Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

gbasden · Post by **gbasden** » Wed Oct 31, 2018 1:41 pm

I was thinking Delta One, but something with some speed and mobility that has at least a little staying power would be good.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Wed Oct 31, 2018 1:52 pm

I think it would make sense to make sure that the reinforced lance comes in with a lot of range (decent amount of AC/5s, AC/10s, LRMs, and the like) so that they can start contributing quickly once they show up. Not sure which one has the highest percentage of that.

NickAragua · Post by **NickAragua** » Wed Oct 31, 2018 2:40 pm

With the exception of Delta-Three and Gamma-Three, most of our lances have adequate to superior long range firepower.

Of the named examples:
Alpha-Two has a pair of AC/2s, a pair of AC/10s, an LRM/15 and a large laser, and arrives on turn 6.
Delta-One has three LRM/10s, a PPC and a large laser. If Freyland goes back into the Quickdraw, that adds another LRM/10 and sets the arrival turn to 4, while the Grasshopper is a bit slower but adds an LRM/5 and another large laser and sets the arrival turn to 5.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Wed Oct 31, 2018 2:44 pm

Delta One seems reasonable. The switch to the Quickdraw seems worth it to get an earlier arrival.

Freyland · Post by **Freyland** » Wed Oct 31, 2018 4:26 pm

The QD is up and running again?

NickAragua · Post by **NickAragua** » Wed Oct 31, 2018 4:37 pm

Yeah, the quiet period gave our techs time to rebuild missing torso sections and limbs.

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Wed Oct 31, 2018 10:42 pm

I support sending Delta 1 to reinforce as well.

NickAragua · Post by **NickAragua** » Thu Nov 01, 2018 11:20 am

"Alpha-One, Delta-One, you're up." Gbasden briefs our mechwarriors. "This is our target. Destroy all marked buildings. If we can rout the Lyrans guarding the base, great. If not, it doesn't matter."

"What about those dropships that disappeared?" Asks one of the mechwarriors.

"I don't know. None of our business, really. We blow the base, the Marauders get their business done, then we're out of here."

The rest of our forces begin packing up in preparation for departure - a company of mechs and a pair of the repaired aerospace fighters will remain active and board the Union just prior to departure, while everyone else gets boxed up and stuffed into one of the Mule's cavernous cargo bays.

Regional command center attack begins!

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Thu Nov 01, 2018 2:02 pm

So at least one of those dropships is 100% going to show up in the middle of this mission, then?

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Thu Nov 01, 2018 2:03 pm

El Guapo wrote: ↑Thu Nov 01, 2018 2:02 pm So at least one of those dropships is 100% going to show up in the middle of this mission, then?

Chekhov's dropwessel.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Thu Nov 01, 2018 2:05 pm

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Thu Nov 01, 2018 2:03 pm
El Guapo wrote: ↑Thu Nov 01, 2018 2:02 pm So at least one of those dropships is 100% going to show up in the middle of this mission, then?
Chekhov's dropwessel.

I guess I shouldn't say 100%. I would say 80% it shows up during this mission, and 20% it's the premise of the next mission after this.

NickAragua · Post by **NickAragua** » Sun Nov 18, 2018 6:38 pm

Briefing
Deployment
Turn 1
Turn 2
Turn 3
Turn 4
Turn 5
Turn 6
Turn 7
Turn 8
Turn 9
Turn 10
End

Long story short, our force completely routed the garrison at the enemy base, allowing our merc buddies to retrieve the data they were after without interference, racking up about three million C-Bills worth of salvage, including a head-capped Phoenix Hawk. We immediately begin packing everything up, although we do leave a company of mechs un-boxed. They will be loading up into the Union right before we leave. It's also got a pair of aerospace launch bays, so we'll be able to deploy a pair of fighters.

Our dropships have their engines "warmed up", and can be ready to take off within five minutes. Granted, it consumes more fuel than not running the engines, but we're not exactly in friendly territory, so the expenditure is warranted.

So, let's pick out three lances, and a pair of aircraft for guard duty. Y'know, just in case.

Available lances: (Alpha-One and Delta-One are technically available, but haven't had a chance for repairs yet)

Spoiler:

Stefan Stirzaker · Post by **Stefan Stirzaker** » Sun Nov 18, 2018 8:29 pm

Yay team!

Beta and gamma one and delta two are my thoughts

gbasden · Post by **gbasden** » Sun Nov 18, 2018 10:13 pm

Beta 1, Gamma 1 and Alpha 3 in case we need some speed?

