Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

[AWS260]

Gbasden, Zarathud, don't read until the vote is resolved (others, put your votes in spoiler tags)

Spoiler:

[] 50th birthday party!
[] 50th birthday party (surprise!)
[X] No party

Spoiler:

Surprise, I was kidding!

[] 50th birthday party!
[X] 50th birthday party (surprise!)
[] No party

[xwraith]

Spoiler:

[] 50th birthday party!
[X] 50th birthday party (surprise!)
[] No party

Seems like an opportunity for wacky hijinks.

Seconded.

Thirded

+1

[Hyena]

Gbasden, Zarathud, don't read until the vote is resolved (others, put your votes in spoiler tags)

Spoiler:

[] 50th birthday party!
[] 50th birthday party (surprise!)
[X] No party

Spoiler:

Surprise, I was kidding!

[] 50th birthday party!
[X] 50th birthday party (surprise!)
[] No party

That's Inception-level shit.



But I agree.

[El Guapo]

Spoiler:

How about we go out on patrol, and then OH NO, INCOMING ARTILLERY!!! Only it's our artillery firing confetti balls or the like. Then maybe a couple long toms start firing fireworks into the sky that spell HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Surprise birthday party!

Gbasden walks up to the hangar that's been designated as the planning space for our part of a joint operation with the planetary militia. Apparently, they want us to help track down some individuals that have been raiding convoys going from a spaceport to some outlying settlements. Cycling the airlock (thin, toxic atmosphere and all that), he walks in - nobody's there, though, except Zarathud, sitting in a fold-out chair at a table.

"Didn't know you were a recon expert, Song." Gbasden points out as he pulls up another chair.

"I'm not." Zarathud responds. "Unless you consider the Steiner style of recon."

Gbasden raises an eyebrow.

"You know, 'I haff scouted ze enemy, zey are now vaporated carbon rezidue'."

Gbasden barks out a laugh, then looks at his watch. "Fair enough. Well, Scrub is in charge of this operation, not like her to be late."

At this point, the two veteran mechwarriors are assaulted with confetti and each handed a beer. Almost the entire company (minus the guys who pulled guard detail or are out on patrol) has shown up. There's a "congratulations on 50" banner hanging across the hangar, now that it's lit up. We even got catering from a local "hybrid fusion" eatery.

----------

"All right. What's the first mech you ever killed?" Wolf asks Zarathud.

The mechwarrior thinks for a minute. "Marik Wolverine, back in '31. We got hired to raid a factory, trying to recover some kind of advanced autocannon targeting system." Zarathud shrugs. "Think it was supposed to help with recoil? I don't know, not really my bag."

Wolf smiles. "I suppose not, coming from someone who drives an Awesome. You ever drive anything other than that hulk?"

Zarathud nods. "Yeah. I drove a Griffin my first time out." a pause for a gulp of beer. "Oh yeah, and one time I had to drive a Warhammer, because my Awesome got shot up."

"How'd that go?"

"Blew up a Locust, so ok. Not enough PPCs, too much other stuff, though." the mechwarrior replies with a frown.

-------------

"... so then he says, I'm not just an autocannon on wheels, I have feelings too!" El Guapo finishes, cackling.

"Speaking of large-bore autocannons, how is Suhayb [LordMortis Mk I] doing on Solaris?" Zenn7 asks.

"Last I heard, his stable made it past season qualifiers, but then got beat up by some Steiner team that managed to jam a gauss rifle into a 40-ton mech." Gbasden chimes in.

"It wasn't a Clint, was it?" AWS pipes up. "I read about that thing, those guys stuffed if full of Star League toys - XL engine, ferro-fibrous armor... managed to keep the same speed profile and even upped the armor on it, but it's too bad it didn't make the finals because the gauss rifle kept running out of ammo!"

--------------

"So boss, any idea what you're going to do after you're too old to drive a mech?" Scrub asks Gbasden.

"No idea." comes the answer. "Maybe retire, take up planetary governorship." the commander muses. "We've got about a year until construction completes on the initial facilities, but we don't finish up here for two. I'm thinking maybe we can set up a supply chain and production facilities for some kind of mech parts - we'd probably make a killing selling parts once the next succession war ramps up, especially if we can get some licensing set up for the Helm Core tech."

"How long do you think until that happens?" Scrub asks.

"I don't know. But I'm sure the Fox is going to get the itch again soon - the Dracs gave him a pretty good bloody nose in '39, but he can always take another chunk out of the Capellans." Gbasden theorizes.

"But yeah, I've been thinking about it for a while now. Can't quite pull forty-eight hour shifts in a mech as well as I used to." He wrinkles his face, then takes a swig of local beer, the look of disgust not going away. "The hell do they put in this stuff, anyway? Heavy metals?"

Scrub shrugs. "Not sure, boss. Both the colonies in this system are in domes... they probably do their laundry in the same tub where they brew their beer."

Gbasden smirks. "Well, it's better than coolant fluid."

Scrub sighs. "Crazy. We've been doing this for what, nineteen years? Amazing we made it so far."

Gbasden's face relaxes as he stares at the dwindling bottle. "A lot of us didn't. Just me, you and Yu-Bao[Zenn7] over there from the original group."

Scrub chuckles. "Well, most of those guys retired, though, remember? Especially when House Marik offered us a retainer contract. I ran into Lyuba a couple of years ago, she's still working for them. Remember that one guy who drove the Griffin?"

