooler.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

Zenn7 and the Freyland-substitute deploy to the north of the factory. Zenn7 gets behind a low building and opens up on a Rhino, hitting with all three PPCs. The armor stays, but the assault tank is all but immobilized. The LRMs (a total of 80 of them) whistle harmlessly all around our mech.

Our Thunderbolt to the south jumps into a lake and disables a Pegasus as it zips around a corner. LordMortis takes a few SRMs, but returns fire, further preventing the poor Pegasus from going anywhere.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

We're not quite ready to engage the Demolishers, but they're ready to engage us. This could get ugly. The Freyland substitute eats an AC/20 round to the center torso, losing all armor there and getting knocked over, which is pretty bad given where he is.

LordMortis and the Thunderbolt get in behind the two Demolishers to the south, blasting their support tanks - LordMortis cripples the Galleon by feeding it a combination of autocannon fire, SRMs and a laser, while the Thunderbolt has a little less luck with the Scorpion. Zenn7 scores three PPC hits on a Rhino but fails to inflict meaningful damage while taking an AC/20 round from the south.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

Suddenly, we're having a bad day. The Thunderbolt gets headcapped by a Demolisher as it jumps in behind it to try to get at the weaker rear armor. Our mechwarrior's simultaneous and last defiant act is to put a pair of medium laser blasts through the back of the assault tank, setting off the AC/20 ammo. LordMortis is suddenly feeling quite alone. At least the Freyland substitute was able to get clear of the northern Demolisher's firing arc, while Zenn7's PPCs fuse the Demolisher's treads in place, preventing the assault tank from moving.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

Zenn7's left torso section is blown off by the immobilized Demolisher's dual AC/20s, although he still manages to score three hits on one of the Rhino before the left torso PPC disappears under the autocannon's onslaught. He has to mash the shutdown override button to avoid the mech deciding to power down once the left torso heat sinks suddenly stop contributing (due to having been physically removed).

Luckily, we do better with our other units - the Freyland substitute takes down the AC/2 carrier to the north with a large laser through the engine, while LordMortis punctures the damaged Scorpion's armor with a burst from the Wolverine's light autocannon.

With their screening units basically gone, half the assault tanks disabled, and Beta-Two less than forty seconds away, the Ronin call it quits and trundle off the battlefield. Our share of the salvage barely covers the cost of replacement parts for the Thunderbolt, but at least we kept the factory intact. Zenn7's mech is going to take some time to fix as well, probably keeping him out of action for the next week. At least Zarathud's Awesome will be back in, so we won't be completely Awesomeless.

Spoiler:

It's a shame about our mechwarrior. She was pretty promising, and her kill board record was full of enemy mechs.

Zenn7, you should pick a temporary replacement mech (probably only for the next week). Options are:
Griffin 1N - PPC, LRM/10. 5/8/5.
Griffin 1S - Large laser, 2x medium laser, LRM/5. 5/8/5.
Orion 1K - AC/10, 2x medium laser, LRM/15, SRM/4. Slower than the Griffins, but a lot more heavily armored.

[Isgrimnur]

taking an AC/20 round from the south.

[LordMortis]

As a reminder, a Rhino packs twin turret-mounted LRM/20 launchers, while a Demolisher brings twin AC/20s.

Which is also a reminder of why having the biggest, most heavily armed, easiest to hit targets isn't always sunshine and lollypops, no matter how fun they are.

[Zenn7]

Hmm… I like the idea of the Griffin 1N because I can still utilize my PPC specialization, but Heavy Metal is already running a little light. Best go with the Orion.

[El Guapo]

How's my search for a replacement Marauder on Space Craig's List going?

[NickAragua]

Marauder search is going... not so hot so far. But we've only been on this planet for less than two months, and Comstar only does a monthly HPG burst at the local station. But hey, the year is about to roll over, and we'll be seeing some exciting new things coming out, tech wise. Rumors swirl around that a bunch of weapons manufacturers in FedCom space will be rolling out several new models of autocannon and mech engine, while folks in the Free Worlds League are planning to bring out improved SRM models. Of course, we'll probably need to get off all their shit lists first.

