Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

[gbasden]

BTW, I just want to let you know again how awesome this is. Especially right now with too much time on my hands. I really look forward to seeing these updates every day!

[gbasden]

[] Gamma Company - a mix of medium and heavy mechs, medium aerospace fighter flight, presents a more credible threat but will be slower to withdraw and reposition
[x] Delta Company - a mix of medium and light mechs, light aerospace fighter flight, presents a less credible threat (although, in particular, Delta-Ranger lance punches way the hell above its weight) but will be faster to withdraw and reposition

Gamma will be convincing so use them since a believable diversion is the point of the exercise.

Think Gamma would be too heavy, hard to distinguish their a diversion as they are capable of doing the job on their own. I think we should go with Delta, they can get in, run the trainees around for a bit and get out. What a diversion should do.

Agreed.

Double agreed.

[El Guapo]

Nay!

[Zenn7]

Nay!

Thought you were in charge of the blimp brigade, not part of the horse brigade?

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Gamma Company - 1
Delta Company - everyone else

January 12, 3045
15km west of URL Processing Plant A-45

The trainee group responds admirably to Delta Company's provocation, holding most of their forces back at the facility while sending out several short lances of mechs to intercept and keep an eye on our diversionary force. Delta-Ranger is toying with the three bug mechs that intercept them when multiple unidentified blips appear on sensors coming from the east.

Paingod snerks. "Looks like they took the bait after all. Let's call Beta-Assault in and end this exercise in our favor."

Madmarcus frowns as the sensor contacts resolve. They're URL corporate security, mixed in with mechs and tanks which we don't recognize and their IFF signatures don't validate. "Delta-Ranger to trainees. Cease fire and check your sensors, we've got company. Unidentified units, state your business."

No response, except for beeping target lock warnings.

"Fine, if you want to play it that way. Trainees, exercise terminated. You're now Ranger Five, Six, Seven." fingers fly over the comms computer to properly re-designate them. "All units, weapons live. Delta-Sweep, can you get over here?"

"Sure, we're a couple minutes away at full speed. Why?" Comes the response.

"We've got company. Looks like a bunch of corp-sec units have appropriated themselves and are bugging out. We got two and a half mech lances, including a heavy and a medium, plus a bunch of tanks. Get over here as fast as you can."

Our trainees buddies are a pair of Stingers and a Panther. Well, at least the Panther isn't too bad, although it can't keep up with Delta-Ranger's fast mediums.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

That's a Banshee. And not the stupid variant that goes too fast for its own good, it's the BNC-3S. This baby packs two PPCs, an AC/10, and a four-pack of medium lasers. We used to have one, but it got blown up.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

A Warrior helicopter pops up over a building to take a pot shot at us, but the autocannon round whizzes by.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

Here's the thing - the joke is on these guys. Delta-Sweep lance comes up from behind them as Delta-Ranger and the trainees close in from the west. Delta-Sweep will engage a bunch of hovercraft, then close the vise on the mechs. They get a solid start, our Griffin 1S disabling a Saracen hovertank while getting into the cover provided by the rather dense woods around the town.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

The mechs of Delta-Sweep disable a Scimitar hovertank and punch through the armor of a Scorpion tank. The trainee bug mechs and the hostile bug mechs exchange fire, with one of our little guys taking a laser hit, but his armor holds up.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

Freyland joins the brawl, taking a substantial amount of armor off a Jenner, and dinging the cockpit with an SRM, while sparing an LRM salvo for the annoying little helicopter. One of the missiles pings off the rotor while another breaches the helicopter's rather thin armor.

Paingod also targets the same Jenner, exploiting the weaknesses generated by Freyland's lasers to punch through the center torso armor with the PPC while LRMs ding the gyro. The 35-ton bird mech falls over, snapping off its left weapons mount.

Madmarcus chooses to engage a Locust, lasers raking across its left side and stripping armor.

Delta-Sweep's Cronus and an enemy Crab exchange fire, trading armor damage.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

The Jenner struggles up, then stumbles into a nearby building, collapsing it. The ejection pod fires and that's that for that mech. Madmarcus, Freyland and Archinerd move in to work on the bug mechs, with Madmarcus taking a few seconds to punch through the armor and disable a Galleon tank.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

Archinerd jumps north to harass the Banshee, pinging a couple of SRMs off its thick armor to basically no effect. Freyland follows, taking out another Galleon tank.

Madmarcus is tied up dealing with a Phoenix Hawk LAM, getting behind the enemy mech and breaching its rear armor, destroying its LRM launcher and frying a jump jet.

One of our bug mech buddies takes a hit to the right hip and drops to a knee.

Delta Sweep's Cronus engages a hostile Thunderbolt, stripping off most of its right leg armor, while their Phoenix Hawk disables another Scorpion tank. They've also started a pretty nasty-looking forest fire that we'll need to

Round 8:

Spoiler:

Paingod and Archinerd jump over to help the struggling Stinger as it takes a PPC shot center of mass. Luckily, it remains intact, although not for long if it keeps taking fire from an assault mech. Freyland moves to keep a Whitworth out of the fray, knocking it over due to armor loss from lasers and streak SRMs. Our Panther buddy get surrounded by the Phoenix Hawk LAM and a Locust and falls over after whiffing a kick, while Madmarcus trips up another Locust with leg actuator damage.

