Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

[gbasden]

[ ] Commit extra forces as the militia asks

We're not giving over one of our own but the collateral damage needs to be made right. And I don't like to burn bridges unless necessary. If they get snippy however we take out the government.

I don't think we can take out the whole government. I mean, we could probably topple the locals but whoever's territory we're in is not going to appreciate that, and we can't fight a whole house!

But yes, we can commit the extra forces. Might not be the best for us, but better than pissing off the locals and giving our guy over is NOT an option.

I was just getting snippy...

Concur. And those fuckers cost us another pulse laser too.

[Zarathud]

Let’s not start a war at the same time we make a new base which can be raided.

[Drazzil]

[] Turn the aerospace pilot over to the militia
[X] Commit extra forces as the militia asks
[] Tell the militia to piss off

But not at a "greatly reduced rate". Losses are the fortunes of war. Oh and we might benefit in finding intelligence towards the aim of knocking these guys over if necessary.

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Stage the aero jock's dramatic escape from our custody - 1
commit extra forces - 7
Piss off - 1

Later review of the battle ROM data from the Chippewa shows that the aerospace fighter was hit with a laser blast from a Wasp while in the process of releasing its cluster bombs. This shook the aircraft enough that one of the bombs went off course and landed square on top of the allied infantry. Our salvage crews on the scene after the fact confirm that approximately ten non-combatants were killed as a result of the bombing run. So, to avoid further tension with the planetary militia, we'll be committing the two extra lances to help them out - our general policy has been to take care of our own personnel first, and nobody sees any reason to change that.

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

"Anyone ever wonder why we still use the dumbass Terra calendar with the weird day counts in months?" El Guapo asks.

"No." Isgrimnur answers. Running a patrol route around the dropship is boring, but not that boring.

"Tradition." Stefan takes the bait.

"What tradition? We're either in space with no planetary reference frame, or on a planet where the year has no relation to the Terra year. You'd think we'd have switched over to stardates or something by now." El Guapo muses, idly watching the bottom camera as the Marauder's feet crush sparse local vegetation and small rocks.

"Maybe not. Look at the hebrew calendar, it's still in use, even though it's been around for like five thousand years." Stefan opines.

"Didn't know you were jewish." El Guapo states with a surprised tone.

"I'm not, but my girlfriend is. So, knowledge acquired via diffusion."

"So how do they handle days that aren't twenty four hours and years that aren't three sixty five days?"

"Well, it's a pretty de-centralized religion, so they just do things by local preference. Some changed the number of days they put in a month, some just use the Terra calendar without regards to local rotation cycles."

"That's all fascinating, but how does that help explain why we're still using the old Julian calendar?" El Guapo brings it back.

"Well, for either practical or sentimental reasons, people are often reluctant to change traditions - even if it'd probably be more efficient to standardize time keeping on some external factor like the rotation of a specific pulsar or whatever. Traditions help remind people of who they are and where they came from, and it's tough, and not always desirable, to let them go." Stefan finishes with a flourish.

There's a brief silence.

"Uh... I mean... I want to put a flamer on the back of my battlemech so I can say I light my farts on fire." Stefan adds, having realized that he's broken character.

"Hey, Aristotle and Rabbenu Tam, hate to interrupt your philosophical discussion, but you better go active sensors." Gbasden cuts in. "We've got contacts closing in on the Sparrow and they're not answering comms or responding to IFF."

Round 1:

Spoiler:

"Alpha-Strike, what's your ETA? We've got company and could use some help".

"Thirty minutes, boss."

"Never mind. It'll be over by then." Gbasden responds, lining up a shot at a distant Vedette with an ER PPC and watching as the blue lightning bolt flies cleanly over the top of the tank.

Our Union opens up on an approaching Galleon with its LRMs, blasting chunks out of the armor - Stefan finishes the light tank off with his own LRMs.

In the north, El Guapo camps out in a small lake to cool off and lights up an approaching LTV-4 hovertank with a PPC shot, causing the hovercraft to expel a large amount of air from the breach. Return fire flies harmlessly overhead, with only a couple of light autocannon rounds plinking against the Sparrow.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

"They, uh, have an Atlas." Stefan reports as him and Isgrimnur move north to provide backup for El Guapo. "Looks pretty souped up, I think I see a gauss rifle on one of the arms... and is that a PPC on the other?" Our two lighter mechs fire on the assault, but to little effect. Isgrimnur's autocannon barely scratches the paint job.

Gbasden cringes, but concentrates - the Awesome's current target is a Griffin, which takes a pair of PPC blasts to the left arm, followed up by some LRMs from the Sparrow, which disable the arm altogether. It's not the right arm, but every little bit helps. The enemy mechwarrior is unable to compensate for the lost limb and the mech takes a knee to keep from faceplanting.