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Mon Nov 19, 2018 1:02 am

Beta 1, Gamma1 and Alpha 3 (let's give the regulars a chance to get some experience since they will be backed up by our veteran heavy units).

Alpha's Lucifers for Air Support (if we need it, let's take the heaviest thing we got).

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Mon Nov 19, 2018 1:06 am

My bullet spongeyness counts as helping, right?

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Mon Nov 19, 2018 1:28 am

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Mon Nov 19, 2018 1:06 am My bullet spongeyness counts as helping, right?

Sure! We couldn't have taken as much damage without you absorbing all those bullets (lasers/missile/whatever). You're so helpful, we're only docking your pay a little to help cover repairs!

NickAragua · Post by **NickAragua** » Mon Nov 19, 2018 6:29 pm

January 24, 3036
The last of the boxed-up mechs are still being loaded up on the Mule when the captain of the Union calls down to the mech hangar and the mechwarriors still out on patrol.

"We've got some serious sensor pings coming in, you boys better get out there and hold things together, unless you want to leave some of your mechs behind."

"What kind of pings, and how many?" asks Scrub.

"Uh, tanks, and not all of them, I think." comes the reply.

"Yeah, that's helpful." Scrub states, rolling her eyes. "Zenn7, you better get your mechs out here, we've got some serious company coming. Dropships, fire up those engines. If we can't hold these guys off, we're dusting off."

Beta-One, Gamma-One and Alpha-Three have been deployed to defend our Mule and Union against a fairly overwhelming-looking force. There are at least forty sensor returns about to enter visual range, and another equal number about two and a half minutes out.

Our job is to either annihilate them, or hold them long enough for the dropships to fire up their engines. Beta-One is the two Awesomes (Zenn7 and Zarathud), Victor (LordMortis) and a Thunderbolt. Gamma-One is a Warhammer (Scrub), Striker (Hyena), Grasshoper (Cylus), Thunderbolt (modified, Xwraith). Alpha-Three is a Wolverine, a Quickdraw, a Griffin and a Shadow Hawk. A pair of Lucifer fighters are also standing by in the Union's hangars, ready to launch if we need them.

As the opfor closes in, it's basically a swarm of tanks. There are helicopters, hovercraft, and a few heavies/assaults thrown in the mix. It's going to be a tough fight.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

The opfor closes in. Our lances are a little bit disorganized, but move out to meet the approaching units. The closest enemy forces are a batch of hovercraft from the east, and the little SOBs open up with LRMs on the Union, plinking a few missiles off the armor.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

A Peregrine VTOL zips a little too close to the Union and pays the price, just about disappearing as it's hit by a PPC shot, autocannon fire and an LRM salvo. The Union and Hyena open fire on a Pegasus as it unloads SRMs on the Union, autocannon fire and PPC shots disabling the hovercraft, while Hyena blasts an SRM launcher off with a medium laser to drive the point home.

To the southwest, Cylus, Xwraith and the other Thunderbolt engage a cluster of hovercraft, with long-range fire support from Zenn7. Zenn7 and Xwraith score some minor hits on a Saracen hovercraft, blowing away chunks of the skirt but not disabling it. Cylus sends some LRMs straight down a Maxim's tailpipe as it stops for a second to offload some infantry. As the infantry climb out, the hovercraft shudders then drops to the ground. A pair of lasers fry a few of the infantry as well.

Our Shadow Hawk performs exceptionally well against a Saladin that zips in, putting a PPC shot through the weak right side armor to core it out.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

"Beta-One to Alpha-Three and Four. LRM Carriers grouping up to the west, getting ready to fire on the Mule. Take them out. Now. I'll keep the anklebiters off you." Zenn7 calls out.

The LRM Carriers decide to fire on Zenn7 initially though, although, thankfully, all 180 of the LRMs miss completely. Dodging said LRMs takes a toll on his targeting ability, and though he scores hits on a Vedette, he fails to disable it.

The Mule does take some fire from short and long range, but disables a Saracen with its rather (compared to the Union) limited weapons battery, lasers doing most of the work.

To the east of the Union, LordMortis takes apart a Condor with the Victor's AC/20, scattering the remains with a four-pack of SRMs. Hyena fires on another Condor, ripping holes in the hover skirt with the AC/10 to slow the hovertank down considerably. The Union capitalizes on the Condor's slowness to blast it with several medium lasers and immobilize it, while blowing apart an incoming Vedette to the north with an LRM salvo. Hyena takes some return fire from the Condors before they are disabled or destroyed, but armor holds up.