"Beta-Assault approaching from the east. Beta-Hunter coming in from the north." Comes Zenn7's voice over our company frequency. "ETA thirty seconds. Tell these dumb bastards to surrender."

The Banshee is dug in like a tick, but has been isolated from its buddies. With a heavy and an assault lance coming in, these guys have no chance, and so they surrender.

The news isn't great - apparently, the corporate militia that remained at the processing plant picked this time, while we weren't present at the processing plant, to blow the place to bits and abscond with some of the heavier mechs. Seems they had some outside help too, guys using fake transponders. Not too good quality though, apparently. Too bad they didn't decide to bypass us instead. Larry is *pissed*. His trailer is covered with beer cans to the point where Zenn7 almost falls over walking over to his desk.

"Bastard that cleans my office up was one of the guys that you caught. Sons of bitches, that's half a billion C-Bills down the drain. I'm gonna have the Loss Mitigation and Financial guys crawling up my ass about this for sure." He sighs. "Look, I'll get my people working on finding out who paid these assholes off or whatever they did, but I'm going to need you to deploy your spare forces to search these grids - that's where the nav systems on those captured tanks with the fake IFFs point." He points some areas out on a map.

It's a problem - our "spare forces", Alpha Company, are currently engaged by CEO Marvello and his diversionary raids. We could pull them off the Marvello contract, but then we probably won't get paid. We could also pull some of the units from garrison duty, but then we'll have less coverage on the facilities we're supposed to defend. At least we'd only have to pull two lances - the planetary militia has temporarily released us due to "low ongoing activity". Finally, we're contractually not obligated to commit more than what we already have committed to the main garrison contract, but there's some value in not creating a hostile working relationship when you're still six months away from contract completion. If we flat out refuse, then it's likely that Larry will deploy his forces to search the designated grids instead of us or subcontract some other mercs.

[] Pull Alpha Company off the Marvello contract. Likely we give up the 150M from that.
[] Pull Beta, Gamma or Delta Company off facility defenses. Increase likelyhood of said facilities coming under attack.
[] Sorry, we can't do it. Sour relationship with Larry. Reduced odds (in our opinion) of finding responsible parties.

[Stefan Stirzaker]

Option 2

[gbasden]

[X] Pull Alpha Company off the Marvello contract. Likely we give up the 150M from that.
[] Pull Beta, Gamma or Delta Company off facility defenses. Increase likelyhood of said facilities coming under attack.
[] Sorry, we can't do it. Sour relationship with Larry. Reduced odds (in our opinion) of finding responsible parties.

We had this contract first. We need to honor it.

[Zenn7]

Option 2

Specifically, Gamma. They have a faster lance to track them down and a heavy lance to deal with them once they're found.

[$iljanus]

I’m a little peeved about pulling out of a contract due to someone else not keeping their house in order so I’m tending towards 3 or 2. I don’t want to needlessly antagonize Larry but protecting company assets is what we were hired to do.

What’s our coverage if we pick option 2? Do we have any backup that can provide some security?

[NickAragua]

What’s our coverage if we pick option 2? Do we have any backup that can provide some security?

We'd probably have one lance's worth of units that we can swing around.

[Leraje]

Option #2. Options 1 and 3 are bad for business each in their own way.

[$iljanus]

What’s our coverage if we pick option 2? Do we have any backup that can provide some security?

We'd probably have one lance's worth of units that we can swing around.

Option 2 then. And Beer Belly Larry will owe us.

[gbasden]

If Marvello is behind all this we're gonna look awfully stupid...

[$iljanus]

If Marvello is behind all this we're gonna look awfully stupid...

Much respect for that kind of deviousness if that's the case. Would have to destroy them, of course.

[Cylus Maxii]

Option 2

Specifically, Gamma. They have a faster lance to track them down and a heavy lance to deal with them once they're found.

This sounds like our best approach.

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Pull out of the Marvello contract - 1
Pull forces out of current garrison contract - 6
Sorry, can't do it - 1

Zenn7 sighs. "All right, Larry, but we're gonna have to pull some forces off your facilities to do this. I'll assign Gamma Company."

Larry nods. "Fine. Get it done."

Gamma company begins their grid search within a couple of days.

----------

Marvello informs us that he's running a dropship convoy to the jump point (and will be using our jumpship to ferry them out-system, so win-win). While it's three dropships, he requests an escort as dropships are ungainly and it's not that hard to get into their blind spot. We send up Beta-Strike, with Delta-Intercept standing by in orbit for backup. While technically not a "diversionary" operation, most contracts don't specify that you're not going to be asked to use your fighters to escort an employer dropship.

Marvello's liaison is flying a Sholagar, while the dropships we're escorting are cargo-converted Intruder, Condor and Leopard.