Gbasden lights up. "Talk about character quirks. Didn't he custom-paint the LRM launcher?"

Scrub rolls her eyes. "Yeah, the techs kept catching him sitting in that gap between the launcher and cockpit. I think he even slept up there. Guy was obsessed. I'm kinda glad he went with the people who took the retainer."

"I bet the offer's still open, you sure you don't want to join them?" Gbasden manages to hold a steady expression for about three seconds before breaking into laughter.

------------------

"Well, ladies and gentlemen..." Gbasden says, climbing up on a cart holding assorted mech components and holding a "fresh" beer bottle in the air. " ... I wanted to thank you all for throwing me this little shindig. I appreciate all of you helping me and my fellow gray-hair... " he salutes to Zarathud with the bottle " reach the ripe old age of fifty. They say mechwarriors don't die, they just overheat and shut down." everyone chuckles. "But I'd like to take a moment to pour one out for those of us that didn't power back up."

A random mech component that was "live" for some reason shorts out after having nineteen mechwarriors' (and some tankers/infantry/aerospace pilots) worth of beer poured on it, causing our commander to yelp a little and hop off, but manage to maintain his balance.

"It's been an honor working with you fine people, and I hope to continue doing so as long as I can. I'll do my best to keep you alive long enough to retire." He looks at Scrub, Zenn7 and Madmarcus. "Hopefully, whoever comes after me does the same."

"Now..." he walks over to Scrub. "... we'll still need to plan that recon op with the militia."

------------

[Sorry, no vote this update]

[Leraje]

"You know, 'I haff scouted ze enemy, zey are now vaporated carbon rezidue'."

Best way to scout!

[El Guapo]

Also, for their birthdays I bought gbasden and Zarathud each their own blimp.

[NickAragua]

https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Dixon_(law_enforcement)

Literally the only type with guns available on the market at this time. We'll, uh, have to do some serious work on it to make it battle-worthy. Commercial armor? Eww.

At least it's got four sprayers for hosing down hippies.

[Zarathud]

Very nice guys. We won’t use you as target practice.

With 3 PPCs and increased crits, I’m feeling pretty good about taking targets down. And there’s nothing like a battlefield sauna to keep the weight down from drinking all that coolant fluid.

[gbasden]

[
Gbasden -
[] improves Piloting (2 to 1)
[] improves Gunnery (2 to 1)
[X] improves Leadership (+3 to +4, improved odds of retaining personnel)

[gbasden]

Indeed! Thanks for the party, guys!

[NickAragua]

June 4, 3044
Wisse Hills
Unzmarkt, Free Rasalhague Republic

"So we're out here with this militia liaison to capture some big shot pirate lieutenant, right?" Drazzil asks.

"Yes." Cujo responds, groaning inwardly.

"... and he's driving a Wasp." Drazzil states.

"Yes."

For the third time today, Drazzil just sighs and shakes his head.

After getting over the hangover, we wind up committing Delta Company and Gamma-Probe lances to help the planetary militia deal with their bandit problem. The bandits aren't the best-equipped, but they've been hitting convoys between spaceport and destination, which tends to lead to supply shortages and people in the militia getting grilled by local politicians ("why have you not stopped these bandits, etc.")

Delta-Recon is the first to make contact, "buzzing" a heavy mech lance as it moves on a supply convoy. In the short skirmish, we lose a Firestarter (and its mechwarrior) to a lucky leg shot from an Ostroc, but the bandits decide that a mostly intact mech is more valuable salvage than the convoy. This allows us to narrow down our search area quite a bit, and that's how Gamma-Probe winds up being tasked with capturing a bandit driving a Wasp - the militia guys had already identified the mech as a leader based on comms traffic analysis from past raids. The rest of his buddies aren't really that much more impressive - a mixed company of light tanks and mechs, with a Phoenix Hawk and a Vulcan being the heaviest.

Granted, that's what our lance is driving for the most part, too, except Cujo's Wolverine, but we've got a 5T, while they've got the crappy 2T with the light autocannon.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

Our large laser-equipped mechs trade beams for LRMs and small autocannon rounds, hitting nothing.

"Target acquired." AWS points out, the beagle probe lighting up the target Wasp. "... hey, is that a flying Stinger with wings?"

Round 2:

Spoiler:

"Yeah, it totally is! It's a land-air mech! So cool, I've never seen one before!"

But the LAM hangs out in the back while a Hunchback moves in between us and the target. AWS waves the Phoenix Hawk's large laser over its left arm, melting armor, while our Vulcan and Cujo work on a nearby Saracen hovertank, poking a few holes in the skirt to let a little air out before it seals back up.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

The Wasp jumps to the west side of our hill, followed by its buddies. We scatter, except for our Vulcan, which avoids pretty much all incoming fire and times its jump to land behind the Wasp. Lasers cut through the rear armor with ease, then a kick rips the right arm off (along with half the torso).

Round 4:

Spoiler:

"Target attempting to escape, stop him!" Cujo calls out, moving out after Drazzil, who's got a Vulcan on his tail. A Locust gives chase to our Wolverine, but Cujo gives it the slip, with the bug mech winding up on the ground.