December 27, 3034
Beta-Three arrives to begin the assault on the tank base, hoping to finish it off. Delta-One and Two are about a minute away.

From the looks of it, they've got most of their damaged tanks fixed up, with the exception of the Bulldog, Hetzer and a Scorpion, which are nowhere to be seen on sensors. It seems that our Rasalhague buddies are on board with our taking this base out as well, as we can already detect weapons fire in the base interior. One of our guys zooms in, and it's a couple of infantry platoons that have gotten into the base and started making a mess. They're not going to last long, so we better get in there and help them out.

Beta-Three is an Ostsol (basically a disco bot), a Centurion (AC/10 variant), a Vindicator (in fact, Isgrimnur's old ride) and a Wyvern. They deploy to the east.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

Well, the Ronin were nice enough to park one of their hover tanks in the woods already. We pour on the speed to get into the base quickly, so there's no opportunity to fire weapons. For us. Gunfire and chatter abounds from inside the base.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

Beta-Three continues to sprint in, monitoring on-going comms traffic from the Rasalhague infantry. They're not doing so hot, having already lost most of their soldiers already - one of the field gun crews and a laser infantry platoon are completely gone. They do manage to trip up the lone Ronin bug mech, though. This probably would have gone better for them if they'd actually coordinated with us.

On the plus side for us, the southern section of the base is wide open, so we'll be running in and taking those marked buildings down in short order.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

Our Ostsol and Centurion reach the northeastern edge of the base, the Ostsol taking down a Scorpion tank as it ineffectually fires SRMs against the mech's pristine armor. Well, not pristine any more, but still.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

The Wyvern and Vindicator begin pounding on the southern edge of the base, while the Ostsol and Centurion take down another Scorpion tank, the Ostsol's lasers cutting the little vehicle to ribbons. Its left arm armor goes pretty red though. The chatter from the allied infantry ceases almost entirely. They're gone.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

The Vindicator and Wyvern destroy a pair of turrets in the south of the base, as a few tanks move in that direction. What's that Condor doing jammed into the woods to the west? Do we even want to know?

Round 6:

Spoiler:

Delta-One and Delta-Two arrive to the north and south respectively (except Freyland, who comes in from the east). This will shift the balance of power dramatically. Our Vindicator blasts the Flamer turret to the west with a PPC shot, putting it out of action. The Ostsol drills a Skulker with a large and three medium lasers, cutting through the right side and into the interior. The Centurion takes a pounding from nearby SRM-equipped units and winds up on the ground, the large amount of ordnance having started a fire as well. There's still a pretty good amount of firepower in the center of the base, so we'll need to get Delta in there to help crack that nut. Archinerd starts by firing LRMs at the Warrior hovering overhead, damaging the rotor.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

Here we go. Delta-One and Delta-Two engage. The Hussar runs in to get a better shot, at which point one of the enemy Pegasus tanks, zips out and fires an SRM salvo. A couple of SRMs go dead center, cracking the engine and gyro, while another few damage the upper arm actuator. That mechwarrior really needs to work at staying at max range.

Up north, Archinerd fires another LRM salvo at the Warrior. Somehow, the helicopter is still in the air, but is wobbling and letting out way more smoke than it should. The Ostsol breaches armor on the LRM Carrier, while Paingod puts a PPC onto a Saracen that's stuck in the woods, as it's still firing at us.