The system's pirates get wind of this, obviously, and we get intercepted.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

A pair of the pirates zip in a little before their buddies, and we're able to pick them off pretty well. The Lucifer gets a couple of laser shots off on the Leopard, but then our Lightning gets in behind the pirate fighter and nearly blows its engine out with a well-placed AC/20 burst followed up by some lasers. The Thrush gets pounded as well, the Marvello Sholagar and Intruder-class dropship nearly causing the light fighter to break apart.

"Hey Alpha Three, looks like one of the techs has been screwing with my radar display!" the flight leader calls out. "Your icon is the same as that shitty periphery mech!"

Round 2:

Spoiler:

It's a good thing we forced those two away quickly, because the main swarm of the pirate "fleet" shows up. It's a very large number of light fighters, which is understandable since an Intruder-class dropship isn't easy to take down.

Our Stingray gets blown apart by a swarm of little anklebiters, while our Corsair and Lightning wind up taking severe engine damage and having to pull out.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

Delta-Intercept arrives, but three light fighters are unlikely to make much of a difference here, it's a little crazy out here. One of our fighters zips off to pick up the Stingray's ejected pilots, while the others engage some of the outer rim of the hostile force. Our Sholagar takes critical engine damage but is able to cripple the attacking craft in return, while the rest of the battle is just a swarm of lasers.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

The Intruder is able to pick off a few light fighters following it, while the bulk of the hostiles continue engaging our still-active fighters.

Round 5+:
[data feed lost due to transmission distance]
We've given those dropships enough room to burn off into the distance, time to take care of our own problems - one of our craft picks up the ejected pilot while the others fight a defensive action.

Long story short, we're able to get our fighters away while the dropships pour on the thrust and outrange the hostiles. The Intruder racked up a total of four light fighters, crippling another two, while the liaison got a single kill. Our guys mostly played the role of ablative armor, with mixed success - the Intruder reports having had two bay doors blown out and the loss of some cargo. Well, sorry.

Repair costs on our fighters come to ~500k C-Bills. Plus the three million on the Stingray that got blown up.

Our options for replacement are either one of our Shilones that we're planning to strip for double heat sinks, or to buy something off the "used fighter" market locally. Currently, there's an Eagle EGL-R9 (75 tons, comparable to a Lightning for speed, two PPCs for weaponry, good armor) and a Thunderbird TRB-D36 (100 tons, slow as molasses, but loaded for bear with every kind of gun imaginable).

[] Use one of our Shilones - "free"
[] Eagle EGL-R9 - 3.5M C-Bills
[] Thunderbird - 6.1M C-Bills

Gamma Company's searching almost immediately yields results. AWS' Beagle probe picks up some unidentified sensor readings in one of the search grids Larry provided, and when Gamma-Probe lance approaches to investigate, they are fired upon. In addition to a heavy mech lance, the hostiles include a medium mech lance and a pair of supporting light/medium tank lances, plus some fixed defenses - including an anti-aircraft battery which will prevent any air support.

Upon receiving this information, Larry asks that we capture the facility and grab people and data files for interrogation. To help with that, he's willing to assign an artillery battery to the operation. The trick is that, if we want to capture the facility *intact*, having a bunch of trigger-happy corporate security rookies with area effect weapons may not be the most helpful.

[] Sure, we'll take the arty - better to have extra firepower than not.
[] Ease up there, champ, we'll handle it on our own and actually capture the place instead of blowing it to bits.

[Leraje]

[] Use one of our Shilones - "free"
[] Eagle EGL-R9 - 3.5M C-Bills
[x] Thunderbird - 6.1M C-Bills

[] Sure, we'll take the arty - better to have extra firepower than not.
[x] Ease up there, champ, we'll handle it on our own and actually capture the place instead of blowing it to bits.

Thunderbird - how can you say "no" to a payload of 20 cluster bombs.

[Zenn7]

[] Use one of our Shilones - "free"
[] Eagle EGL-R9 - 3.5M C-Bills
[x] Thunderbird - 6.1M C-Bills

[] Sure, we'll take the arty - better to have extra firepower than not.
[x] Ease up there, champ, we'll handle it on our own and actually capture the place instead of blowing it to bits.

Thunderbird - how can you say "no" to a payload of 20 cluster bombs.

Let there be guns! Lots of guns!

[El Guapo]

[] Use one of our Shilones - "free"
[x] Eagle EGL-R9 - 3.5M C-Bills
[x] Thunderbird - 6.1M C-Bills

[x] Sure, we'll take the arty - better to have extra firepower than not.
[] Ease up there, champ, we'll handle it on our own and actually capture the place instead of blowing it to bits.

Let's take both the Eagle and the Thunderbird. Would be nice to have a couple extra PPCs with an aircraft.

And I feel like we should accept the artillery. I would think we could direct fire to give a wide berth to the buildings, even if it limits their available targets somewhat.

[Hyena]

[] Use one of our Shilones - "free"
[x] Eagle EGL-R9 - 3.5M C-Bills
[x] Thunderbird - 6.1M C-Bills

[x] Sure, we'll take the arty - better to have extra firepower than not.
[] Ease up there, champ, we'll handle it on our own and actually capture the place instead of blowing it to bits.