The LTV-4 continues advancing at El Guapo, firing its turret-mounted PPC and missing. Its reduced speed makes it easier to hit, and our Marauder puts a PPC shot and a gauss slug into and through the front of the tank respectively. El Guapo's attempt to swat the nearby J. Edgar light tank is less successful.

The Sparrow reports taking a gauss round from the Atlas, as well as some LRMs. We're going to need to get a handle on this soon.

Round 3:
[data feed scrambled]
The Atlas continues pounding our Sparrow from basically out of its weapons range, while we're unable to inflict much damage on the enemy force.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

Time for Gbasden to get out of that water and move forward, the dropship is taking way too much damage.

At least said dropship is able to blow away a Scimitar hovertank (just as Stefan lands next to it, avoiding its fire) with its starboard batteries while the port-side batteries continue hammering the Griffin.

El Guapo takes a shoulder actuator hit from the annoying little J. Edgar, although he still manages to put a gauss slug through an approaching Scorpion tank. Literally, all the way through.

Isgrimnur takes a close-range shot at a Vedette trying to sneak up on the Union, cutting through the treads with a laser, which causes them to slip and the tank to bog down.

Round 5:
[data feed damaged]
El Guapo abandons his untenable position in the pond, as swarming hovercraft and a pair of mechs close in. He still gets a little beat up, but now at least he can take cover in between the buildings.

The Sparrow blows away a Striker firing LRMs at it and continues working on the Griffin to the south, blowing off an LRM/10 launcher. The enemy mechwarrior appears to have had enough and withdraws from weapons range.

Stefan's mech is buffeted by SRMs and other ordnance, the actuators aiming the right missile rack taking major damage.

Isgrimnur uses the hatchet to smash a Galleon tank, it's not much of a firepower reduction (that Atlas looks like it's packing a PPC and a gauss rifle, in addition to its LRM/20 rack), but, again every little bit helps.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

These guys are just too damn good. They're focusing fire on the Sparrow, which is taking a pounding. The chatter indicates heavy damage to one of the mech bays.

Except for the Dragon, which moves up to engage El Guapo's Marauder. El Guapo blows out the enemy mech's AC/5 with a point blank gauss round, but takes a kick to the leg which sends the armor indicator into the red.

Isgrimnur and Gbasden are unable to break up the cluster of tanks to the west, and the only casualty on the enemy side is that annoying little J. Edgar that's been harassing El Guapo - it eats multiple autocannon rounds from the dropship and drops to the ground, its engine shredded.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

Isgrimnur moves west, intending to loop around the back of the Atlas and try to get some rear armor shots, or at least trip it up. On the way, he finishes a Scorpion tank off with a burst from the Hatchetman's autocannon, then smashes a Vedette aside with the Hatchet.

Stefan's right missile rack comes off, which, frankly, isn't that big a deal since the actuators controlling it were already jammed up anyway. As the SRM Carrier he was trying to get explodes under the Union's LRM bombardment, the Catapult slips and falls to the ground, where a Locust runs up and kicks it for good measure.

The Dragon steps back briefly, allowing El Guapo to engage and knock down a Dervish.

The Atlas lines up its gauss rifle and PPC (extended-range from the looks of it, a normal PPC wouldn't be able to shoot that far), stepping out of Gbasden's line of fire and lets rip another salvo at the Sparrow, adding some LRMs for good measure. A huge gout of flame comes out of the dropship's port side and the lights flicker off, while the weapons stop firing.

"Looks like your dropship blew a fuse, gentlement." comes a message over the general frequency. "Perhaps you'd like to reconsider my offer for your battlemech? I used the C-Bills to hire these fine folks that just took apart your lance, but surely your lives and those of the crew on board the dropship are worth a measly little 20-ton battlemech?"

You can almost see the shit-eating grin on the precentor's face coming across the voice-only comms.

We're not doing too hot, the Marauder's armor is solid yellow and the right arm is useless, Stefan's Catapult is looking pretty lop-sided, and our dropship is "out of action". We have taken out a good number of lighter screening units, and removed an SRM Carrier, but their mechs are basically still ready to go (and there are two lances of those), plus they still have a Manticore tank. And our dropship is a sitting duck.

Of course, our techs have been hard at work taking this thing apart and looking at all the parts, so we may wind up accidentally omitting a few components. We can't really use any of these (except maybe the LRM launchers) on our mechs, but we'd easily be able to trade them in to our contacts in FedCom space for spare parts (e.g. replacement pulse lasers for the Chippewa, etc). There's a total of 480 minutes available to 'work' on it.

-[] armor (225 min, ~3 tons)
-[] heat sinks (90 min each, 4x)
-[] LRM/5 launcher + ammo bin (480 min)
-[] Don't risk it, just give these guys what we have and call it a day

[Zenn7]

-[] armor (225 min, ~3 tons)
-[] heat sinks (90 min each, 4x)
-[] LRM/5 launcher + ammo bin (480 min)
-[] Don't risk it, just give these guys what we have and call it a day

Not clear how the timing works? We think they're going to allow us 90+ minutes to do whatever we want before we turn it over? 17.75 hours for all of it?