The less said about the melee attacks, the better. Let's just say that the Hussar is going to be staying on the ground for a while.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

The Ostsol has found a good camping spot, using the cover of a few buildings and trees to breach armor on a Scorpion tank. Paingod and the Locust team up on the stuck-but-active Saracen, cracking open its armor and disabling the engine. To the south, our Firestarter disables the Pegasus that just crippled our Hussar. There's still a Wasp harassing the Ostsol, but we'll take care of it in a second.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

Things aren't looking good for the opfor tanks as our mechs get in there and start mixing it up. Our Wyvern backs up a little and blows the top off a Scimitar with a large laser and six-pack of SRMs. Archinerd blasts a Stinger as it jumps over to harass Paingod, a couple of SRMs going through the center torso and hitting the engine pretty hard. Paingod nails another Scimitar zipping around underneath our Wyvern, hitting the fuel tank with a PPC, although the pressure wave from the explosion shakes the Wyvern around a bit. Even our Wasp gets in on the action, disabling a Saladin with its laser and SRMs.

The Wyvern's mechwarrior takes a few shots to the dome and falls over as the mechwarrior was knocked unconscious. Luckily, there aren't really any bad guys around any more to take advantage of this.

The rest of the enemy tanks begin a very rapid retreat. Freyland kicks a Skulker to send it on its way, while the Firestarter breaches armor on the Vedette, so its rapid driveoff becomes an exercise in losing metal bits along the road.

Those poor Rasalhague infantry are scattered all over the place. Poor bastards should have talked to us beforehand. But hey, 1.5M in salvage exchange, and no tank base sending tanks at us as we do our thing.

[NickAragua]

December 31, 3034

The last day of the old year. A time for reflection, maybe sitting around a fireplace (or the ship's fusion plant if you don't have a fireplace). Time to think about what you'd do differently in the coming year, to hang up old regrets and look forward. Everyone's going to be deployed come the new year, but most of us get a couple of days off to chill out.

Unless you're Alpha-One, in which case you're sent to camp out outside an enemy air base to keep their aircraft from harassing operations elsewhere. The ground units guarding the airbase get all riled up and the aircraft scramble, and next thing you know, you've got a major furball. The defenders are a bunch of light units, but our job here is just to keep them occupied for a bit. And maybe shoot down the aircraft while we're at it. Gbasden calls in Alpha-Two to help out.

Alpha-One is Gbasden in the Warhammer, Isgrimnur in the Hatchetman, a grumbling El Guapo in the Rifleman ("come on, the comstar pulse is gonna be coming in like two hours, do I have to go?"), and Stefan in a Trebuchet 5J. Alpha-Two is a Blackjack, a Trebuchet 5S, a Vulcan 5T and a Firestarter. Alpha-One's kill-stealing CO joins us in his Shadow Hawk. Well, better a kill-stealer than a jackass that gets his mech blown up.

It's raining, so the place is a mud bath. Great. On the plus side, that means their tanks can't really move around too much. That's better.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

A lone hovercraft comes out to greet us, while a pair of aircraft scramble. Hope they're coming back, otherwise, there's not much point to this exercise. It takes a laser from Stefan, but targeting is pretty difficult otherwise in this weather.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

Bug mechs and Ostscouts come out to mess with us. Stefan and Gbasden immobilize the Condor, putting an end to its autocannon bursts, while El Guapo and Isgrimnur work on a Hetzer off to the north, blasting it with long-range autocannon fire and rattling the crew around. Gbasden takes a medium laser to the dome from an incoming Wasp, but armor holds and he manages to retain his grip on consciousness.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

El Guapo gets to do what his mech is designed to do: shoot at aircraft. The Lightning goes in for a strafing run, nailing him with its nose-mounted AC/20, but takes two AC/10 bursts and a pair of medium laser shots. El Guapo's mech is more or less ok, other then a right torso armor breach, but the Lightning is obviously not doing so hot - sparks fly off the nose and wing as it zips away. Into the ground about 120 meters behind the Rifleman. Definitely better than the last time he shot down an aircraft!