Let's take both the Eagle and the Thunderbird. Would be nice to have a couple extra PPCs with an aircraft.

And I feel like we should accept the artillery. I would think we could direct fire to give a wide berth to the buildings, even if it limits their available targets somewhat.

I agree with Cap'n Blimpo here.

[$iljanus]

[] Use one of our Shilones - "free"
[x] Eagle EGL-R9 - 3.5M C-Bills
[x] Thunderbird - 6.1M C-Bills

[x] Sure, we'll take the arty - better to have extra firepower than not.
[] Ease up there, champ, we'll handle it on our own and actually capture the place instead of blowing it to bits.

Let's take both the Eagle and the Thunderbird. Would be nice to have a couple extra PPCs with an aircraft.

And I feel like we should accept the artillery. I would think we could direct fire to give a wide berth to the buildings, even if it limits their available targets somewhat.

I agree with Cap'n Blimpo here.

Agreed on buying both. Gotta spend the C-bills to make the C-bills.

And as long as we can exercise a firm hand on the arty, take em along.

[gbasden]

[] Use one of our Shilones - "free"
[x] Eagle EGL-R9 - 3.5M C-Bills
[x] Thunderbird - 6.1M C-Bills

[x] Sure, we'll take the arty - better to have extra firepower than not.
[] Ease up there, champ, we'll handle it on our own and actually capture the place instead of blowing it to bits.

Let's take both the Eagle and the Thunderbird. Would be nice to have a couple extra PPCs with an aircraft.

And I feel like we should accept the artillery. I would think we could direct fire to give a wide berth to the buildings, even if it limits their available targets somewhat.

I concur with our dirigible commander!

[Zenn7]

[] Use one of our Shilones - "free"
[x] Eagle EGL-R9 - 3.5M C-Bills
[x] Thunderbird - 6.1M C-Bills

[x] Sure, we'll take the arty - better to have extra firepower than not.
[] Ease up there, champ, we'll handle it on our own and actually capture the place instead of blowing it to bits.

Let's take both the Eagle and the Thunderbird. Would be nice to have a couple extra PPCs with an aircraft.

And I feel like we should accept the artillery. I would think we could direct fire to give a wide berth to the buildings, even if it limits their available targets somewhat.

I concur with our dirigible commander!

Hadn't thought about getting both ASFs, good plan!

Still a little leery of trainee arty, but if it makes you peeps happy (I'm thinking WE would be the primary targets not intermingled with the buildings).

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

but t-bird - 1
buy eagle - 1
buy both - 8

take arty - 5
pass on arty - 5

Scrub stares at her comms system, wishing very hard that it would stop making stupid suggestions. She lets out a deep breath, the guy in the other end is signing her paychecks afterall. Well, signing the paychecks so that they guy who signs her paychecks can sign her paychecks.

"It'll... uh... take too long to position the artillery." she answers. "Since they know were here, we uh... better, get in quick and get it done." Good thing it's not in person or in video chat, that wasn't a very good pokerface. The thought of having those corporate rookie trainee guys raining artillery rounds down on her head just makes her shudder.

"Gamma-Probe lance, loop around and come in after we begin the engagement." Scrub orders.

The "base" itself is a pretty low-key set of structures, not looking too sturdy, either. Artillery would have been a bad call in this case.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

Our Grand Dragon and Cylus break south around a cluster of trees while Scrub and Xwraith move north. The Grand Dragon starts the party off by using its laser to breach armor on and disable one of the two(!) Saladins. Cylus takes out a second one, sending a couple of laser blasts through the front of the hovertank and frying the crew. Cylus' mech rocks as the remaining hovertank scores a hit on the left arm with the autocannon, but it holds up.

Scrub's Warhammer sizzles under attack from its counterpart to the northeast, the electrical interference scrambling her targeting long enough for her to whiff her salvo.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

The enemy Orion bursts into the woods while its Warhammer buddy hangs back. Cylus jumps north, targeting it with the Grasshopper's array of lasers. The distraction causes most of its fire at Scrub's Warhammer to go wide, letting Scrub get a good shot on its upper torso - a machine gun burst and a short range missile hit the head, and the 70-ton mech keels over as the mechwarrior inside blacks out.

The Grand Dragon breaks south to draw off the rest of the hovercraft, which it does. The Harasser doesn't notice Xwraith targeting it from the woods and is sliced in half by the Thunderbolt's extended range laser. The Grand Dragon takes a good number of SRMs, but armor holds.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

The Grand Dragon finishes off the Pegasus, slicing off drive fans with lasers.

Scrub's Warhammer takes a beating from short-range fire delivered by three enemy mechs, but armor continues holding for now. Cylus doesn't escape unscathed either, the right leg taking a kick from the enemy Warhammer which has decided to engage up close.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

"Probe lance on station." Cujo reports from her Wolverine. "Engaging hostile forces. Minimum force on buildings?"

"Minimum force on buildings." Scrub confirms.