If we do, we could keep the heat sinks (we have double heat sinks on some of our mechs already). Trading stuff we can't use might be good.

If they just want the mech, maybe we can pass off a few missing components as battle damage?

I'm in favor of the heat sinks first, LRM's second. Figure we/Fed Com know what the armor is, not sure if we/they know what the LRM's are.

[$iljanus]

Hmmm, they seem really keen on getting their mech back. I’m not certain about which parts would be the most useful for us but I’ll go along with pillaging whatever part people think would be of the greatest value.

[gbasden]

Same. From that list I really don't know what would be the most value, but given that the only weapon the thing had was those LRM launchers it seems like that might be the most interesting piece of it. But that is a very uninformed guess.

[$iljanus]

Do we assume it’s run of the mill weapons tech not some cutting edge stuff...?

[El Guapo]

I mean, I suspected that fucking with Comstar was a bad idea.

As to the mech...have we been able to identify anything as futuretech or the like? If there's anything unique that we scan copy or snag or something, let's do that. Otherwise, I doubt it's worth tempting the further wrath of Comstar over some heat sinks or whatnot that we could pick up at Space WalMart.

[Zarathud]

Any way we can put a tracker on it? Because I'd like revenge on this bastard at a later time of our choosing. Right now, we need to cut our losses.

[$iljanus]

I mean, I suspected that fucking with Comstar was a bad idea.

As to the mech...have we been able to identify anything as futuretech or the like? If there's anything unique that we scan copy or snag or something, let's do that. Otherwise, I doubt it's worth tempting the further wrath of Comstar over some heat sinks or whatnot that we could pick up at Space WalMart.

You know, nobody likes a know it all...

[NickAragua]

-[] armor (225 min, ~3 tons)
-[] heat sinks (90 min each, 4x)
-[] LRM/5 launcher + ammo bin (480 min)
-[] Don't risk it, just give these guys what we have and call it a day

Not clear how the timing works? We think they're going to allow us 90+ minutes to do whatever we want before we turn it over? 17.75 hours for all of it?

Basically, our techs have spent 480 minutes (8 hours) working on taking parts off this mech. The decision is what parts they had been working on.

[Zenn7]

-[] armor (225 min, ~3 tons)
-[] heat sinks (90 min each, 4x)
-[] LRM/5 launcher + ammo bin (480 min)
-[] Don't risk it, just give these guys what we have and call it a day

Not clear how the timing works? We think they're going to allow us 90+ minutes to do whatever we want before we turn it over? 17.75 hours for all of it?

Basically, our techs have spent 480 minutes (8 hours) working on taking parts off this mech. The decision is what parts they had been working on.

So we could take the LRM/ammo, or all 4 HS or.. 2 HS and the armor?

I'd go with the 4 HS, we think they're Double HS right? We can use a few spares (we have a few mechs equipped with those now).

[AWS260]

-[] armor (225 min, ~3 tons)
-[] heat sinks (90 min each, 4x)
-[] LRM/5 launcher + ammo bin (480 min)
-[X] Don't risk it, just give these guys what we have and call it a day

An elite Comstar force is working us over, and you guys are trying to pilfer a few measly mech parts? Not worth the risk. Like, at all.

[$iljanus]

-[] armor (225 min, ~3 tons)
-[] heat sinks (90 min each, 4x)
-[] LRM/5 launcher + ammo bin (480 min)
-[X] Don't risk it, just give these guys what we have and call it a day

An elite Comstar force is working us over, and you guys are trying to pilfer a few measly mech parts? Not worth the risk. Like, at all.

Well, we may be forced to play nice w Verizon Comstar but no one likes doing it.

[NickAragua]

"Pay your phone bills. Or else."

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

attempt component loot - 3
give it up - 4

"I'm glad you've decided to see reason, Major." the Percentor responds. "We'll be in touch regarding rendezvous coordinates, assuming you don't have the battlemech in question on your dropship?"

We arrange rendezvous coordinates with the Precentor. After thinking about it, we decide to avoid taking off extra components - chances are, Comstar will check the battle ROM and compare the damage received to the components present. Similarly, we consider but ultimately reject the idea of placing a tracking device on the mech - in any case, it'll only be useful as long as it remains on planet. Which we're not sure it will, although we don't detect the Precentor's ship leaving.

The damage to the Sparrow doesn't turn out to be too bad - apparently one of the ammo bins blew out, but large craft ammo bins are a lot sturdier than the ones on mechs and thus thankfully didn't gut the ship. The crew, however, is pretty beat up - between the gauss slugs flying around and the internal magazine explosion, there are several broken arms and legs, and one of the crew members was in the mech bay when a gauss slug punched through. He's now in a coma with a missing leg. The crew injuries leave the Sparrow effectively out of action for the next two months at least, and at reduced capability until we can hire a replacement.

