The downside to house-command contracts is that we don't really get much leeway in what objectives we accept. But at least it's not integrated, where we don't even get to pick the right forces for the job necessarily.
November 17, 3034
Our first task this week is to destroy a Ronin-held parts and supply depot near landing zone B that's been supplying their mech and armor columns with spare parts and ammunition. We assign Beta One to the task, being the best equipped to pulverize stationary targets from long range. No additional surprises beyond the garrison greet them as they arrive. The garrison itself is a core lance of assault tanks (a Demolisher and three Rhinos), along with two reinforced lances of light mechs and light tanks. Four stationary turrets round out the base. Jay, the attached CO driving a Griffin will be joining Beta One again. He informs us that we can either rout the defenders (in which case, we'll have time to loot the depot for ammo and spare parts) or just blow away the designated buildings and be done with it. We'll see how it goes.
Zenn7 convinces the CO to wait until the night-time full blown storm passes. When it does, it starts snowing a little bit. Well, better a little snow than lightning bolts and wind. We deploy most of Beta-One to the west, while Zenn7 and Jay in the Griffin deploy to the north. Some brief structural scans reveal the designated structures as being quite weak, so just blowing away the buildings and fading may be a decent option.
Round 1:
Zenn7 and the Thunderbolt both work on other enemy turrets, with the Thunderbolt sparing an LRM salvo for a distant Rhino to heavily damage the tank's treads. The snow coming down from the sky helps cool our mechs off nicely.
Round 2:
Round 3:
Zenn7 goes for a nearby lake, although it'll take him another turn or two to get there. He continues trading fire with the Rhinos, this time fewer LRMs hit. The Thunderbolt gets up and goes to level a building as a Wasp hops up onto it, reducing the structural integrity to the point where it can't hold up and collapses. Being able to deliver a devastating curb stomp to the Wasp to crack its right torso wide open is icing on the cake. Zarathud blasts the MG turret with just two PPCs to cool off, collapsing the structure entirely. The Centurion trades weapons fire with a distant Hunter tank, inflicting some damage, then cracks the armor on the damaged Locust's right machinegun mount, breaking the weapon.
Round 4:
It's time to quit screwing around, take out that last MG turret and go. Difficulty: the MG turret is past a Demolisher tank with its dual AC/20s.
Round 5:
Luckily, it's not a very difficult decision any more, as our Centurion takes aim at the last, distant target building and lets LRMs fly. As the missiles impact, the turret on top stops tracking and the building tilts just a little bit.
"Primary objective completed." Calls out the attached CO. "Continue fighting or pull back at your discretion."
We'll be pulling back. Our Thunderbolt collapses another building where an enemy Wasp had decided to land, causing the mech to take a spill. The attached CO and Zarathud both punch the left torso off their respective adjacent Locusts, with Zarathud's target having to go down to a knee to retain stability. Both mechs zip away after the experience.
Round 6:
Round 7:
This "Unarmed" Pegasus thing must be some kind of joke. Wait, let's look at the specs. Oh, he's got twelve tons of cargo space. Probably trying to evacuate some of the supplies. Don't let him get away!
Round 8:
Once they come back, it takes two full days to fix up Zenn7's Awesome. But since we're now a well-supplied unit with plenty of spare parts, the main issue is only being able to cram so many techs onto the mech at one time.
Over the next two days, Delta-One (minus Freyland, for whose mech the techs are having trouble re-attaching the replacement arm) will be ambushing an enemy supply convoy, while Gamma-One will be defending a supply depot recently captured by allied forces. By Saturday, Alpha-One will be in position to assault the enemy orbital defence facility, which should allow free movement of aircraft in the area once again, while Delta-Two will be running a diversionary feint against another supply depot in Delta-One's sector.
We've dealt some serious damage to the enemy forces, but the bulk of their heavier units have escaped destruction. They can throw all the Vedettes and hovertanks they want at us because they've got local factories churning those things out by the dozens, and our landing zones are nowhere near said factories.
In other news, El Guapo finds a Zeus for sale back on Outreach. The Zeus is a somewhat maligned 80-ton assault mech. Vital stats:
4/6 movement
184 armor (compared to the Awesome's 240)
17 heat sinks
AC/5
LRM/15
Large Laser
2x Medium Laser (one facing backwards)
So, it's basically got a pair of crappy pop guns, one useless laser and too many heat sinks. We'd obviously have to spend time modifying it. There's a variant replacing the AC/5 with a PPC, and we'd definitely rotate the medium laser forward. It's "slightly used" and goes on the MercBay for about 5.3M (compared to the 7.6M sticker price). Any takers? We'll definitely be doing the refit and won't be shipping it here so we won't be seeing it until after this contract is over.
Incidentally, there's also a variant of the Zeus that uses the "binary laser", otherwise known as a "blazer". This weapon is basically a double barrel laser, but, instead of doing twice the damage it only does 1.5x damage, while still producing twice the heat. Amazing! Sign me up! Oh yeah, and to make room for this monstrosity and required heat sinks, all the other weaponry gets taken off, except the an AC/5 and LRM/10. The model was such crap that the factory stopped making it, but the schematics for the refit kit are still available.