"On him." AWS responds, giving chase. The Hunchback and a Stinger move to stop us, but the Stinger loses lots of armor and an arm to the militia Firestarter's attacks combined with our Vulcan's lasers. It has enough and jumps off - we leave it as we have more important targets to worry about. But the distraction prevents AWS from stopping the Wasp.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

Cujo jumps west, intending to cross between the two hills. The Wolverine takes some lasers from a Phoenix Hawk and SRMs from a few nearby tanks, but armor holds. Using the Wolverine's extended torso twist capability to cut a Skulker scout tank in half with lasers, this also has the effect of separating most of the hostiles from our capture target.

Although the armless Wasp manages to avoid AWS', the Vulcan and Firestarter's attacks - AWS has to duck under a string of AC/20 rounds burped up from the Hunchback's monster autocannon.

Round 6:
[data feed damaged]
Our battle plan takes a slight wrinkle as a Leopard-class dropship suddenly zips overhead, dropping off a lance of medium mechs.

Drazzil welcomes them by jumping into some woods then firing out of them at the damaged Saracen - the laser penetrates the turret armor and blows the ammo. All three tons of it. The turret remains intact, the rest of the hovertank not so much. The Stinger LAM buzzes Cujo. All the fancy wings and thrusters that make it able to turn from a battlemech to an aerospace fighter fail to compensate for the fact that the basic chassis is a Stinger. Cujo's counterattack blasts through the pitiful armor and an SRM hits the gyro housing, causing the whizzing LAM to slam into the ground.

Our Vulcan legs the isolated Wasp, preventing the mechwarrior's escape for the time being. It'll probably be even harder with a cracked gyro.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

The guy in the Wasp bails out, ejection seat flying as the mech eats dirt. It'll be salvageable, but will take a lot of work.

"I got him!" the guy in the Firestarter calls out.

AWS makes note of this and jumps south, luring the Hunchback in the same direction to give the allied mech some space. This allows our Vulcan to get in the back of the enemy mech and hit the right torso. The big autocannon's support struts fail, causing it to malfunction - then the allied Firestarter takes a moment from scooping up the ejected Wasp pilot to send a laser into the back of the Hunchback as well, which causes an ammo detonation.

"Right. Probe-Three, Four, Five, retreat to the north. Two, you're with me, fall back to the west." Fighting a fresh lance of medium mechs isn't really appealing to Cujo, so, with the objective accomplished she orders the rest of the lance to pull back. Jumping to the south, she gets in behind a Locust, carving its rear armor up with the Wolverine's lasers then sending a few SRMs in, which completely obliterates the bug mech.

"Probe Two, acknowledge." Cujo calls out, then frowns, looking to the south. The Cronus there is cooling off its large laser, aiming at a Phoenix Hawk with the blue "octopus" paint job. Drazzil's 45-ton mech is falling over, its head a mass of smoking, twisted metal. Cujo has to duck as an Assassin tries to get in behind the Wolverine and kick it.

The chances of recovering our mechwarrior are pretty slim even under optimal conditions, but with a lance and a half of medium mechs plus three tanks present, there's no way our recovery crews can do anything. If we want to attempt to recover our mechwarrior (assuming he's even alive), we'll need to rout the rest of the enemy force. A tough task with just four mechs.

[] Try to clear the area so we can attempt to recover Drazzil
[] It's unlikely he's alive *and* it's a pretty difficult fight - call a retreat

[AWS260]

[X] Try to clear the area so we can attempt to recover Drazzil
[] It's unlikely he's alive *and* it's a pretty difficult fight - call a retreat

[Zenn7]

[X] Try to clear the area so we can attempt to recover Drazzil
[] It's unlikely he's alive *and* it's a pretty difficult fight - call a retreat

We don't abandon our own! (you know, unless it really looks like we can't win or we find out he's really dead).

[Leraje]

[X] Try to clear the area so we can attempt to recover Drazzil
[] It's unlikely he's alive *and* it's a pretty difficult fight - call a retreat

We don't abandon our own! (you know, unless it really looks like we can't win or we find out he's really dead).

Agree with the sentiment, though in this case I'm leaning towards "Plan B"(retreat) - it does not look like our lance has enough firepower to cripple the OpFor in a round or two before the attrition turns the situation into meat-grinder.

[Freyland]

Isn't "its head a mass of smoking, twisted metal" usually a reasonable tell-all?

[$iljanus]

Isn't "its head a mass of smoking, twisted metal" usually a reasonable tell-all?

Yeah. Does the damage look non-survivable? If the cockpit was intact I’d make the effort but if it looks fatal then we should withdraw.

[NickAragua]

Isn't "its head a mass of smoking, twisted metal" usually a reasonable tell-all?

Yeah. Does the damage look non-survivable? If the cockpit was intact I’d make the effort but if it looks fatal then we should withdraw.

Kind of hard to tell at that angle, and not really much time for a closer inspection.

[$iljanus]

Isn't "its head a mass of smoking, twisted metal" usually a reasonable tell-all?

Yeah. Does the damage look non-survivable? If the cockpit was intact I’d make the effort but if it looks fatal then we should withdraw.

Kind of hard to tell at that angle, and not really much time for a closer inspection.

Sigh you don’t make it easy...

Too bad you can’t send a small drone to buzz the location...or can you?

[Cylus Maxii]

[X] It's unlikely he's alive *and* it's a pretty difficult fight - call a retreat

Plus if alive - he may be captured and we can ransom/exchange him back.

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Fight it out - 5
Retreat - 4

Cujo sighs. "Probe-Three, Four, Five, disregard previous order. Probe-Two is down. Engage hostile forces until they retreat."