It takes a couple of weeks to replace the arm on El Guapo's Marauder and the launcher on Stefan's Catapult. We have to drive the Moonraker's crew over to the Sparrow so we can lift the wounded dropship (and crew) up and get it back to our staging area.

Luckily, nothing further happens for the next two weeks, so our mechs are fixed up and we're back to running regular patrols.

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

Larry asks to see our highest ranking officer on the scene, which happens to be Madmarcus at the moment. The beer cans in Larry's trailer appear to have multiplied.

"Hey listen, we've got a chance to take one of our competitors down a notch. Fujii Extraction's got a dropship that they use to ferry processed ore from their facilities over to the jump point. I want you to take it down."

"What kind of dropship? And do we blow it up or capture?" Madmarcus inquires, eyebrow raised.

"Don't know what kind of dropship it is. If y'all can get a dropship to surrender, go for it. But I want Fujii not to have the use of it. Sent you a list of all known Fujii facilities, but you guys are the ones to track it down. Maybe you want to grab one of their guys and have a chat or look-see at their computers to confirm where and when."

And so we do.

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

March 18, 3044
Environmental Zone C-6
Unzmarkt, Free Raslhague Republic

Despite AWS' upgraded sensor package, Gamma-Probe gets bushwhacked while running a search pattern through a swamp to look for the dropship. The offenders are a lance of mechs and a lance of heavy tanks. Gamma-Probe is Cujo in a Wolverine, AWS in a Beagle probe-equipped Phoenix Hawk, Drazzil in a standard Phoenix Hawk, and a Vulcan.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

Cujo takes some damage from a Partisan tank as it fires up its autocannons, but manages to jump over and knock out an SRM Carrier as it gets ready to fire on Drazzil. Our Vulcan and AWS team up on an LRM Carrier, melting several right-side treads. The SRM Carrier "rapidly" rolls away, while the LRM Carrier sticks around, inefectually firing LRMs at Drazzil as well.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

A Saladin zips up to our Vulcan, and AWS moves to bail the lancemate out. Our Phoenix Hawk takes a hit from a nearby Mongoose, but manages to distract the Saladin. The Mongoose takes a couple of lasers from our Vulcan, but its armor holds.

The Mongoose (MON-67) is a pretty rare 25-ton mech. It's as fast as a Spider or an Ostscout, but instead of jump jets it mounts three lasers (plus a small). Originally packed with high-tech recon gear, most Mongooses (Mongeese?) in service in the Inner Sphere have long since had that stuff stripped out. Three lasers and high speed isn't too bad, but the lack of jump jets really hurts this mech's maneuver options.

Unfortunately, AWS' distraction of the Saladin involves presenting his mech as an almost-prone target for the AC/20 equipped tank, as an overextended kick at a dodging hovercraft results in less-than-positive results.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

The overheating from all the laser firing doesn't really help, but AWS manages to get up and get into great position for a back shot on the Mongoose while avoiding assault autocannon fire. A laser shot breaches the Mongoose's rear armor without causing any serious damage, and then our Phoenix Hawk is targeted by LRMs and lasers from all around. Armor holds up, leaving our mechwarrior a little shaken, but undaunted, and even in good enough shape to trip the Mongoose up and make it take a knee.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

AWS' mech rocks as the Saladin's AC/20 makes contact with the center torso just as it lands, cracking the left arm armor open as it falls into the wodos. At least Drazzil is able to dispatch the LRM Carrier, reducing the number of missiles flying our way, then land right next to the Saladin and stomp it flat into the swamp.

To the north, Cujo uses lasers and SRMs to break through the armor of a Partisan, which joins its SRM Carrier buddy in retreating. It's a little more effective, as the SRM Carrier is still spinning its treads in the muck.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

AWS appears to be suffering from the "get that mech!" syndrome, where everyone on the battlefield shoots at one particular mech, even though there are better targets available. A leg actuator goes out under combined fire from hostile forces, throwing our mechwarrior's aim off.

This distraction does let our Vulcan get the drop on a Striker tank, blowing out its engine via generous application of lasers. This ought to let our beat-up Phoenix Hawk withdraw without too much trouble.

Drazzil and Cujo team up on the Mongoose, Cujo putting a laser through the back of the hostile mech while Drazzil gives it a good kick from the left side, cracking a pair of actuators and forcing it to the ground.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

Drazzil's mech shakes as the hostile Phoenix Hawk delivers a large laser almost directly to the cockpit. Our mechwarrior barely manages to remain conscious, and it's frankly a wonder he manages to hit anything at all.

Cujo jumps over and legs the Mongoose, leaving the opposition with a Bulldog tank and a pair of mechs, which withdraw, leaving their buddy in a lurch. The SRM Carrier manages to get clear of its mud trap as well, taking its sixty missile tubes with it.