Gbasden's not doing too hot, as he gets mobbed by a bunch of bug mechs and knocked over. At least his armor holds. Stefan does his best to keep the other guys off him, kicking an Ostscout in the left leg to strip armor, but we're going to need to take care of this ASAP.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

We set up so the opfor is either going to have to not move or to relocate. They relocate, all around Isgrimnur's mech. Too bad all their weapons fire and kicks whiff. Isgrimnur doesn't do much better, but that's ok. El Guapo sees a Locust step on top of a building and unloads autocannon rounds on it at long range - the building collapses, sending the bug mech to the ground. Gbasden takes a shot from a returning Sabre aerospace fighter, damaging two actuators on the left arm, but not before landing a pair of solid PPC hits on the aircraft, causing severe damage to the engine and left wing. The aero jock can't control his fighter (it's hard with a busted avionics system and engine) and crashes down to the ground somewhere off in the distance.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

The west flank is a bit of a mess. Isgrimnur walks in behind a Wasp as it harasses our CO, delivering a solid barrage of autocannon and laser fire to remove the bug mech's left torso and nearly take out the center. The hatchet then comes down through the right torso section and basically just rips the mech in half. Gbasden loses a small laser to a rear torso hit but splits fire between a Stinger and a Wasp, causing armor breaches and heatsink damage on the Wasp with a PPC, and shoulder actuator damage on the Stinger with a laser. An Ostscout tries to kick the CO in the Shadow Hawk and whiffs, winding up on the ground as well.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

Alpha-Two arrives. Just in time, too, Gbasden's mech is starting to look a little beat up. Isgrimnur walks over and delivers a solid AC/10 burst to a nearby Stinger, breaking through the center torso armor and damaging the engine shielding. He takes a shot to the dome from a distant Vedette, but remains conscious. Gbasden inflicts heavy damage on an Ostscout, but takes a hip shot, damaging the actuator there. Despite the damage, he manages to stay upright. Isgrimnur helps finish off the Ostscout by putting a hatchet through its left leg, severing it above the knee.

Stefan sees an opportunity to bring a Locust to the ground as it climbs up a building for a better angle, knocking down the building with laser and point-blank LRM fire, then curbstomping the downed mech.

El Guapo blasts through the left-side armor of a Hetzer driving down the road towards him. Don't need an AC/20 burst to the face. The Blackjack finishes it off.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

The attached CO legs a Stinger, which our Vulcan then finishes off. How's that for kill stealing? Isgrimnur blasts through a Wasp's center torso section with the AC/10 to ding the engine and gyro pretty hard. Once the mech is on the ground, it's easy to curb stomp through the center torso and remove it from consideration entirely. Gbasden gets revenge for all the actuator damage by reaching backwards and coring out another Wasp with the PPC.

With that, it looks like the light mech party is over, although our CO tells us we'll need to keep fire on the base for at least another fifty seconds.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

Most of the Ronin guys retreat back into the cover of their base, their sortie having failed to dislodge us. We take the opportunity to pound one of the stationary turrets, reducing the building to rubble.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

The jackass CO runs up to the base before we can stop him. Gbasden gets on the horn and tries to remind him that we're not here to blow the place up, just keep them busy, then fires a pair of PPC shots at another turret. Between his weapons fire and Stefan's LRMs, the building's lights go out. El Guapo and the Blackjack continue firing at the Hetzer to the north, with mixed success - inflicting some damage but failing to penetate the armor, although an autocannon burst from the Blackjack does neutralize one of the SRM launchers on the front of the tank (it's the SRM variant with five... well, now four SRM/6 launcher instead of the single AC/20).

Round 10:

Spoiler:

Nope. That dumb bastard is going to get himself killed. Well, we'll run in after him a bit to cover, but in another half a minute, we're outta here.

El Guapo gets damn lucky. Having nearly emptied his right torso ammo bin, when an SRM salvo from the Hetzer nails him in the right torso, the ammo goes off. Luckily, it's not very much ammo, so the mech remains intact. The auto-ejection system goes off and saves him some nasty neural feedback, but still.

Gbasden, Isgrimnur and the Firestarter bring down a building on which a Locust perches as it comes out to take a bite out of us, forcing the little mech to the ground. A quick hatchet blow cuts off the right arm weapons mount, while our Firestarter crunches the light mech's foot actuator.