The battle in the forest becomes a mess, with all pretense of formation broken and mechs just jockeying for individual position. Cylus gets the first mech kill of the battle, tracking a Dervish as it jumps behind Xwraith's Thunderbolt, firing its weapons and scoring a hit on the dome in addition to minor armor damage. The Grasshopper's lasers breach armor on the Dervish's left torso and detonate the LRM ammo stored there, sending its arms flying off and the ejection seat up into the sky.

Xwraith, meanwhile, legs the enemy Warhammer, rendering it unable to get up.

A Hermes moves to intercept Delta-Probe lance, getting in behind AWS. Our mechwarrior is on the ball, keeping the mech upright, despite taking a headshot and getting bathed by a flamer, scoring a pair of hits on the enemy's left torso, which our Vulcan then exploits to detonate the AC/5 ammo stored there with a laser.

Drazzil Mk II gets in on the action as well, running past the fight with the Hermes and picking off a turret, while the Grand Dragon cleans up another tank to the south, a Scorpion.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

Xwraith expertly picks a little laser turret off the top of a building with precision fire from the Thunderbolt's extended-range laser. AWS engages another one, as does Cujo. The latter mechwarrior misjudges exactly how much ammo was stored in that building and boy does it blow up.

Drazzil comes to the rescue of our Vulcan as an enemy Victor jumps in and fires its AC/20. The Cronus' laser and SRM assault throws the enemy mechwarrior's aim of just enough that the Vulcan doesn't take an autocannon burst.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

The guy in the Warhammer blows out his other leg trying to get up. Cylus jumps by and engages the Phoenix Hawk to the north as it harasses our Grand Dragon. Multiple laser blasts from the Grasshopper cut off the 45-ton mech's left leg, sending it flopping to the ground.

Cujo jumps southeast, engaging a Hetzer. The Wolverine takes some laser damage but disables the hostile vehicle, the mechwarrior thankful that it was "only" a laser Hetzer. AWS is a little bit behind and gets trapped between two Vedettes and a Victor. The 80-ton mech's assault autocannon lets rip and nearly takes our Pixie's leg off, but a timely salvo of LRMs and a "from downtown" large laser blast from Xwraith's Thunderbolt, plus AWS' counterattack knock it to the ground.

Drazzil opts to run circles around a Rifleman, breaching its rear torso armor and taking out both medium lasers, along with an autocannon, leaving it still overgunned despite losing half its weapons.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

Well, that mechwarrior won't have to worry about it any more - our Grand Dragon plants a PPC blast right through the dome, collapsing the enemy mech.

Cylus takes the top off a turret as it aims at AWS, who's busy punching a Cicada in the upper torso, when the enemy Victor steps into some rubble. Drazzil takes advantage of the 80-ton mech's weakness to deliver a few lasers and a kick, which winds up blowing one of the ammo bins. That one was almost empty, so the assault mech should have been able to survive the ammo explosion, but then the other bin goes up too. Drazzil cringes.

The remaining enemy mechs and tanks retreat, the Cicada zipping off with its Vedette buddies, while the Orion helps the enemy Phoenix Hawk off the field. Given that our objective is to capture and interrogate these guys, we probably don't want to just let them go. We can't catch up to the Cicada, but everyone else is fair game. How do we want to handle this?

[] Demand a surrender; offer a guarantee that the surviving enemy mechwarriors will get to keep their mechs
[] Let them go, we'll get enough info from what we'll be capturing
[] Keep shooting for maximum salvage and prisoner count

We've also captured four out of five air defense installations intact. They're not exactly what you'd call moveable, but the facility covers a substantial amount of area, including the airspace over our dropships. Do we want to attempt to hold and operate it? It'll prevent hostile aircraft from operating in our airspace (either by discouragement or shooting them down), but we'll probably have to defend it against ground assault, meaning we'll have to dedicate a lance to guarding it. That means we'll be short a lance for guarding Larry's facilities until we get our mechs back from the Marvello contract.

[] Attempt to hold the air defense installation
[] Let it go, we can defend our own airspace without spreading ourselves thin(ner than we already are)

[El Guapo]

[X] Demand a surrender; offer a guarantee that the surviving enemy mechwarriors will get to keep their mechs
[] Let them go, we'll get enough info from what we'll be capturing
[] Keep shooting for maximum salvage and prisoner count


[] Attempt to hold the air defense installation
[X] Let it go, we can defend our own airspace without spreading ourselves thin(ner than we already are)

On the first, we're here to capture the mechwarriors, this seems like the best way to do that. And we can keep shooting if they decline.

On the second, the priority is fulfilling the contract - the air defense stuff doesn't seem important enough to risk that.

[Leraje]

[] Demand a surrender; offer a guarantee that the surviving enemy mechwarriors will get to keep their mechs
[] Let them go, we'll get enough info from what we'll be capturing
[x] Keep shooting for maximum salvage and prisoner count

[] Attempt to hold the air defense installation
[] Let it go, we can defend our own airspace without spreading ourselves thin(ner than we already are)

What would be the pros and cons if relocate our base of operations to this site?