Scrub takes a few hits from a nearby Maximum and other tanks, including six or so SRMs, one of which blows out a heat sink and medium laser on the left torso.

To the southwest, Cylus opens fire on a Warrior helicopter, putting a few lasers through the motor section. To his great surprise, the pilot manages to bring the chopper down without exploding. Xwraith puts the Thunderbolt's ER Large and standard medium lasers to good use, carving off enough of the nearby Saracen's air ducts that the hovercraft is immobilized, slowly sliding down to settle at the bottom of a hill.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

Zenn7 concentrates, despite the continuing incoming LRM barrage (which starts to hit), and blows away the Vedette he was targeting, as it fires at the nearby Thunderbolt. The mechwarrior driving that machine fires over the Vedette to hit a Scorpion to the southwest, thinning out the armor with a large laser, then blasting in with LRMs.

The mule starts taking fire from the LRM Carriers, as well as some Hunters and a Saracen, which isn't that great.

Cylus's Grasshopper does its part, putting a large laser through the left side of an approaching Saladin, which causes severe damage to the motive systems, and convinces the crew to turn around. Xwraith fires at a Darter scout car, the improved accuracy of the ER Large Laser allowing the Thunderbolt to blow the little vehicle away with ease.

To the northeast, the Union blows away a Scropion with PPC and autocannon fire, along with a Pegasus and Maxim to the east, clearing the air quite significantly. Zarathud technically hits the Scorpion as well, but those PPC bolts just stir debris. It does take a significant amount of SRM and LRM fire, but the armor is pretty strong.

Another Saladin is disabled by the Shadow Hawk's PPC and LRMs, while Scrub's Warhammer continues to take fire from the nearby infantry. The Shadow Hawk then stomps on a nearby Darter, an explosion emerging from underneath the mech's boot as the vehicle's fuel tank detonates.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

The approaching enemy units become a little more cautious when going towards the Union, except for a single J. Edgar hover tank, which is annihilated when a salvo of 32 LRMs plasters the armor and detonates the fuel tank. The Shadow Hawk does a decent job as well, breaking through armor on a Galleon and knocking off the small laser on the left side with a boot.

Zenn7 has had enough of the LRM Carriers' barrage and blows one away with a pair of PPC shot. His mech's cockpit is hot even for his tolerance, which causes him to miss the third one, but it's irrelevant.

The Mule starts taking heavy damage, with several LRMs from a Scimitar cracking one of the landing struts. Xwraith is on the job, firing a laser blast that jams the offending hovercraft's turret in place. The Quickdraw finally jumps into the LRM Carrier formation as well, kicking one over.

"They're pulling back! We got 'em on the run!" calls out one of Alpha-Three's mechwarriors.

"That's a negative." Scrub responds. "They've got more coming in. Mule, what's your status?"

"We got shot up pretty good, I don't know if we can lift off, anymore." Comes the discouraging response.

"Understood. Beta-One, Alpha-Three, rally on the Mule, establish a perimeter. Keep these tread-heads off of it. Do not pursue past one kilometer.

Round 6-15:

Spoiler:

The attacking forces back off, although we pursue briefly, and they lose three more units- a Galleon to the Union's fire, an SRM Carrier to our pursuing Wolverine and the last LRM Carrier to our Quickdraw. The rest retreat behind woods and hills, while we reposition.

If we can't drive the next wave off, we'll have to abandon what we haven't loaded yet, which is about two lances of mechs, including two heavies. Well, assuming that the Mule can take off, anyway. If it can't, then we'll have to stand and fight until the end - losing the Mule and what's on board basically puts us back to company-size.

NickAragua · Post by **NickAragua** » Tue Nov 20, 2018 10:46 am

It doesn't take long for the next wave to arrive: another forty or so tanks. The battered previous wave rejoins the fight as well.

On the plus side, one of the fresh VTOLs zipping in encounters some unexpected air turbulence and slams into a hillside. Surprisingly enough, it's intact, but it's done for the fight.

Round 16:

Spoiler:

The Union opens fire at one of the enemy tanks that had stuck around out of line of sight, a Behemoth. The LRM salvo does no internal damage, but the assault tank's treads are shredded, rendering it immobile. The rest of the dropship's weapons fire goes, with little success, to a Manticore, and with more success towards the foot platoon that's been harassing Scrub's Warhammer.