Round 11:

Spoiler:

The Locust pilot knocks himself out trying to get up. Well, it's a little difficult - damaged leg actuator, cramped cockpit, heavy rain, no arms...

Stefan gets revenge for El Guapo's not-quite-destroyed mech by firing his last LRMs at the Hetzer, breaching the left side armor and devastating the interior.

Round 12:

Spoiler:

I guess El Guapo used up all the luck, because Isgrimnur's runs out. As he moves his Hatchetman forward a bit to cover our retreating Trebuchet, he takes a laser to the head from a Locust, and the mech collapses. We take down another turret, then Gbasden gets on the horn and requests a cease-fire, as we've basically destroyed the airfield at this point.

After a few minutes, we hammer out terms with the Ronin (our position strengthened by the fact that if they even think about coming out of that base, we'll pick them apart, and could also easily level the place from range), and drag our destroyed and decapitated mechs back. Our search & rescue squad with the jaws of life are on the case and manage to stabilize Isgrimnur, although he's in critical condition and comatose, and looks "medium rare". When Dr. Minnie gets ahold of him, she simply frowns, then waves all non-medical personnel out of the bay.

----
While Alpha-One is getting shot up, back at base, two major events happen.

First, a Draconis Combine "expeditionary force" jumps into the system. As their dropships burn for the planet, they have a brief and terse exchange with the Ronin commanders. One Tai-sa (Colonel-equivalent) Matthew Suzuki informs the Ronin -

"You have stained the honor of your unit by disobeying the Kanrei's orders." (Gunji-no-Kanrei is the title held by Theodore Kurita, the de-facto ruler of the Draconis Combine. There's a whole back story about how he's basically running the place while his dad is being crazy and obsessive about the Wolf's Dragoons.) "The only way to redeem yourselves is to surrender and for you to commit Seppuku. I offer to serve as your second when we land."

The reply is that "No. We have the rebels and mercenary scum on the run, and will defeat them shortly."

Tai-sa Suzuki chuckles. "You do not seem to have a grasp on reality. This 'mercenary scum' has been beating your forces like little children. But if you refuse to surrender, we will make you. Mercenaries, Rasalhague forces, you may stand down. We will take care of these dishonorable traitors."

----
Meanwhile, Madmarcus smiles as his mech informs him via "bing" that the recovered data storage devices have been decrypted. Initial analysis indicates that these are mostly log entries and supply manifests made by one Nobuhito Okuta, a Draconis Combine logistics specialist who was stationed here in the early the early 2800s. Reading through all this stuff takes a little time, but, apparently, this fellow was present here during yet another Rasalhague uprising against their Kurita overlords. The rebels were doing pretty well, too, pushing the local garrison back to the southern regions, until a Sword of Light regiment came down hard and wiped the floor with them, then presided over the execution of a bunch of civilians to discourage further rebellion. I guess that worked out real well for them in the long term.

The main items of interest are the following sequences of entries:
May 12, 2804: Transferred shipment from supply post 3-3 to supply post 3-5 to avoid capture by rebels.
Manifest: 40 tons of Ferro-Fibrous Armor
8 large laser cooling jackets
30 tons of long-range missiles
25 tons of short-range missiles
14 tons of autocannon/5 ammunition
Technical readout for cooling jackets attached.

May 20, 2804: Transferred shipment from supply post 3-5 to 3-9 to avoid capture by rebels.
Manifest: 24 tons of Ferro-Fibrous Armor
7 large laser cooling jackets
22 tons of long-range missiles
18 tons of short-range missiles
12 tons of autocannon/5 ammunition

May 23, 2804: Transferred shipment from supply post 3-9 to 4-11 to avoid capture by rebels.
Manifest: 14 tons of Ferro-Fibrous Armor
7 large laser cooling jackets
14 tons of long-range missiles
6 tons of short-range missiles
11 tons of autocannon/5 ammunition

May 29, 2804: Transferred shipment from supply post 4-11 to 4-7 to avoid capture by rebels.
Manifest: 2 tons of Ferro-Fibrous Armor
5 large laser cooling jackets
5 tons of long-range missiles
2 tons of short-range missiles
4 tons of autocannon/5 ammunition
Personal Note: Rebel attack imminent. Tell my wife I said hello.