Round 8:

Spoiler:

Cujo's first problem is getting clear, as her Wolverine is getting swarmed. Firing up the jump jets, our mechwarrior arcs to the south, sparing some lasers and SRMs for a Hetzer from the top of the trajectory. The SRMs do their work well, blasting through the tank's armor and taking it out of action.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

"Dammit, Clint." AWS mutters, bringing the Phoenix Hawk into the melee, lasering a Scorpion tank. Our slightly superior mobility is telling, as the bandits are unable to land a single hit, although we don't do too well, either. Our Vulcan get kicked by a particularly nimble Assassin, but armor holds.

Round 10:

Spoiler:

To the south, Cujo winds up in a duel with the Cronus that took out Drazzil, outmaneuvering it to land in its rear arc. The Enemy mech is only able to swing its right arm around, missing with the large laser, although Cujo's lasers go wide as well, leaving just a few SRMs to impact the rear armor.

Our Vulcan breaches the damaged Scorpion tank's armor and nearly melts the main gun barrel off, inspiring the crew to try to slowly trundle off the battlefield, while AWS engages a Striker tank - the lasers don't quite cut it, so a kick to the left side is in order, flipping the vehicle over.

At this point, a transmission comes over the general frequency. The first part is garbled, but the ending is pretty clear - "... request cease fire. We'll take our stuff off the field, you take yours."

That offer is about as good as it gets, so Cujo quickly agrees, calling in the recovery crew while the bandits get a bunch of tow trucks in there and haul their tanks out. Unfortunately, the recovery crew does Drazzil no good - the head of the Phoenix Hawk is completely wrecked - it's going to be a closed-casket funeral.

The militia liaison takes off with the captured mechwarrior, and Gamma-Probe trudges back to base.

---------------------

"Sorry." Scrub tells Cujo after the memorial. "Never really gets any easier. I still miss Brad[Hyena Mk I] sometimes." she says, recalling our Striker pilot.

Cujo nods, sighing. "Yeah. Nothing anyone could have done. That son of a bitch in the Cronus really had Drazzil's number. Just... bzhewww. Gone. Poor Nara[AWS] and Nick, they're really broken up over it, too."

Scrub puts her hand on Cujo's shoulder. "Why don't you guys rotate back to local patrol duty for a week or two, take it easy. From the recon data we gathered, it looks like we'll need to send some heavier units out there, anyway." She smirks. "Where did those yokels get a land-air mech anyway? I mean, not that the Stinger LAM is actually any good, but I dunno. Between those bunkers we're digging out, the random LAM, and ComStar piping up, I get the feeling nobody's really here to dig up ore."

Cujo lets out a breath. "Right."

-------------------

Clinton "Drazzil" Mavroudis was 31 years old. He joined our company in 3040, just after the War of '39 closed out. He took his Phoenix Hawk out to twenty three missions, scoring thirty two kills, including four mechs (seven if you count IndustrialMechs). He also somehow managed to shoot down a Stuka, a hundred-ton aerospace fighter. His final payout goes to a sister back on Outreach.

-------------------

On a practical note, Gamma-Probe will need a replacement mech and pilot. We have both, just need to decide which mech:

[] An Overlords-standard Phoenix Hawk (basically a standard Pixie, but with a half ton of MG ammo and extra armor)
[] Cronus CNS-3M - a four laser mech with an SRM/4 launcher. 55 tons, keeps up with Cujo's Wolverine
[] Griffin GRF-1N - bog-standard Griffin, with the PPC and LRM launcher. Keeps up with the Wolverine

[AWS260]

[X] An Overlords-standard Phoenix Hawk (basically a standard Pixie, but with a half ton of MG ammo and extra armor)
[] Cronus CNS-3M - a four laser mech with an SRM/4 launcher. 55 tons, keeps up with Cujo's Wolverine
[] Griffin GRF-1N - bog-standard Griffin, with the PPC and LRM launcher. Keeps up with the Wolverine

I'm glad we stuck around. Another Pixie, perhaps? I don't feel strongly about it.

[Leraje]

[x] An Overlords-standard Phoenix Hawk (basically a standard Pixie, but with a half ton of MG ammo and extra armor)
[] Cronus CNS-3M - a four laser mech with an SRM/4 launcher. 55 tons, keeps up with Cujo's Wolverine
[] Griffin GRF-1N - bog-standard Griffin, with the PPC and LRM launcher. Keeps up with the Wolverine

Pixie is a bit more flexible wen compared to other two.

[Zenn7]

[X] An Overlords-standard Phoenix Hawk (basically a standard Pixie, but with a half ton of MG ammo and extra armor)
[] Cronus CNS-3M - a four laser mech with an SRM/4 launcher. 55 tons, keeps up with Cujo's Wolverine
[] Griffin GRF-1N - bog-standard Griffin, with the PPC and LRM launcher. Keeps up with the Wolverine

I'm glad we stuck around. Another Pixie, perhaps? I don't feel strongly about it.

Me too. I know you were close to his sister on Outreach. It's good you can give her a resolution at least instead of MIA.

Pixie sounds good, but like AWS, no strong feelings about it.

[Stefan Stirzaker]

RIP Drazzil V1

[El Guapo]

[] An Overlords-standard Phoenix Hawk (basically a standard Pixie, but with a half ton of MG ammo and extra armor)
[] Cronus CNS-3M - a four laser mech with an SRM/4 launcher. 55 tons, keeps up with Cujo's Wolverine
[X] Griffin GRF-1N - bog-standard Griffin, with the PPC and LRM launcher. Keeps up with the Wolverine

I'll admit I don't really remember the comparative loadouts of them, but mainly remember the Griffin being a pretty solid mech.