Salvage is minimal, about 2M C-Bills worth of wrecked tanks, plus that stupid legged Mongoose. We'll be selling that thing to our employer (or whoever else wants to buy it) once we're done pulling armor off of it. There's no point in us keeping it since it'd be severely out of its depth even in our lightest lance. We examine the nav data from the captured mech and what remains of the tanks, which helps us narrow down some search locations.

Delta-Ranger hits the jackpot, spotting a Vulture-class dropship at a Fijii facility out in the mountains. It's probably the one we're looking for: the Vulture is a lightly-armed spheroid cargo carrier. That's not to say it's unarmed - it points thirty LRM tubes in pretty much every direction except the tail end, as well as a pair of AC/5s. Plus a couple of medium lasers for close-in defense. It also carries a company of light/medium tanks and six infantry platoons, although corporate owners tend to convert all that carrying capacity to cargo.

Delta-Ranger observes a Thunderbolt and a Battlemaster guarding it, backed up by a light mech lance and two tank lances. They look like they're loading up and getting ready to lift off - engines read as "warm", which generally means that the dropship can lift off within thirty minutes. The terrain is pretty mountainous, with very little woods for cover. Gale-force winds inhibit missile fire somewhat, which is a bit of an issue for us as LRMs and SRMs are about half of our firepower. But it also inihibts the dropship's main armament. Gamma-Battle lance is within a couple of hours march, so we can wait for them, but we risk the dropship taking off if we wait too long. Delta-Ranger isn't really equipped to take on dropships, although they'll be able to provide excellent support against the mechs and treadheads. Madmarcus calls Gamma-Battle in, but continues pondering what to do if the dropship decides to start takeoff procedures before they get there.

[] Damn the torpedoes, engage and hope we can take out its backup piecemeal before moving on the dropship itself
[] Let it go, there's no way we can take it and its backup

[Drazzil]

[X] Damn the torpedoes, engage and hope we can take out its backup piecemeal before moving on the dropship itself
[] Let it go, there's no way we can take it and its backup

Lets try and capture or at least destroy it.

[gbasden]

Madmarcus calls Gamma-Battle in, but continues pondering what to do if the dropship decides to start takeoff procedures before they get there.

[] Damn the torpedoes, engage and hope we can take out its backup piecemeal before moving on the dropship itself
[X] Let it go, there's no way we can take it and its backup

I don't want to put Delta-Ranger into the meat grinder.

[$iljanus]

Due to the weather missiles are off the table on both sides. Can our forces on site take the escorts and a weakened drop ship? Would love an assessment of our odds from folks more knowledgeable than I in order to make a decision.

[Zenn7]

Madmarcus calls Gamma-Battle in, but continues pondering what to do if the dropship decides to start takeoff procedures before they get there.

[] Damn the torpedoes, engage and hope we can take out its backup piecemeal before moving on the dropship itself
[X] Let it go, there's no way we can take it and its backup

I don't want to put Delta-Ranger into the meat grinder.

Agreed, they've already suffered some armor damage (AWS suffered a fairly significant amount it sounded like).

[NickAragua]

Delta-Ranger is Madmarcus/Freyland/Paingod/Archinerd. Gamma-Probe (AWS/Drazzil/Cujo/NPC) isn't participating in this upcoming fight.

Missiles are not *really* off the table, they just will hit less often.

Basically, between the four mechs in Delta-Ranger, we've got 40 LRM tubes, 12 SRM tubes, a PPC, and a bunch of medium lasers. So they'll be hurting if they run out of ammo fighting the anklebiters and then have to take the dropship on at close range, but it's doable. That being said, they'll definitely take damage. Having Gamma-Battle (Scrub/Xwraith/Cylus/NPC) join in will take this from a "doable with heavy damage" to "doable with light damage".

[Cylus Maxii]

If it lights off early then

[X] Let it go, there's no way we can take it and its backup

[$iljanus]

There will be other opportunities for plunder. I wouldn't go in without reinforcements so if it launches before gamma arrives so be it.

[X] Let it go, there's no way we can take it and its backup

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Attack anyway - 2
Hold attack if our backup isn't here in time - 4

March 21, 3044
Fujii Extraction Ad-Hoc Loading Zone
Unzmarkt, Free Raslhague Republic

"Captain, that Vulture's engines just lit up. Looks like they're starting to load their tanks, too." Paingod reports.

"Understood. Gamma-Battle Lance, what's your ETA?" Despite being an elite, hard-bitten mechwarrior of a couple of decades, Madmarcus still gets nervous.

"One minute." Scrub responds.

"Dammit, Gamma-Battle, you don't have a minute, I need an answer now, or this dropship is gone and we're not going to be able to stop it." Madmarcus says, exasperated.

"I repeat, our ETA to your position is one minute. Aka sixty seconds. Less now." Scrub answers again, rolling her eyes.

"Right." Madmarcus sighs. "Delta-Ranger, engage enemy forces but stay clear of the dropship until heavy units arrive."