The ferro-fibrous armor is pretty awesome, it's light weight (although much bulkier), but there's not much of it. The main "cool" thing is the cooling jackets. Although these particular models are suitable only for large lasers, they'll decrease the generated heat by about 12.5% (-1 heat, to 7 instead of 8). Pulling up old planetary maps, Madmarcus is able to cross-reference those and work out where those supply depots are, although the only important one is the last one. Too bad the Dracs are landing almost on top of it.

They've made it pretty clear that we are not to interfere. Realistically speaking, they're probably going to clean those depots out after they whack the Ronin.
----

So, we need to make a couple of decisions.

Do we make a run on the supply depot and risk pissing off the landing Kurita forces? Or not?

If yes, do we do it ourselves? Quietly, without mechs? Loudly, with lots of mechs?
Do we ask the Rasalhague guys for help?
Someone also floats the idea of calling up the Ronin.

If no, do we keep the data to ourselves? Sell it to the Rasalhague guys?

It's a pretty complex situation, so I'm taking input in "free-form thought" form.

[El Guapo]

Isn't the first depot the important one? With the 8 large laser cooling jackets and also some ferro-fibrous armor?

My first thought is to send a few light mechs to the most valuable depot that's not near Kurita, grab the stuff, and then head out.

[Freyland]

There is nothing being offered here that is worth risking the lives of our MechWarriors or risking future (even present?) contracts. Seriously, one less heat point, and for only one type of weapon? And FF armor is nice and all, but is quite rapidly consumed by use and very limited in supply. If we do anything, it would be better to somehow leverage this knowledge into a profit by selling it to one of the parties.

Btw, how much of this storyline (particularly the depots and the arrival of Kurita) is generated by the game and how much is you making up creative and fun shit as you go?

[Hyena]

There is nothing being offered here that is worth risking the lives of our MechWarriors or risking future (even present?) contracts. Seriously, one less heat point, and for only one type of weapon? And FF armor is nice and all, but is quite rapidly consumed by use and very limited in supply. If we do anything, it would be better to somehow leverage this knowledge into a profit by selling it to one of the parties.

This.

[Stefan Stirzaker]

Sell ot to the rasals and keep away from it

[Cylus Maxii]

Agree. Sell the data.

[Hyena]

And here I was about to go camp outside the computer tech's office with a big-ass bottle of fine synth-champagne and crack a toast to a Star-League weapons cache...

A couple of gun condoms, less AC/5 ammo than we fire off in a single mission, and some missiles?

Pshh.

[Paingod]

gun condoms

Don't use your Large Laser unless you've wrapped it.

I got nothin' else and agree that it's a hazard.

[El Guapo]

I feel like there must be a low-risk way to get to at least some of the large laser condoms (which are the only things that seem to be worth much, as -1 heat on large lasers is pretty useful). If any of the depots are away from the main Kurita landing points / the "action", it would seem pretty easy to send a couple scout mechs that way. If Kurita forces come upon us, we can just say that we're picking up some cargo / equipment that we had scattered around the planet for possible use in the combat here, before departing.

Definitely not worth major action or infuriating Kurita over, though.

[El Guapo]

And by the way, baby, I only use large laser condoms.

[Cylus Maxii]

To clarify: if you read the logs above in order, you will notice that it is only one shipment that is getting moved from place to place. It also gets smaller with each move since it is getting used up. Thus, there is only one depot to search that will have the smallest amount in it (assuming none was used up after that log entry). The most we'll get is 5 LL cooling jackets and 2 FF armor. I doubt it will be worth the repairs cost if we run into resistance (or the rep risk.)