But also - is this guy going to be "Drazzil Mark II"? Seems like he should pick, if so?

[NickAragua]

[woof, technical and biological difficulties]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Cronus - 4
Phoenix Hawk - 3
Griffn - 1

Pvt. Bernard "Drazzil Mk II" Barreau will be assigned to Gamma-Probe lance driving a Cronus. A new recruit, looking to make a name for himself.

June 10, 3044
Storage Warehouse D-14
Unzmarkt, Free Worlds League

With the recon data we've collected, we've got a pretty good idea of what those bandits will be attacking next. The corporation owning the warehouse agrees to stage having a convoy get visibly ready to move out. The militia guys hook us up with air support and set up a significant number of extra turrets in the facility. They do request we bring out some heavies to help out in case their ambush goes south.

Which Leraje thinks it will, as the extra "turrets" are basically just machine guns and flamers, with a couple of one-shot rocket launchers. And the air support turns out to be three "defender" conventional fighters and a single mechbuster.

The bandits make a two-pronged assault. Gamma-Battle heads off about half of it, while Beta-Hunter defends the storage warehouse, which comes under attack by a light mech lance (three bugs and a Panther), a short medium lance (Clint, Phoenix Hawk, Shadow Hawk) and assorted tanks and hovercraft.

The bandits were probably hoping that the cover of night would help them in their assault, but, well, it probably won't. Especially when our mechs burst out from buildings as they pass by. Or, in Leraje's case, jump down from the top of a building in the Guillotine.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

Wolf smirks, the Orion surprising a Panther as it makes its way through some nearby alleys. The enemy mech's PPC shot and SRMs harmlessly blast chunk off the structure where the Orion is parked. Of course, the Orion's shots strike the Panther's structure, so there's not much damage inflicted by either side of that exchange.

Siljanus, meanwhile, catches most of a lance of tanks unaware - a Pegasus eats multiple SRMs, becoming immobilized (thankfully it's irrelevant that the rest of the Stalker's shots missed), then caves in the right side of a Scorpion tank with the Stalker's foot.

Hyena's Archer to the north engages a Hetzer as the wheeled assault gun drives into a building for cover. The building catches on fire.

Leraje gets the drop on two Vedettes, lasering and crushing one while the other frantically tries to avoid the Guillotine's attacks.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

The Panther crunches through a wall, backing out of Wolf's line of sight, and fires its PPC upwards at a strafing militia fighter. The little "Defender" takes a direct hit and spirals out of control, slamming into a building somewhere to the south, the pilot's parachute swinging merrily in the air as he ejects, while a cloud of smoke and debris billows out from the crash site. Wolf shrugs and delivers an eyeroll, switching targets to a Scimitar trying to get into Siljanus' rear arc, inflicting some damage to its skirt with the autocannon and a pair of laser blasts.

Hyena runs into trouble as a trio of mechs move to help their Hetzer buddy out, looking to score a relatively easy kill on a fire support mech. Backing into an alley, Hyena delivers a brutal kick to the right leg of a Stinger that follows as it lands, ripping out half the actuators and cracking the structure in half. The bug mech drops to the ground.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

Leraje remembers that the Guillotine has a searchlight and fires it up, hoping to get a better shot at the Vedette that's doing a better-than-expected job of avoiding the Guillotine's attacks. "Much better." our mechwarrior remarks, unloading the Guillotine's entire arsenal into the well-illuminated tank, destroying it.

Wolf finishes off the Scimitar as it continues harassing Siljanus, puncturing the skirt and knocking off several drive fans with autocannon and SRM rounds.

Hyena is harassed by a Clint and a Phoenix Hawk, taking a couple of laser shots. The Phoenix Hawk makes the mistake of landing on a less-than-completely-sturdy rooftop nearby, and our Archer is able to blast a couple of structural elements out from under it, causing the whole thing to come down, and the Phoenix Hawk to wind up on the ground. The Clint buddy receives a kick to the left leg, scraping off a jump jet.

The Panther continues in an anti-aircraft role, nearly blasting another militia Defender out of the sky with its PPC, although, this time, the armor on the light conventional fighter holds.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

"Ugh." Leraje sighs in frustration, realizing that it'll take at least a minute to get back to the rest of the fight, by which point it'll be all but over.

Hyena is the only one for whom the fight continues, the rest of our mechs moving to engage the main armored column advancing from the northeast. Exchanging some fire with the Hetzer (which turns out to be a laser platform, rather than the standard AC/20, thankfully), the Archer boots the Phoenix Hawk as it tries to get up, sending it back down into the rubble.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

Hyena takes some armor damage from the laser Hetzer, focusing on keeping the Phoenix Hawk on the ground. Which is accomplished by breaking its right leg.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

Having dispatched the Phoenix Hawk, Hyena moves to engage the Hetzer and Clint, going almost on top of the wheeled assault gun in an effort to avoid its blistering laser fire. The Clint, having taken care of a militia APC to the south, engages our Archer in return. Laser fire mostly just melts armor, but Hyena's foot cracks half the Hetzer's wheels, leaving it foundered.