LordMortis jumps to the top of the nearby hill, firing his AC/20 at a Partisan mounting several LRMs racks (normally it mounts four AC/5s). The autocannon easily peels off the armor, then the last few shells impact the internal ammo storage. The resulting explosion is nothing short of spectacular.

Zenn7 blasts a Saracen that zips in. It's technically intact, but the hovercraft's evasive manuevers, combined with three PPC impacts to its air ducts, cause the air cushion to disappear long enough to grind itself into the dirt.

The Mule continues taking a beating - the armor on the left side is destroyed and some weapons fire gets into one of the cargo bays. Cylus cuts the offending Scimitar into ribbons with the Grasshopper's lasers, but it's not looking too good for our cargo ship.

Zenn7 calls for air support, and our aero jocks tap their feet impatiently as the cranes lever them out of their hangars (something about it not being safe to fire thrusters at full burn into the back of the fighter bay).

Round 17:

Spoiler:

Another VTOL crashes into some trees as it banks low to try to avoid the last of the Mule's fire. Small favors. That being said, the swarm to the east closes in.

The Union opens up on the heaviest nearby tank, the Manticore, blasting through the front armor and destroying it. A PPC and some autocannon rounds are spared for a helicopter harassing the Mule, the PPC grazing the rotor and shorting out a flight stabilizer. The close-in laser array blows out the air ducts on a Condor hovertank approaching a little too close.

The Mule pulls its own weight a little bit, zapping a Peregrine out of the sky with its medium lasers. Trying to cover it, Zenn7 rotates his mech to the right and fires on a Manticore to the northwest. The attack is at near maximum PPC range, but one of the PPC blasts burns through the turret and triggers some electrical feedback, which detonates all the on-board ammo, blowing the top off the heavy tank. It comes too late though. The tank's last PPC shot hits another landing strut, while some LRMs fly towards the engines. There's a pretty substantial detonation, and the Mule slowly and ominously lists to the side. Combined to the hits to the cargo bays, that's gonna be a lot of damaged equipment.

Zarathud is now able to hold the north flank single-handedly, as the only units approaching from there are slow, medium tanks. A Vedette eats three PPCs and cored out.

Round 18:

Spoiler:

The aero jocks finally launch. A little late to the party, but maybe they'll help rout the sons of bitches that wrecked one of our dropships - without the Mule, we can't get all of our equipment off-planet, and will need to find some alternate means of transport. Perhaps our fellow mercs had a plan for getting off-world, we'll need to talk to them. But that's a problem for later, right now, we've got a bunch of assholes in tanks that need to be destroyed.

The Union blows away a Warrior helicopter that's doing a victory lap by Zenn7's mech, the ammo detonation causing our mechwarrior to flinch a little. The rest of the weapons fire from the dropship is pretty disappointing.

Xwraith moves to engage a lance of Vedettes to the southwest. Despite the right-next-door ammo explosion, Zenn7 blows one away with three PPC shots, including one to the fuel tank. Xwraith uses short-range lasers to weaken the armor on the other one, then kick through it, ripping off about half the side of the tank. The other Thunderbolt to the northwest also breaches the armor on a Vedette, knocking the crew around and perhaps convincing them to pull back.

A Hunter sends its last set of LRMs at the Union, blowing out an AC/5 mount in the nose cone (which is fine, it can't aim low enough to be useful anyway), and is then disabled by a solid strike from the Quickdraw, which breaches armor and destroys the engine.

LordMortis tries to clear the area around the Union a little, sending SRMs at a nearby Vedette through smoke, neatly popping both sets of treads with an SRM each. Scrub scores a major victory on our end, disabling the Ontos heavy tank to the east with a PPC shot.

Our Wolverine to the southeast zaps the rather weak armor off a Harasser missile platform as it zips in, then kicks it over, right before one of our Lucifers drops a load of bombs on the clustered enemies a scant hundred meters away, destroying an SRM Carrier and Saladin hovertank, and severely damaging a Goblin medium tank. The aerospace fighter takes some SRMs in return, and the aero jock comes dangerously close to the ground, but makes it out all right.

Meanwhile, to the south our other Lucifer disables another Saladin on its way to bomb a cluster of tanks to the west.

Round 19:

Spoiler:

The enemy tankers' morale appears to be flagging a little, as we've destroyed over half of their force. Granted, they wrecked one of our dropships, but the fire against the Union is slacking off a little from the east, and our perimeter around the wreckage of the Mule to the west is holding pretty well.