Our Wolverine, Dervish, Griffin and Quickdraw move in. In a minute, they will be joined by a Warhammer, a Grasshopper, a Grand Dragon and a Thunderbolt.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

"Stay clear of the water." Freyland points out. "It's churning quite a bit."

Delta-Ranger's effort to get around the back of the dropship place them just at the edge of missile range. We're going to need to loop around to the south to engage its defenders. Gamma-Battle is coming in from the east, so once they get there, we'll have the bad guys flanked and can roll them up before moving on the dropship.

On the plus side, the lighter defender mechs come out to meet us, so we should be able to engage them separately.

In fact, Paingod makes a trick shot - firing the Griffin's jump jets up to maximum, our mechwarrior jumps over a river, then lands a PPC shot from mid-air directly on a Stinger's right leg, which crumples under the bug mech and drops it to the ground. Our mechwarrior allows a smile to briefly blossom.

The dropship's LRMs target Freyland's quickdraw, but fall short. It looks like it's not as big a threat as we initially thought, as the missile racks are only fives - so we'll be able to skirt outer weapons range without much concern.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

We continue moving southeast, with lighter units closing in. Nobody's able to connect any shots, which is a shame, as Paingod almost had that SRM Carrier until it went behind a hill.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

A Pegasus hover tank tries to zip in, using the shores of the nearby lake for cover, but Madmarcus drills it with all three of the Wolverine's lasers, sending it to the bottom of the churning water. It does manage to send a few SRMs at Paingod's Griffin, the warheads blasting off chunks of armor.

Freyland lets rip with the Quickdraw's LRM launcher, causing heavy tread damage to a distant SRM Carrier. Good, we don't want that thing chasing after us.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

A Vulcan and a Javelin move to engage Madmarcus up close. Archinerd sends a flight of LRMs in to keep the Vulcan's head down, and while it's busy with evasive maneuvers against that threat, Freyland lays into it with the Quickdraw's laser batteries (and some LRMs to boot). The armor on the left torso section is perforated and the Vulcan's sole medium laser is taken out. The armor loss causes the 40-tonner to become unbalanced and tip over.

Madmarcus and Paingod team up on the Javelin, with the 30-ton mech taking a right torso armor breach from a laser, as well as some LRMs. Our evasive movement serves us well, resulting in no damage to our mechs.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

Archinerd and Freyland engage the Javelin as it lets loose with a salvo of SRMs at Archinerd. Our mechwarrior's mech rumbles a little, but still manages to deliver a laser counterstrike, and then Freyland's lasers begin their disco show, along with a couple of SRMs from the streak launcher ("finally, the goddamn thing actually fired", our mechwarrior mumbles) and LRMs. The 30-tonner has to take a knee.

Paingod lands in a patch of woods and takes a PPC shot at a distant Scorpion tank, which rewarded with a poof and a plume of black smoke as the tank spins its wheels rapidly in an effort to leave the area. Unfortunately, the treads came off about twenty meters back, so that thing isn't going anywhere.

Madmarcus, meanwhile engages a J. Edgar as the light hovertank zips in, but is unable to completely take it out - the hovertank limps out, trailing smoke.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

"Gamma-Battle, on station." Scrub reports as her lance makes their way onto the battlefield from the east.

As the Javelin tries to get up, Freyland jumps up close, firing the Quickdraw's laser battery. The right torso missile launcher comes off, the right arm goes flying away and the mech looks pretty wobbly overall. This time, the mechwarrior manages to keep it upright. Freyland makes a motion with the Quickdraw as if to plant a boot in the crippled Javelin, and the enemy mechwarrior chickens out, firing up the remaining jump jets and zipping off to the south.

Madmarcus moves forward, but is briefly distracted by the J. Edgar hovertank looping around to fire lasers and SRMs at the Wolverine's back. Armor holds, but while our mech is busy letting the air out of the skirt, a Manticore gets a word in with its PPC, along with some LRMs from a Thunderbolt. Armor holds, but ouch.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

Paingod jumps back away from the main cluster of defenders, firing the Griffin's PPC at a Hunter tank. Combined with armor damage from Freyland's lasers, the right side of the tank collapses and it stops moving, a light wisp of smoke announcing the destruction of its engine.

Madmarcus has had enough of that stupid little helicopter zipping around and drills it with a couple of lasers and adds some SRMs to the mix. The chopper is unable to stay in the air and crashes to the ground, exploding quite spectacularly as it hits.

Archinerd takes a large laser hit from the Thunderbolt, the right arm indicator flashing red to indicate an armor breach. No critical equipment damage, but need to be more careful.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

Gamma-Battle closes in on the dropship, with only the Battlemaster to stand in their way, while Delta-Ranger continues hopping around, picking away at the main cluster of defenders. Freyland and Madmarcus "concentrate" fire on the Thunderbolt, peeling armor off of its arms and legs with lasers, but nothing that would cause internal damage.