Wolf is distracted from reaching the main body of the enemy force by the "anti-aircraft" Panther, the two mechs exchanging ineffectual SRMs and energy blasts. The Panther's right leg armor winds up completely stripped off, however, after a solid autocannon blast.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

Wolf continues working on the Panther's right leg with the autocannon, tracking the 35-ton mech even as it jumps up and over. When it lands, the leg simply comes off.

Siljanus finally manages to reach the street where the main body of the bandit "armor" is forming up. A Locust runs up to the intersection just as the Stalker shows up, perhaps not expecting an assault mech, and takes a large laser through the right torso, which detonates its on-board MG ammo, lighting the area up nicely.

With Hyena's Clint buddy having zero armor on its limbs, that mechwarrior decides discretion is the better part of valor and fires up his remaining jump jets, easily escaping the area. The rest of the "main armor column" pulls back as well.

Not too bad - we got most of the mechs and about half the armor, at the cost of losing a militia fighter. Our salvage crews report finding a blown-out Galleon tank, indicating that the militia guys aircraft did get one of the bad guys. Nothing much for salvage - a really badly beat-up Phoenix Hawk, a legged Panther, and some crappy tanks.

The actual facility took basically no damage, at least not that we're too responsible for (technically, the bandits are the ones that shot at our mechs taking cover in those buildings initially, and the militia aircraft that leveled one structure by crashing into it was definitely not our fault). The corporate guys are a little unhappy about losing the APC, but come on, it's an APC. We can sell them a couple of Maxims at a discount price.

We chat briefly with the militia aircraft commander, who is impressed with our effectiveness and offers to provide our forces with aerospace support if we put a lance towards helping guard his air base. While Defenders aren't really that impressive, he does point out that he's got actual aerospace fighters at his disposal. Leraje tells him that we'll think about it. Whether we can actually spare the lance comes down to how well Gamma-Battle does against their opposition. If they're able to take out the heavy mech lance and heavy tanks, then it's likely the militia will consider the bandit hunt complete. Otherwise...

[] Accept the offer of air support, conditional on Gamma-Battle's performance
[] We don't really need to take on any more babysitting jobs

[Leraje]

What does he consider "actual" airspace fighters? Is it a pair of Sparrowhawks, or something closer to a proper wing of Thunderbirds? Anyway, I am a staunch proponent of LCAF weight classification, so unless the available birds are high-end medium/heavy, my vote is pass.

P.S. Hope your technical and biological difficulties were resolved successfully and without lasting consequences.

[$iljanus]

Die, stinking tanks! Die!

I’ll let the debate unfold a bit before I make my decision about the air support.

[NickAragua]

What does he consider "actual" airspace fighters? Is it a pair of Sparrowhawks, or something closer to a proper wing of Thunderbirds? Anyway, I am a staunch proponent of LCAF weight classification, so unless the available birds are high-end medium/heavy, my vote is pass.

P.S. Hope your technical and biological difficulties were resolved successfully and without lasting consequences.

For this particular airbase, unknown. From what we've observed in general, the militia is about a 50/50 mixture of conventional and aerospace fighters, with most of the ASFs being lights. You have seen the militia deploy mediums and heavies though, so it all depends. It's better than nothing but whether or not it's worth it to have to run to their rescue every time some corporate raiders or bandits come knocking, well...

Resolved both fine, thanks! (until the you-know-what hits, that's going to be fun)

[Zenn7]

What does he consider "actual" airspace fighters? Is it a pair of Sparrowhawks, or something closer to a proper wing of Thunderbirds? Anyway, I am a staunch proponent of LCAF weight classification, so unless the available birds are high-end medium/heavy, my vote is pass.

P.S. Hope your technical and biological difficulties were resolved successfully and without lasting consequences.

For this particular airbase, unknown. From what we've observed in general, the militia is about a 50/50 mixture of conventional and aerospace fighters, with most of the ASFs being lights. You have seen the militia deploy mediums and heavies though, so it all depends. It's better than nothing but whether or not it's worth it to have to run to their rescue every time some corporate raiders or bandits come knocking, well...

Resolved both fine, thanks! (until the you-know-what hits, that's going to be fun)

How much longer are we here for? How much additional action do we think we might face with this offer?

Does not sound like they have a lot to offer, so if we think this is gonna be a real sink, pass. If we think it's going to be low activity area, might as well make friends, might help someday.

[NickAragua]

How much longer are we here for? How much additional action do we think we might face with this offer?

Does not sound like they have a lot to offer, so if we think this is gonna be a real sink, pass. If we think it's going to be low activity area, might as well make friends, might help someday.

About a year and a half. The amount of extra fighting we'd have to do will likely be directly dependent on how often we call up the air support. So far, the area in question hasn't seen too much action (other than this bandit hunt), but it's obvious that between the various corporate militias, the planetary government and the pirates, things aren't entirely copacetic.

[Zenn7]

How much longer are we here for? How much additional action do we think we might face with this offer?

Does not sound like they have a lot to offer, so if we think this is gonna be a real sink, pass. If we think it's going to be low activity area, might as well make friends, might help someday.

About a year and a half. The amount of extra fighting we'd have to do will likely be directly dependent on how often we call up the air support. So far, the area in question hasn't seen too much action (other than this bandit hunt), but it's obvious that between the various corporate militias, the planetary government and the pirates, things aren't entirely copacetic.

So if we never call them up, we are not likely to have to fight for them. In that case, go for it! If we ever do need an extra ace in the hole, we can call them up and deal with having to help them out in return. Even non-ASF/light ASF will draw off a couple shots and can get the occasional lucky hit in (if nothing else, strip a little armor off so our shots get to the innards quicker).