The Union opens up on surrounding enemies, directing some LRMs at a jump platoon harassing Zenn7 to annihilate the unit. A Skulker that zipped up under the cover of woods and rough terrain tries to get up one of the ramps, but eats enough lasers to breach its armor, at which point the hangar crew is able to hold it off with small arms. A Drillson and a Scimitar eat LRMs and large lasers respectively, with the Drillson losing air ducts while the Scimitar gets some fresh ventilation.

Scrub, LordMortis and Hyena engage remaining enemy units near the Union, keeping them in place long enough for the low-altitude Lucifer to come in and drop the rest of its bombs. A Condor is blown away, as well as the rifle platoon that's been harassing Scrub's Warhammer for a while.

To the south, Cylus uses the Grasshopper's lasers to disable another Pegasus, leaving not much on that flank. Xwraith engages a Vedette, jumping a little below it and firing alsers, then literally punching out the engine.

Southwest, our second Lucifer drops a large amount of bombs on a cluter of enemy tanks, taking out a Vedette and a Scorpion, and severely damaging a Manticore. Our Griffin takes down an AC/2 Carrier with a boot, having successfully tied up both it and an LRM Carrier.

At this point, our Union is pretty beat up (in fact, later on, our tech crew informs us that they'll need to fix the docking collar before we go anywhere, as we'll be unable to dock with a jumpship without that working), but we've taken down about 2/3 of the enemy force. After listening to the crew's panicked transmissions, Cpt. Scrub goes out to the open channel.

"1st Octopus Overlords to hostile armor units. You might blow up our second dropship, but there's no way in hell you're leaving here alive if you do that. Let's talk cease fire."

The response is not entirely surprising. "Hand over all the data you've been gathering. We've shed too much blood to just walk away."

We spend a few seconds trying to figure out where the liaison is. Just our luck, the son of a bitch was on board the Mule, and got knocked out by a falling girder. Jake Morrison, the guy in charge of the Marauders (whose units were also all on the Mule) sighs when asked.

"Looks like we ain't getting off this rock unless we give those bastards the data. I'm keeping a copy, though, and that liaison fella ain't gonna be happy about it, with neither of us. What say we don't tell him?"

Our options:
1. Hand over the data, keep a copy, don't tell the liaison (maybe he won't figure it out?).
2. Hand over the data, keep a copy, tell the liaison (maybe he'll let it slide and/or doesn't care?).
3. Tell the tread-heads to screw off and keep shooting (pretty risky, the Union is creaking and groaning, and the right side of it looks like swiss cheese).

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Nov 20, 2018 11:23 am

#1 seems like the best option, unless it's very likely that the liaison will find out (and have proof - if he suspects it but we deny it, that doesn't seem like a big problem). What are the odds (roughly) that the liaison finds out on his own?

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Tue Nov 20, 2018 11:23 am

I'm fine with #2. If he objects too much, he can always serve as a FOD test on the engines.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Tue Nov 20, 2018 11:50 am

#4 -- hand over the data, then track the bastards down and blown them up. Nobody scratches our ride.

NickAragua · Post by **NickAragua** » Tue Nov 20, 2018 12:46 pm

El Guapo wrote: ↑Tue Nov 20, 2018 11:23 am #1 seems like the best option, unless it's very likely that the liaison will find out (and have proof - if he suspects it but we deny it, that doesn't seem like a big problem). What are the odds (roughly) that the liaison finds out on his own?

He might figure it out if he gets access to the communications logs. Which would be hard, given that his mech was deactivated at the time, and we're under no obligation to give him access to ours. He might also figure it out if the data in question shows up on the open market, but the hostile tank crew has been laying into the Steiner forces just as much as we have, so maybe they got it elsewhere? Or he'd figure it out if we blab about it.

The point being, it would take a dedicated spook effort for him to figure it out.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Nov 20, 2018 1:06 pm

NickAragua wrote: ↑Tue Nov 20, 2018 12:46 pm
El Guapo wrote: ↑Tue Nov 20, 2018 11:23 am #1 seems like the best option, unless it's very likely that the liaison will find out (and have proof - if he suspects it but we deny it, that doesn't seem like a big problem). What are the odds (roughly) that the liaison finds out on his own?
He might figure it out if he gets access to the communications logs. Which would be hard, given that his mech was deactivated at the time, and we're under no obligation to give him access to ours. He might also figure it out if the data in question shows up on the open market, but the hostile tank crew has been laying into the Steiner forces just as much as we have, so maybe they got it elsewhere? Or he'd figure it out if we blab about it.