[NickAragua]

Pros: Great air defense
Cons: Not enough space to house our personnel without buying up large numbers of tents or people living in dropships; non-central location for defending what we're contracted to defend; facility location is known to hostile forces; command staff has to drive further to get into town to see their local flings.

[Leraje]

Pros: Great air defense
Cons: Not enough space to house our personnel without buying up large numbers of tents or people living in dropships; non-central location for defending what we're contracted to defend; facility location is known to hostile forces; command staff has to drive further to get into town to see their local flings.

In that case, option 2 - salvage everything that is not nailed down, if it's nailed down pry it loose and salvage it anyway. Level the rest.

[gbasden]

[X] Demand a surrender; offer a guarantee that the surviving enemy mechwarriors will get to keep their mechs
[] Let them go, we'll get enough info from what we'll be capturing
[] Keep shooting for maximum salvage and prisoner count


[] Attempt to hold the air defense installation
[X] Let it go, we can defend our own airspace without spreading ourselves thin(ner than we already are)

On the first, we're here to capture the mechwarriors, this seems like the best way to do that. And we can keep shooting if they decline.

On the second, the priority is fulfilling the contract - the air defense stuff doesn't seem important enough to risk that.

This.

[$iljanus]

[X] Demand a surrender; offer a guarantee that the surviving enemy mechwarriors will get to keep their mechs
[] Let them go, we'll get enough info from what we'll be capturing
[] Keep shooting for maximum salvage and prisoner count


[] Attempt to hold the air defense installation
[X] Let it go, we can defend our own airspace without spreading ourselves thin(ner than we already are)

On the first, we're here to capture the mechwarriors, this seems like the best way to do that. And we can keep shooting if they decline.

On the second, the priority is fulfilling the contract - the air defense stuff doesn't seem important enough to risk that.

This.

Make it so

[Zenn7]

[X] Demand a surrender; offer a guarantee that the surviving enemy mechwarriors will get to keep their mechs
[] Let them go, we'll get enough info from what we'll be capturing
[] Keep shooting for maximum salvage and prisoner count


[] Attempt to hold the air defense installation
[X] Let it go, we can defend our own airspace without spreading ourselves thin(ner than we already are)

On the first, we're here to capture the mechwarriors, this seems like the best way to do that. And we can keep shooting if they decline.

On the second, the priority is fulfilling the contract - the air defense stuff doesn't seem important enough to risk that.

This.

Make it so

Salvage what we can from the air defense, make sure there's nothing left worth trying to use for anyone else thinking of moving in when we leave.

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Demand a surrender - almost unanimous
Let the base go - unanimous

After brief consideration, Scrub sends a demand that all units on the field surrender. "We need to ask you ladies and gentlemen a few questions, then you will be set free and retain ownership of your mechs." she smirks. "But if anybody so much as moves a targeting reticle towards one of our mechs, the only thing you're retaining ownership of is the parachute on your ejection seat."

Everyone except the guy in the Cicada (who's already long gone) complies and powers down. We call in the salvage crews and flatbeds, wheeling everything that's not nailed down back to base. The air defense installations wind up having to be scrapped, as they're *really* fixed.

Just to make sure nobody gets tortured too much, we hold the mechs and mechwarriors in our facilities, inviting Larry's people to come do the interrogations. Cujo reports that these guys are apparently members of the "Unzmarkt Environmental Liberation League", and managed to bribe some of the under-paid corporate security people. Well, the mechwarriors are mercs, the "UELL" doesn't have mechwarriors of their own. But they are bankrolled from somewhere, enough to hire plenty of muscle. The ideology revolves around protecting the planet from "forcible rape by greedy corporations" and other nonsense.

Cujo rolls her eyes multiple times delivering the report. It'd make more sense if the place was a beautiful, green, shirt-sleeves world, but it's not. So it's probably someone looking to muscle in on the excavation business.

-----------

January 16, 3045
Unzmarkt Resources Ltd Refinery 17B

"Beta-Hunter reporting. We have engaged approximately two mech lances and a reinforced tank company." Leraje delivers the report as blips close in around the facility.

"Understood. Beta-Fire is one minute away, Beta-Assault will arrive when possible." Zenn7 answers.

"when possible" being a time-honored way of saying "buzz off, you're on your own."

In addition to Leraje's Guillotine, Beta-Hunter is Hyena/Archer, Wolf/Orion and Siljanus/Stalker.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

Leraje fruitlessly moves to scratch an itch, the neurohelmet blocking any such action, then lets out a breath. This is trouble, but hopefully Beta-Fire lance will be arriving as advertised.

Our Guillotine and Hyena's Archer engage a Scorpion tank, exchanging lasers with the relatively small vehicle, scoring multiple hits but failing to breach armor.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

The noose closes around our mechs. We inflict some armor damage on a few tanks while not really taking any meaningful damage in return, but the armor breach remains elusive.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

Hyena backs up to rejoin Siljanus and Wolf, firing off an LRM salvo at the Scorpion to the southwest as it makes an effort to get back into the fight. The light tank simply disintegrates under the missile bombardment. Leraje takes his Guillotine into the thick of it, stomping one Vedette flat while using lasers and SRMs to systematically blast the treads and wheels off the side of the other. At least that's what he thinks, with all the smoke and explosions, he actually only got one of them.