OTOH - who's to say that that depot was empty when it received the items and doesn't have other stores in it?

[Isgrimnur]

Well, there was a rebel attack imminent, and there are no more log entries. Seems like it's a dry hole to me.

...

I mean, beep ... beep ... beep ...

[NickAragua]

@Freyland
The scenarios and opposing forces are generated according to a custom rule set that I wrote (and am working on integrating into Megamek/MekHQ itself). The "fluff" is about 90% me, although I write it around the generated scenarios. I also generally try to follow the timeline of what's going on in the Inner Sphere.

So:

We send Delta-Three out to search the outlying depots, with orders to avoid any contact whatsoever. They succeed in the latter, though the depots are either empty or destroyed. They don't even bother visiting the last depot, as it's home to a bustling array of Draconis Combine dropships and mechs.

The Kurita guys are nice enough to send a live video stream of them demolishing a large chunk of the remaining Ronin forces. Within a few days, the Ronin surrender. Vipaava belongs to the Free Rasalhague Republic, free and clear. Once the Rasalhague guys mark our contract as complete and hand over the rest of the contract payment, we offer to sell them the decrypted data for cash, as well as the results of Delta-Three's cursory search. The Rasalhague rep frowns but offers us a small share of the loot. We stand down and watch with some amusement as Rasalhague and Kurita forces argue over the somewhat limited contents of the First Succession War - era depot. In the end, they agree to split it, and we get a whopping one cooling jacket.

And that's that. The latest Comstart download and chatter from the planetside Kurita forces indicate that the Ronin Wars are basically all but over - most of the remaining Ronin across the Free Rasalhague Republic have surrendered or been destroyed. It's time for us to pack it in and head back to Outreach to recover, replace lost mechs and personnel (both via combat attrition and retirement).

The remaining payment comes to about 52.5M C-bills, although we blow 17 million of it right away on re-enlistment bonuses for our elite mechwarriors and aero jocks. Still, the war chest is now sitting at 290M C-Bills total.

Over the next few days, under the "tender ministrations" of Dr. Minnie, Isgrimnur makes a more or less full recovery. Other than looking like he's been placed on a fusion grill and rolled around a couple of times. "I would recommend restorative cosmetic surgery, but, honestly, I don't think it would help." Dr. Minnie remarks. He's also barred from operating a battlemech for the next month while he recovers from the somewhat unrelated concussion (the working theory is that the S&R crew dinged his head as they were dragging him out of the mangled cockpit). Could have been a lot worse, though, if that laser had gone through another meter to the right and there wouldn't have even been a body to recover.

Pretty exciting news on the technology front: several manufacturers across the Federated Commonwealth have announced a pair of new autocannon models: The LB-10X, and the UAC-5. According to the marketing copy, the LB-10X "allows for longer-ranged delivery of standard or cluster autocannon ammo than the standard AC/10 models". The Ultra AC/5 "offers a dramatically increased firing rate compared to the standard AC/5 (disclaimer: manufacturer not responsible for ammo feed jams)". If we can get off FedCom's shit list, we'll be able to buy those to upgrade our units. A few companies in the Free Worlds League have begun advertising Streak SRM/2s. Unlike regular SRM/2s, these launchers contain software that prevents the missile from firing if it won't actually hit, allowing the firing unit to conserve ammo and reduce heat generation. If we get in good with the Free-Worlders, we can get a hold of some of those. Finally, the Lyran half of FedCom has started putting out "extra-light" (XL) Fusion Engines. These are much lighter but significantly bulkier engines. So, while you can stuff more equipment into your mech, your engine sticks out into the side torsos, leaving your mech vulnerable to getting disabled. There are also rumors of the Draconis Combine equipping its elite units with a light-weight "endo-steel" internal structure.

Officer bonuses:
Lt. Scrub: 110k c-bills (6 missions, 1 mission failed, no mechs lost)
Zenn7: 140k c-bills (7 missions, no mechs lost)
Gbasden: 140k c-bills (7 missions, no mechs lost)
Archinerd: 125k c-bills (7 missions, 1 mission failed, 1 mech lost)

Plus a 30k early contract completion bonus for everyone.