The point being, it would take a dedicated spook effort for him to figure it out.

Yeah, so I'd definitely say #1. They'll be more mad if they come across proof that we gave them the data than if we fessed up on our own, but not *that* much more mad, and the odds that they find out and have proof seem low enough that it makes more sense to shut the hell up.

gbasden · Post by **gbasden** » Tue Nov 20, 2018 2:02 pm

What is we did 1, but only partially? Give them some data but hold some back? Then if it shows up on the open market it's more plausible that they got it elsewhere.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Nov 20, 2018 2:04 pm

gbasden wrote: ↑Tue Nov 20, 2018 2:02 pm What is we did 1, but only partially? Give them some data but hold some back? Then if it shows up on the open market it's more plausible that they got it elsewhere.

Not a bad idea, although if they suspect that we're holding back, there's a risk that they would open fire.

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Tue Nov 20, 2018 7:38 pm

How great a risk though? They know if they don't like it and try to shoot us up, they're going to die here no matter how much more damage they do to us. Besides, would they have any way of figuring out (in the short time frame that it will matter - before we repair the dropships and get outta here) that we didn't give them all the data?

Did we just get incredibly unlucky? That seemed like a brutally large force attacking us.

Stefan Stirzaker · Post by **Stefan Stirzaker** » Tue Nov 20, 2018 8:06 pm

Maybe we've already transmitted it out of system already?

NickAragua · Post by **NickAragua** » Tue Nov 20, 2018 10:02 pm

When you bring the idea of only giving part of the data up to the merc commander, he chuckles. "That's actually not a bad idea. We've got reams and reams of it, and it's all encrypted. Unless they've got a supercomputer like they've got up in New Avalon or Atreus Polytech in one of those tanks, they probably won't figure it out until whoever is giving them orders gets a hold of it. I'd say it's a pretty low risk."

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Wed Nov 21, 2018 12:40 am

ok, let's do that then.

Freyland · Post by **Freyland** » Wed Nov 21, 2018 12:52 am

Hell, in that case, let's just encrypt Jet Fred's Steam Game listing and give them that.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Wed Nov 21, 2018 12:53 am

I was going to go with our Spam mailbox.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Wed Nov 21, 2018 12:57 am

Freyland wrote: ↑Wed Nov 21, 2018 12:52 am Hell, in that case, let's just encrypt Jet Fred's Steam Game listing and give them that.

I like that idea, but I'd like to tweak it and suggest that we encrypt Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy" music video and send them that.

xwraith · Post by **xwraith** » Wed Nov 21, 2018 12:20 pm

cat /dev/random >> RecoveredDataSet_001_HighSecurity.bin
cat /usr/shared/recovered_docs/hydroponics_system_manuals/*.zip >> RecoveredDataSet_001_HighSecurity.bin
cat /dev/random >> RecoveredDataSet_001_HighSecurity.bin

Cylus Maxii · Post by **Cylus Maxii** » Wed Nov 21, 2018 1:00 pm

I like the idea of giving them only partial data. Possibilities of them thinking we've held some back exist no matter how much we give. Even if we are honorable in an exchange, there is no guarantee that they won't take the data and attack us anyway. And who knows if they even know the nature of the data or how much we have.

NickAragua · Post by **NickAragua** » Wed Nov 21, 2018 6:32 pm

I feel like I wouldn't be doing this battle justice if I didn't include a full picture of the final battlefield state.

Spoiler:

Zarathud is responsible for most of the stuff to the north, LordMortis, Scrub, Hyena and the Union to the east, Zenn7, xwraith and Cylus did their work to the west and south. The Mule was to the southwest of the Union. The opfor was basically two full Triumphs' worth of tanks (88!), and pushed us pretty much to the limit. (I actually played out another couple of turns for fun, and the Union survived the "organized retreat", with us taking down another ten of them with one of our mechs crapping out due to gyro damage. So, we had them.)

-----------------
After conferring with Cpt. Morrison and hashing out what he's going to do (that is, hand over an incomplete version of the data we acquired), Scrub gets on the horn to the enemy commander. "I'll have my tech guys begin transmitting the data. Hope you've got high-capacity storage, there's a lot of it. Anything else you want? A cup of coffee? A swift kick to the ass?"

"Yes, actually." comes the reply. "We'd like to recover our personnel and equipment."