To the southeast, Siljanus and Wolf hold an intersection. A Saladin hovertank gets the drop on our Orion, blasting a good chunk off the left torso with a glancing hit from the assault autocannon, but that leaves it wide open for Siljanus to blast it to bits with short-range weapons.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

Siljanus has a close call with another Saladin, but manages to swing the Stalker's arms back and breaches the hovertank's armor before it can get off a shot, then squashes a Scorpion tank underfoot.

Hyena is engaged by a Stinger, but throws a one-two punch to discourage any further bug mech adventurism - the little twenty ton mech barely has time to miss with its laser before jumping out.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

Our weapons fire is remarkably ineffective, while we start taking damage from missile-toting hovertanks and Vedettes firing autocannons.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

Hyena and Wolf get a little mobbed by enemy mechs and tanks, ducking out of the line of sight of most of them. Hyena fires at a Vedette, blowing its ammo bins and sending the turret flying into the air. Hyena then stomps on a nearby Galleon tank, ending its stream of little laser blasts. The Archer takes a number of missile and autocannon rounds but armor continues holding. Wolf's aim is thrown off by a Stinger tripping him up. No, not the one that got punched by Hyena, there's two of them.

A little J. Edgar hovertank zips around, avoiding Siljanus' fire, but our Zephyr zaps it with a couple of lasers, taking it out of action.

To the northwest, Leraje is able to take out a Vedette, despite taking a laser headshot from a nearby Locust.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

Beta-fire lance arrives, relieving the pressure on our units. A Galleon tank is so disconcerted by the arrival of the new mechs that it skids on the pavement and rolls over. Hyena and Wolf take this opportunity to destroy a tank each, Hyena disabling a Scimitar with laser fire while Wolf takes a Vedette apart with autocannon rounds and SRMs.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

Leraje is kept busy dodging large amounts of fire. The Guillotine is basically a distraction to split the enemy force in half while our main body of mechs mops up the rest. He does manage to zap the exposed autocannon out of action on a nearby Shadow Hawk and detonate a Falcon hovertank's fuel storage with a kick.

But we have a little trouble - Hyena takes a good amount of damage from a nearby Dervish's lasers while Wolf's aim is thrown off by the arrival of a nearby Griffin.

We'll avoid talking about the (house Marik prototype) Marauder that's on the pavement to the northeast.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

Siljanus moves forward, firing the Stalker's large lasers and LRMs over a little Hornet that zips in. The ordnance homes in on an AC/2 carrier as it rapid-fires its autocannons in the Stalker's direction, hitting with a couple of rounds. One of the barrels blows out while the weapons carrier's armor is breached and it starts producing smoke instead of autocannon rounds.

The sensor blips announcing the arrival of Beta-Assault convince the rest of the hostile force to retreat in pretty good order. They lost a bunch of tanks, sure, but none of the mechs. Beta company isn't exactly a fast pursuit outfit, so we only mount a token effort before calling it a day and calling in the salvage crews.

"Who were those guys?" Siljanus asks over our general channel.

"Well." Wolf responds, the Orion creaking as it gets up - a Griffin had tripped the heavier mech before retreating.

"Well what?"

"No, just well."

"I didn't ask how they were doing, I asked who they were." Siljanus says, exasperated.

Wolf performs a masterful eyeroll and says slowly: "Unzmarkt... environmental... liberation... league..."

Siljanus snorts. "... that makes more sense."

Upon returning to base, we mark two notable occasions. First of all, the crew of the new Zephyr hovertank celebrates their first mission kill, a lighter hovertank with inferior technology. They also, at multiple points in time, succeeded in marking several targets with the TAG laser. Our mechwarriors even took some indirect-fire potshots at one, but not a single missile hit. Well, you gotta start somewhere.

Second, our techs inform us that we've run through our remaining stocks of listen-kill missiles for SRM/6 launchers. Our various Wolverine and Guillotine operators walk around the rest of the week with sour expressions on their faces - not everybody updates their mech's electronic warfare software reliably, especially random tanks out in the ass-end of the inner sphere, so a lot of the times our L-K warheads would still display improved accuracy.

We could probably call in a favor from our FedCom contacts and see if we can find a source of L-K missiles.

Well, maybe we can get our factories building those when we get around to setting those up.
[] Put out feelers, see if we can find some more L-K warheads, particularly the SRM/6 and LRM/10 variety
[] Maybe save our favors for something a little more substantial

[Leraje]

[] Put out feelers, see if we can find some more L-K warheads, particularly the SRM/6 and LRM/10 variety
[x] Maybe save our favors for something a little more substantial

[Zenn7]

[] Put out feelers, see if we can find some more L-K warheads, particularly the SRM/6 and LRM/10 variety
[x] Maybe save our favors for something a little more substantial

Unless we are getting a lot more bang than it sounds like out of these, yeah, save our favors.