Scrub spits as a stray salvo of LRMs from the Vulture blows through her Warhammer's armor and takes out a double heat sink. Cylus and our Grand Dragon are the first to engage the Battlemaster, Cylus taking some chunks out of the assault mech's leg armor.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

Freyland jumps past the Thunderbolt, cutting a Scorpion tank in half with lasers, then sending streak SRMs into the wreckage to annihilate it. Paingod gives the PPC a break, and time for the Griffin's heat sinks to cool things off, sending an LRM salvo at the SRM Carrier underneath Freyland. Most of the missiles land on target, blasting through the tracked vehicle's left-side armor, which encourages the crew to start driving away. Freyland's jump isn't entirely flawless, as the Quickdraw takes a couple of laser hits from the Thunderbolt, but armor holds.

Scrub moves to engage the Battlemaster at point blank range, avoiding most of the 85-tonner's withering hail of fire. With a helping PPC from the Grand Dragon, concentrated fire from the Warhammer's entire weapons suite breaches the right torso armor and takes out a rear-facing medium laser. Even with all that weapons fire, the refitted Warhammer heats up only a little. Scrub brings the Warhammer's leg for a kick at the enemy mech, but it brings up an arm to block, scraping armor off both limbs.

Cylus makes a trick shot, firing LRMs at the distant Vulture. The missiles zero in on what happens to be the main sensor array, blasting a couple of little RADAR dishes off. That'll make the shooting a little harder for those guys.

Round 10:

Spoiler:

Archinerd jumps over to chase down a Hetzer wheeled assault gun as it moves to help the Battlemaster. After the Dervish is done working it over, that tank isn't going anywhere.

Madmarcus jumps southeast, trying to lose a Stinger in some woods. When that doesn't work, our Wolverine turns lasers and SRMs on the bug mech. A pair of lasers cripple the right leg, while the SRM salvo (some of our leftover listen-kill warheads) blast through the weakened center torso armor to detonate the 20-tonner's machine gun ammo, scattering bits of it all over the riverbank.

The Battlemaster staggers under the laser onslaught from Cylus (and another helpful PPC from the back, courtesy of the Grand Dragon). The Grasshopper's armor bubbles a bit under the return fire from multiple lasers, and then Scrub's PPCs and laser hit home. The 85-ton mech's internal SRM ammo stores detonate, sending an arm flying loose while the rest of the mech is turned into scrap.

Round 11:

Spoiler:

Gamma-Battle's longer-ranged units plant down and begin long-range bombardment with PPCs, LRMs and ER Lasers. With the damage from Cylus' taking the LRM rack out earlier, its return fire becomes highly ineffective. That dropship is either not long for this world or is going to be surrendering shortly.

Madmarcus' armor indicators start blinking yellow and red as the Thunderbolt and Wolverine exchange weapons fire, while Freyland's mech heats up unexpectedly when the Vulcan applies its flamer, the extra heat slowing down the Quickdraw's actuators enough that Freyland whiffs the kick.

Round 12:

Spoiler:

Twenty seconds of continuous PPC, ER laser and LRM bombardment about does it for the dropship. An internal ammo bin blows out, one of the cargo bay doors goes flying off (spilling a large number of crates out since one of the landing struts is a little shorter and causing the spacecraft to tilt) and the craft sags.

Scrub orders a cease fire, and we allow the Thunderbolt and Vulcan, along with the Manticore and that poor SRM Carrier to withdraw from the field. The salvage is pretty good. First of all, we've got dibs on the Vulture. Which isn't really our speed. We also have a bunch of wrecked tanks and light mechs, totaling about 1.2M C-Bills.

After our engineers look at the Vulture, we get a lot less enthusiastic - first, our guys really did a number on this thing and second, it's the "2312" model. Most of the components have been replaced over the centuries it's been in service, but the attachment points for armor plating can hold up much less armor mass than you'd expect. Larry's engineers aren't terribly excited about it, either. At the end, we get an offer of ~4M for it - the amount of repairs that would need to happen is... substantial. How do we handle this?

[] Shop around and see if anyone else will make a better offer (possible, but not likely)
[] Hire a couple of local techs to help fix it up and see if we can get a better sell price (depends on how well the hired help does)
[] Just get rid of it for 4M.

Over the rest of the week, our techs work hard to fix up the damaged mechs, AWS' Phoenix Hawk taking the longest, with Drazzil's tying for second place at about 3 days' work each. When the next jumpship comes in early in the next week, the data transmission is pretty encouraging. First of all, our jumpship that's been stuck in Asuncion for almost two years now has finally finished overhauling its K-F Drive Initiator and is en route to rendezvous with us. Instead of having it head towards us, we could have them head to our future home on Dowles and see if it can help reduce construction times by being available "on demand" for supply runs. Having it rendezvous with us (in half a years' time) will help us with supply availability on our current contract. It's fine right now, but we're only two months into a two year commitment.