[Leraje]

How much longer are we here for? How much additional action do we think we might face with this offer?

Does not sound like they have a lot to offer, so if we think this is gonna be a real sink, pass. If we think it's going to be low activity area, might as well make friends, might help someday.

About a year and a half. The amount of extra fighting we'd have to do will likely be directly dependent on how often we call up the air support. So far, the area in question hasn't seen too much action (other than this bandit hunt), but it's obvious that between the various corporate militias, the planetary government and the pirates, things aren't entirely copacetic.

So if we never call them up, we are not likely to have to fight for them. In that case, go for it! If we ever do need an extra ace in the hole, we can call them up and deal with having to help them out in return. Even non-ASF/light ASF will draw off a couple shots and can get the occasional lucky hit in (if nothing else, strip a little armor off so our shots get to the innards quicker).

If we can come to some sort of an arrangement with them that does not involve us detaching a lance to babysit their base 24/7 and is conditional on us calling on them for support, than we might as well take it. However if they want us for an extended garrison duty, we really should discuss in advance what forces they will be committing to be on-call for us.

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Pass - 3
Depends on what they're offering us - 2

We're not really able to extract any further information out of the Raslhague militia commander about the composition of his aircraft. Either he's suddenly concerned about information security, or he's just embarrassed to admit that all he's got is a bunch of crop dusters with unguided rockets mounted on the wings. Either way, we shrug and go about our business.

-------------

"Captain, I'm showing active targeting systems pinging us from up ahead, and I'm not just talking about the bandits. Looks like four turrets." Xwraith reports.

Scrub raises an eyebrow. "Weird. Did the pirates hack them or something?" She shrugs. "Whatever, looks like short range stuff. Just avoid it. Objectives as before, take out enemy heavies. Engage hovercraft as necessary, but don't get bogged down. Stay in formation until we engage." She points out, then briefly rotates the Warhammer to look at the Grand Dragon. "That means you, private."

Round 1:

Spoiler:

Our lance advances in formation as the pirates swing around a smaller building complex.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

"Ok, you can break formation now." Scrub grudgingly admits as a J. Edgar hovertank tries to zip in and hit Cylus' Grasshopper in the back with its laser and two flamers. Cylus starts sweating a little, but the Grasshopper's heat sinks are pretty efficient, so it shouldn't be much trouble.

The hovertank is disabled almost immediately afterwards by a combination of Grand Dragon fired medium lasers and Xwraith's ER large.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

Cylus gets to cool off as the bandits appear reluctant to engage, hiding behind a bunch of buildings instead. While lobbing LRMs at an oblique angle. Scrub ignores the few LRMs that blast little bits of armor off her mech and concentrates fire on an approaching Saladin, blowing it away with a pair of PPC shots.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

"Here we go." As Cylus jumps north to start mixing it up with tanks that show up on sensors in the building complex, the other three mechs of the lance swing around the southwestern corner of the building complex. Xwraith vaporizes a laser carrier with the Thunderbolt's laser array. The mech gets a little toasty, myomer bundles protesting a little bit. But taking a laser carrier out is worth it. Especially since its initial shot, prior to exploding from a ruptured fuel tank, takes the Thunderbolt's right arm off. "Hey, my arm!" Xwraith complains. "My laser better not be damaged!"

The Grand Dragon and Ostsol exchange fire, our mech taking a little armor damage while failing to hit. Scrub and the Rifleman also exchange fire, the Rifleman raking a few autocannon rounds across the Warhammer, while eating two PPCs and a laser. It staggers a little, but remains standing.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

Xwraith just isn't having much luck - jumping over an Ostsol, the Thunderbolt takes a large laser to the right foot from one of the two Riflemen, blowing out an actuator with a lucky through-armor hit. With help from Scrub, the Ostsol is brought to a knee with laser and PPC fire, as well as the Warhammer's machine guns.

The other Rifleman works on the Grand Dragon, stitching autocannon rounds and laser fire across its right side and leg, stripping armor. Our mech returns fire with a PPC, but inflicts less damage overall.

Cylus mixes it up with a pair of hovercraft, but fails to score kills. The "Falcon" hovertank isn't very common, but it's basically another variant on the "put a bunch of SRM tubes on a fast hovertank to harass slow enemy units" theme. Nothing too threatening individually, but can be painful in large numbers.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

Cylus "manages line of sight" by jumping out of the way as the two Riflemen have decided to join the party with the hovercraft, leaving it just a Saracen and the Grasshopper. The hovertank is quickly disabled by the application of several laser blasts.

The Ostol gets left hanging in the wind. It moves forward, engaging our Grand Dragon. Xwraith's Thunderbolt may be beat up, but it's not out, firing lasers and LRMs at the 60-tonner from behind, blasting through the armor in multiple sections. This allows Scrub to score a disabling hit on the right arm while the Grand Dragon just about removes the left arm. Not that that makes a difference for an Ostsol, what with all its weapons being in the torso.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

A Grasshopper comes jumping over the top of a building, firing lasers at Cylus' Grasshopper. Luckily, Cylus manages to avoid all but one of the shots as Xwraith distracts the enemy 70-tonner with a good amount of firepower, allowing our Grasshopper to strip off a bunch of armor from the enemy mech as well.