[El Guapo]

Well, maybe we can get our factories building those when we get around to setting those up.
[] Put out feelers, see if we can find some more L-K warheads, particularly the SRM/6 and LRM/10 variety
[] Maybe save our favors for something a little more substantial
[X] Give someone money in exchange for the missiles.

Would this really be calling in favors? Isn't our money essentially our favor back to the producers of the missiles?

If it's calling in significant favors, then probably not worth it. If it's just "hey, we're looking to buy these if any has them available to sell", then we should do that.

[$iljanus]

Well, maybe we can get our factories building those when we get around to setting those up.
[] Put out feelers, see if we can find some more L-K warheads, particularly the SRM/6 and LRM/10 variety
[] Maybe save our favors for something a little more substantial
[X] Give someone money in exchange for the missiles.

Would this really be calling in favors? Isn't our money essentially our favor back to the producers of the missiles?

If it's calling in significant favors, then probably not worth it. If it's just "hey, we're looking to buy these if any has them available to sell", then we should do that.

The Guapo saves me typing a whole bunch of words. What he said.

[gbasden]

Well, maybe we can get our factories building those when we get around to setting those up.
[] Put out feelers, see if we can find some more L-K warheads, particularly the SRM/6 and LRM/10 variety
[] Maybe save our favors for something a little more substantial
[X] Give someone money in exchange for the missiles.

Would this really be calling in favors? Isn't our money essentially our favor back to the producers of the missiles?

If it's calling in significant favors, then probably not worth it. If it's just "hey, we're looking to buy these if any has them available to sell", then we should do that.

The Guapo saves me typing a whole bunch of words. What he said.

Sure, this.

[Hyena]

Well, maybe we can get our factories building those when we get around to setting those up.
[] Put out feelers, see if we can find some more L-K warheads, particularly the SRM/6 and LRM/10 variety
[] Maybe save our favors for something a little more substantial
[X] Give someone money in exchange for the missiles.

Would this really be calling in favors? Isn't our money essentially our favor back to the producers of the missiles?

If it's calling in significant favors, then probably not worth it. If it's just "hey, we're looking to buy these if any has them available to sell", then we should do that.

The Guapo saves me typing a whole bunch of words. What he said.

Sure, this.

Agreed.

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Save our favors for something more substantial - unanimous

Since nobody's really making these any more, we'd have to go out to one of our FedCom contacts and ask if they have any secret stockpiles of the things. Among other things, we decide we don't want to bother Hawk, and save taking advantage of Scrub's relationship with Captain Allred for a more rainy day.

January 22, 3045
50km west of Unzmarkt Resources Limited Pipe Facility 82-G
(not to be confused with Underground Pipe Facility 82-G)

The environmental liberators aren't ones to sit on their laurels, having blown up one processing facility, and get cracking on another URL mine. We happen to be having some of the replacement corporate security trainees running a field exercise with "remote supervision" while Beta-Assault remains at the facility.

The exercise turns a little more 'live fire' than one would normally prefer, as the light mech lance and Harasser missile platform are set upon by two tank lances. Beta-Assault winds up a little busy with a company of mechs coming to attack the facility, but Zenn7 decides that it's appropriate to send out air support. We load up within minutes, cluster bombs ready to go, and the three fighters go zipping off.

The incoming hostiles are two lances of medium tanks, so this shouldn't be a problem for our aircraft - "we'll fly in, drop some bombs, done", the flight leader concludes.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

One of our Lightnings (Strike One) peels to the right, avoiding the ineffective anti-aircraft fire and blasting the armor off a Hetzer with the AC/20 and a little laser brush. The other Lightning (Strike Three) is less effective, but does melt the main gun on a Drillson hovertank (the main gun being a large laser). Our Lucifer flies further ahead, taking a little anti-aircraft fire from a Condor's autocannon, swerving around a salvo of LRMs from the nearby LRM carrier and dropping a solid bomb load from high altitude. The bombs are pretty effective, blowing the LRM Carrier apart and immobilizing the Condor.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

Strike Three makes an attack run against another Condor hovertank, disabling it as it moves to engage the corporate trainees, while our Lucifer breaks far north and takes the wheels (and a bunch of other stuff) off an SRM Hetzer that's gotten bogged down in some swamp terrain. Strike Three buckles a little as an LRM-toting Hetzer pings some warheads off its armor, but there are no breaches and the aero jock remains airborne.

This was obviously a distraction, as the remaining "live" hostiles turn it around and pack it in, rapidly retreating where they came from. Our aircraft are in pretty good shape, and we've still got a nearly full load of bombs, which is a problem: if we want our units to get there in time to help Beta-Assault out (they're facing a company of mechs, including a heavy lance), we'll need to ditch the bombs.

[] Drop the bombs, get to Beta-Assault's position faster
[] Keep the bombs, get to Beta-Assault's position a lot slower, possibly after the fight is over

[Leraje]

Drop the bombs. Preferably on the retreating targets.