"Don't push your luck." answers Scrub, almost managing to send a scowl over the audio-only channel. "The people, you can have back. The tanks, we're keeping."

You can kind of hear teeth grinding against each other. "Fine."

We arrange the details of the prisoner exchange - basically, the other guys bring in a couple of APCs, going tank-to-tank and picking up survivors (escorted by a couple of our mechs), with the rest of their units pulled back beyond LRM range of the Union and wrecked Mule. The "abridged" data transfer and prisoner exchange take several hours, as there are a lot of wrecked tanks (and a large amount of data to transfer - Morrison calls up several times, laughing as he informs us of a delay because the other guys have to "swap out data crystals").

We walk away with about 4M C-Bills worth of salvaged tanks, which is about 3% of the cost of a Mule.

This is where we thank Weisman for the "Battle Loss Compensation" clause of our contract, which pretty clearly states that we get reimbursed for 80% of the value of lost units. So, once we sort it out, we'll actually only be set back about 20M, rather than than the full 100M.

Once the half regiment of tanks leaves (about half of the guys that came at us), we have our work cut out for us. The captain of the Union informs us that making it spaceworthy will require at least four days. And another week and a half if we don't want it to fall apart the second a stray meteorite hits it. At least we don't need a space dock or anything, the damage can be fixed in place.

The second problem is that we don't have any transport for anything that doesn't fit in the Mule.

Asking Cpt. Morrison about it, his unit doesn't own any dropships and were going to rely on the Free Worlds League to provide transport in and out. We were the "out" part. The liaison (once he wakes up) suggests that he place a call home via HPG to see if he can wrangle up a ride, but it may take some time to arrange. Someone else suggests "going into town" to see if there are any dropships for hire - we *are* on a pretty well-settled world, so it wouldn't be too unreasonable to find somebody who owns a cargo dropship who's also interested in carrying a large amount of boxed-up military hardware in various stages of repair off-world, discreetly.

We do both. The members of Delta-One, their mechs being "under the weather" anyway, sneak out to the "local" spaceport (several days driving, actually). The liaison visits the HPG and tells us that the FWL won't be able to send a dropship out until end of May. Delta-One trolls the local spacer bars and gets in contact with an "import/export arrangement specialist" who's willing to hire out a couple of Manatees (which are basically unarmed freighters with about 1/6 the capacity of a Mule). It "only" comes out to about 15% over the going rate. And he won't be able to get them together until end of February. We agree and drive back to the dropship (via a really circuitous route, abandoning the rental car to get picked up by an APC), then settle in to wait.

For the next two months, nobody really bothers us, although a lot of the mechwarriors get stir crazy, sitting in the Union under radio silence. The wait gives us time to strip the wreckage of the Mule for spare parts. You can't exactly re-use the core systems, but weapons, armor and heat sinks are all interchangeable between dropships. And also gives us time to patch up the Union so it won't fall apart during takeoff. Actually, as an added bonus, while fixing their dropship up, the crew discovers that the ship is under-mass by half a ton. Which is great, meaning we can slap more armor on there, once we get access to a spacedock.

A few of our mechwarriors and techs examine some of the last batch of captured vehicles, in a bid to figure out where they came from. Not that we care, really, but it may be useful in case someone starts shooting at us again. The crews definitely originated in Marik space. So, it seems, as usual, the Free Worlds League don't have their act together. We avoid telling the liaison.

Scrub spends the time taking advice from Zenn7 on tuning her Warhammer's PPCs and targeting system, greatly improving her PPC gunnery.

Hyena: do you want to a) improve gunnery by 1 or b) specialize in PPCs, medium lasers or the AC/10 (pick one, gives a +2 bonus to hit with one of those weapons)

By the end of February, we've fixed up the Union. The Manatees arrive as promised and we load up, burning for orbit and heading to Outreach. After all is said and done, we've got 614M C-Bills in the bank. Our original plan after this was to buy an Invader-class jumpship, but we're not quite there as a result. We'll need to make a decision later on.

When we get to Outreach, Col. Ferrerro drops us a note via HPG, congratulating us on a job well done and sympathizing about the dropship. He also authorizes a shipment of four Streak SRM/2 launchers and two tons of ammo for each, so we'll have to think about what to do with those. I'll post up some refit options later after I've had time to think about them.

So, long-term planning, let's pick one option:
1) Do we "settle" and buy a Merchant-class for for 534M? or
2) Do we replace the Mule for 163M? or
3) Do we continue saving up for an Invader-class (670M?)