Our Grand Dragon engages the Ostsol while backing up, but neither mech inflicts significant damage.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

Cylus jumps north to try to take down the Falcon, but instead eats an SRM to the right foot, destroying an actuator. It takes a little more than that to take one of our veteran warriors down, but is still annoying. The Falcon manages to absorb the laser counterattack, but can't absorb an angry Grasshopper stomp as our mechwarrior scowls and takes half the left side off the hovertank.

Scrub exchanges fire with a pair of Pike support vehicles, their AC/2s and SRMs unable to find a target while Scrub's PPCs and lasers leave a mark, but fail to score kills.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

Scrub curses as the Ostsol comes around the corner and lasers her right leg twice, causing major actuator damage, including to the hip, snapping multiple actuators. She brings the mech to a knee to avoid completely toppling, but the damage is pretty nasty. She manages to unload on a nearby Pike as it advances, disabling it, but she's in trouble.

Cylus jumps over a couple of buildings landing on top of a Pegasus hovertank, then taking the right leg off the Rifleman that Scrub damaged earlier. Overall, it's not looking great - we've got one nearly legged mech and two with damaged actuators, plus a missing arm. May be time to think about pulling back.

Round 10:

Spoiler:

Against all odds, the Rifleman that Cylus just legged stands up.

"Fine, I'll just go destroy something else." Our mechwarrior says indignantly, jumping north to fire lasers at the side of a Saladin hovertank, slicing it wide open.

Scrub's eyes go wide as the enemy Grasshopper jumps over, and she unloads everything she has on the mech, hoping to keep it from taking her leg out. The Grand Dragon moves to cover her as well, cutting through the front of the second Pike with lasers to take it out. Xwraith also moves out, slashing at the Grasshopper with lasers. Luckily, the enemy mech is unable to capitalize on Scrub's weakness and just damages her other armor. Partly probably due to getting punched in the head with the Thunderbolt's remaining arm.

Round 11:

Spoiler:

"Right. Gotta slow it down." Scrub idly thinks to herself as her mech falls over backwards, unable to compensate for the four or so damaged leg actuators. A double heat sink blows out, and the SRM rack snaps off as the mech hits the ground. The enemy Grasshopper continues mercilessly pounding the Warhammer, blowing out several more heat sinks with lasers. It takes major damage as well, losing an arm, but that mechwarrior appears to be entirely focused on the kill.

Cylus makes a quick hop to the west, knocking the one-legged Rifleman back down, causing one of its autocannons to jam as it falls over. The mechwarrior yanks the ejection lever at the wrong time, sending the ejection seat slamming into a nearby building.

Round 12:

Spoiler:

Scrub cringes, expecting a kick from the adjacent Grasshopper, but instead it pulls back.

"Thanks guys." She breathes out. The Grand Dragon is practically glowing red from firing its PPC and all lasers, but it was worth it.

Xwraith moves forward, firing lasers at the Ostsol that's making a move to cover the retreating Grasshopper. The Thunderbolt's multi-trac system is put to good use firing LRMs at a secondary target, a Scorpion tank which whiffs its own LRM salvo under the barrage. Our Grand Dragon manages a single laser to give its heat sinks a chance to work and avoid the possibility of ammo cook off. Cylus also comes up behind the cluster of bandits, cutting through a Vedette's armor.

Xwraith then dodges the Ostsol's kick, forcing the creaking Thunderbolt to kick back, hitting the 60-ton mech right in the hip, which separates the left leg.

This inspires the remaining enemy units to cease fire and retreat quite rapidly, leaving their short ranged turrets to be dispatched at our leisure. Only two units leave the field more or less undamaged - a Rifleman and an SRM Carrier, which, thankfully, was not able to get a good angle on us. The salvage is looking ... well, ok. We'll be acquiring a rifleman plus a couple of tank wrecks, and an Ostsol. Those two things will require a few weeks of repair work to make even suitable for sale, let alone our use.

Scrub's Warhammer will require at least a week of work - the techs will have to rebuild the hip joint and replace several actuators, not to mention all the work that'll have to be done on the damaged double heat sinks. The other mechs should be up and operational pretty soon, though...

"Hey, wait for me!" the mechwarrior in the Ostsol calls out, interrupting Scrub's mental tally. In a burst of creativity, the guy's managed to pick up the completely stiff separate leg and is using it as a crutch to limp his mech after his buddies at a glacial pace.

"Uh..." Xwraith expresses wordlessly.

[the lucky bastard rolled a 12 to get up, so he's technically upright and can walk off under his own power. After cease-fire, we usually let go anyone who can do that.]

[] Let the poor bastard go, we've crushed his buddies and they're not really a threat any more.
[] Sorry, no, you can't just limp off the field without a leg. I mean, you've got the leg, but it's not attached. And if we were trying we could easily shoot your ass out of that mech.

[Stefan Stirzaker]

Let the poor bastard go, and salute his RNG gods!

[$iljanus]

Let the poor bastard go, and salute his RNG gods!

You magnificent bastard! (Salutes mechwarrior as he limps away)

[Leraje]

Shoot off the second leg of his Mech and see if he can repeat the performance

Seriously though, let him go.

[Hyena]

Let the poor bastard go, and salute his RNG gods!

You magnificent bastard! (Salutes mechwarrior as he limps away)

This.

[Zenn7]

Let the poor bastard go, and salute his RNG gods!

You magnificent bastard! (Salutes mechwarrior as he limps away)

Let him go and hope when we need it, that RNG thing is broken and rolls a 12 again.