Some decisions to make:
Freyland: There's a Quickdraw for sale on the mercenary auction lot back on Outreach, so we can put you back into a 5/8/5 mechs with lots of lasers. Or, put you into the second Grasshopper, although that'll break up Delta-One's 5/8/5 movement speed pattern.
LordMortis: We can attempt to buy a replacement Hunchback on the black market. Or we can just go nuts and stick you into an Atlas - there's one for sale at "only" 75% of sticker price, 7.2M C-Bills. "Well-used but well-maintained, owner exiled from FedCom space and unable to retrieve.", reads the advertisement.
El Guapo's search for a Marauder comes up nil again. The closest thing he finds is a Crab, which is kind of insulting. We'll have plenty of opportunity to find one on the way back to Outreach though, so don't lose hope yet.

Also, refit is complete on the Banshee. Anybody want it? It's the pretty beefy 3S variant, with heavy armor, dual PPCs, an AC/10, a brace of medium lasers, plus an SRM launcher. Sure it doesn't move as fast as the original, but it has many more guns.

The following units have large lasers:
Madmarcus' Wolverine
Xwraith's Thunderbolt
Cylus' (or potentially Freyland's) future Grasshopper

Which one gets the cooling jacket?

We remain on world for about two weeks, packing up the mechs and fixing the battle damage, since the Rasalhague guys make their spare parts warehouses available to us. The damage to Alpha-One's mechs takes almost a week to fix - in addition to having to replace the head, the techs spend several days scratching their head over a jam in one of the AC/10 ammo bins on the Hatchetman. In the end, they just replace the whole thing. Despite being technically intact, El Guapo's Rifleman is basically a full rebuild job on the right half of the mech. Since there's no fighting to be done, our mechwarriors get to enjoy the local scenery and our techs aren't working under the gun, so things proceed pretty peacefully. By January 20th, we're packed up and ready to leave.

One more decision, more for guidance than anything else: should we try to seek out contracts with and/or against specific factions? As time moves on, certain factions are likely to have cutting-edge equipment that we may either be a) able to claim from battlefield salvage or b) get them to cough up some of the goods if we do well in our contracts.

"Diplomatic" status currently with some of the major factions:
Federated Commonwealth: Mildly annoyed due to recent contract breach, but will still hire us. Has LB-10X ACs, UAC/5s, XL Engines.
Free Worlds League: Neutral. Has Streak SRM/2s.
Draconis Combine: Neutral. Rumored to have endo-steel structure, but is unlikely to part with it.
Capellan Confederation: Still pissed. Will probably hire us, but has no "cool" tech to share. Or "share".
Minor powers: Will be happy to be able to hire a battalion of battlemechs with dropships and aerospace support. No tech, obviously.

[Isgrimnur]

How do I look?

[El Guapo]

I'll take the Banshee, assuming I don't find a Marauder en route to Outreach. Has the whole dual PPC thing, plus it has retro cred.

As for particular factions, I'd favor the FedCom, since their tech seems the best (especially the ACs). Otherwise, I don't particularly care between the rest.

[Zarathud]

Any Free Worlds contracts against FedCom? I would love to buy Streak SRMs and take advantage of the XL vulnerability to claim some nice weapons. Then again, I'm in an Awesome.

[LordMortis]

LordMortis: We can attempt to buy a replacement Hunchback on the black market. Or we can just go nuts and stick you into an Atlas - there's one for sale at "only" 75% of sticker price, 7.2M C-Bills. "Well-used but well-maintained, owner exiled from FedCom space and unable to retrieve.", reads the advertisement.

I didn't mind being a more nimble support for the larger mechs, but sure, I'll upgrade to stationary munitions depot. I'll get used to missiles. Somehow it won't feel safer but as long as I have a lot fire buttons to push, I'll be OK, right?