Our warchest is currently at ~550M C-Bills (projected, after sale of redundant and salvaged equipment). We would have no problem securing a short-term loan for the Merchant.

A Merchant only has the two docking collars. It's also got two "small craft" bays, capable of carrying spacecraft that are heavier than aerospace fighters but way lighter than dropships. Useful if we need extra firepower space-side. The twodocking collars don't give us much room to expand our dropship "fleet" without buying an extra jumpship after that. Once we get to more than one or two jumpships, the house militaries and intel services will start taking serious notice of us. Whether we want that or not, well, we'll see.

An Invader has three docking collars and two "small craft" bays. Slightly less cargo space, but still over 600 tons.

Not replacing the Mule means we'll be eating an extra 250k per jump in transport costs (or more, depending on what we need to haul). Previously, our jump costs were a nice, comfy 200k per jump (100k per collar we need to rent on a jumpship). Now they're more like 450k per jump. Which adds up if you're traveling across eight or nine systems. Also, going forward, we'll probably want to invest in more security for our landing zones so our dropships don't get cracked open.

One last thing.

On the way back to Outreach, Archinerd celebrates his 50th birthday.

Gbasden is not terribly surprised when the older mechwarrior comes into his cabin the next day, nursing a hangover from too much "coolant fluid". "Hate to do this to you, boss, but I think it's time for me to hang up the neurohelmet."

"What's the occasion?" Gbasden asks, with a smirk.

"Got a message via HPG after last jump. Turns out I'm going to have grandkids."

"Oh yeah? Whereabouts?"

"Right in the middle of the Suns. Some place called Covington. Younger daughter and her husband picked it to settle down, and I guess they don't mind having a senile old mechwarrior around. With his millions of C-Bills."

Gbasden chuckles and offers his hand. "It's been a pleasure, my friend."

The two shake. "I uh, have an older daughter looking for work, though. Just finished her tour of duty in the First FedCom Lancers, so she's a pretty hotshot mech pilot. Was thinking of giving her my mech."

Gbasden nods. "Send me her file, I'll look it over. I'm sure she'll make the cut. Best of luck to you and yours. Any recommendations on who should take charge of Delta Company?"

Spoiler:

73 missions
98 confirmed kills
10 years service
First (and heaviest) kill was a Triumph-class Dropship, using a Clint CLNT-2-3T
Managed to avoid any injuries worse than cuts and bruises, despite a ten-year career
First mech was a Flea, which got cored out on its first time out
Vast majority of missions and kills in a Dervish DV-6M, which has been extensively customized (with goat urine?)
Became an ace on 5/21/3032, after scoring a kill on a Draconis Combine Panther using the Dervish. Total of 14 mech kills, including three heavies.
Final payout: 12.2M C-bills

Three candidates to take charge of Delta Company:
Cpl. Kesia "Freyland" Hauli - 11 years service, 62 missions, 74 confirmed kills
Sgt. Mab "Paingod" Orme - 11 years service, 75 missions, 51 confirmed kills
Smj. Shi-Wen "Madmarcus" Xu - 10 years service, 66 missions, 56 confirmed kills

Freyland · Post by **Freyland** » Wed Nov 21, 2018 9:11 pm

My mech will arm wrestle their mechs for the job.

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Wed Nov 21, 2018 10:20 pm

Let's make Smj (Sergeant Major I assume) Madmarcus the leader - we pay him the most already, less pain on our payroll. More money to invest in our growing company.

PS: How long til we get enough mechs to go set up our own little empire?

gbasden · Post by **gbasden** » Wed Nov 21, 2018 10:29 pm

I lean towards continuing to save for the Invader. It seems to give us the most flexibility in the long run for growth.

Madmarcus definitely has the edge in rank. Has that been a deciding factor before?

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Wed Nov 21, 2018 11:36 pm

gbasden wrote: ↑Wed Nov 21, 2018 10:29 pm I lean towards continuing to save for the Invader. It seems to give us the most flexibility in the long run for growth.

Madmarcus definitely has the edge in rank. Has that been a deciding factor before?

Ever since I started helping our accountant... yes (think this is the first promotion since then though).

I agree with the Invader, but do we want to get a Mule until then (it'll take ~652 jumps before we break even on the Mule, but if we plan to grow really big, we'd want it even after we get the Invader I'm thinking).

But definitely only getting the Mule if we make some solid plans for base defense to greatly reduce the odds of it being destroyed again. Can't afford many more losses like that.