[] Jumpship moves to help do supply runs for Dowles colony construction (5% construction time reduction on main project)
[] Jumpship moves to do supply runs for our main military force (increased parts availability once it gets to us)

[Isgrimnur]

[] Just get rid of it for 4M.

[] Jumpship moves to do supply runs for our main military force (increased parts availability once it gets to us)

[$iljanus]

Don't suppose there's a way to get an estimate on repairs? I look at it like fixing a house to sell it. Then again if it's going to be a money pit, just take the money.

I think supplying ongoing operations is the priority vs cutting construction time on our base.

Edit:

[] Just get rid of it for 4M.

[] Jumpship moves to do supply runs for our main military force (increased parts availability once it gets to us)

[Zenn7]

[] Just get rid of it for 4M.

[] Jumpship moves to do supply runs for our main military force (increased parts availability once it gets to us)

Agreed on both points.

[AWS260]

Ditto.

[gbasden]

[] Just get rid of it for 4M.

[] Jumpship moves to do supply runs for our main military force (increased parts availability once it gets to us)

+1

[Hyena]

Agreed on all points as well.

[Cylus Maxii]

Me too. Unanimous so far..

[El Guapo]

Nay!

[NickAragua]

Who said that?

[Short update this time, just didn't have the time to do the actual battle.]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Just get rid of the vulture - unanimous

Jumpship does supply runs for Dowles - 3
Jumpship does supply runs for military op - 7

Costs for the spare parts and labor to fix the Vulture are estimated to be a bit under 4M C-Bills (1M parts, 3M labor) over four months. If we could get them on-world, which is not guaranteed. Schnepfau next door might have the spare parts, but from the looks of it, we're not going to get much more than 4-5M C-Bills for this pile of crap, so it'll probably not be worth the money we spend on it. We take Larry's offer and let him worry about it once our account shows the C-Bills.

There's some contention about what to tell the jumpship to do. In the end, there's a mildly successful argument made that we won't be back to Dowles for the next two and a half years anyway - 22 months to complete the contract and another 6 months travel. As long as the construction work is done before then, there's not really any reason to hurry it up too much. But it's always good to not have to rely on the vagaries of jumpship traffic in a system without an HPG if we need extra supplies.

Of course, that jumpship that just came in didn't just bring the latest HPG transmissions, it also brought in several dropships worth of mercenaries that proceed to deploy and move against Unzmarkt Resources Limited facilities. Since we are contractually obligated to defend those, we get to work. We detect a Triumph, a Union and a couple of other dropships burning in and dispatch search parties to locate their landing zones so that we can better reposition our units.

We're making some progress with training the corporate security forces, and are pleasantly surprised when one of their recon lances run across the landing site of a Triumph-class dropship. Unfortunately for them, they are spotted and engaged by a mixed company of light mechs and tanks (with a heavy tank thrown in for good measure), as well as buzzed by aerospace fighters, and corralled towards the dropship's guns. The status report quickly turns from cocky to extremely panicked, and we can launch air support to help cover their retreat.

If we push hard, we can get Alpha-Command lance in there to help out as well. The main reason to do so would be to attempt to capture or destroy the Triumph, so these guys aren't flying around a batallion of tanks at their leisure. This might leave the hostiles an opening, though, through which they can get fast troops through in order to directly attack the facilities under our protection. Realistically though, those corporate units aren't going to last very long, and, given the reported data, we're not confident our aircraft will be enough.

We can also just leave the corporate security patrol to their own devices, but it might look bad in terms of "fulfilling the contract" if we don't at least make a token effort to bail the "recruit cadre" out.

How do we handle this:
[] Leave the security patrol to get out or not on their own
[] Send in Alpha-Strike, medium-heavy air support equipped with:
[] HE bombs, for mech-hunting (and/or increased ability to damage the grounded dropship)
[] Cluster bombs, for tank-hunting (and/or increased ability to damage the grounded dropship)
[] no bombs, for better anti-air capability
[] Send in Alpha-Strike *and* Alpha-Command and see if we can take the dropship down as well as bail the corporate guys out

[Isgrimnur]

/sharpens hatchet

Put me in, coach.

[Hyena]

[] Leave the security patrol to get out or not on their own
[x] Send in Alpha-Strike, medium-heavy air support equipped with:
[] HE bombs, for mech-hunting (and/or increased ability to damage the grounded dropship)
[] Cluster bombs, for tank-hunting (and/or increased ability to damage the grounded dropship)
[] no bombs, for better anti-air capability
[x] Send in Alpha-Strike *and* Alpha-Command and see if we can take the dropship down as well as bail the corporate guys out

If we can do it, do it.

[$iljanus]

[] Leave the security patrol to get out or not on their own
[x] Send in Alpha-Strike, medium-heavy air support equipped with:
[] HE bombs, for mech-hunting (and/or increased ability to damage the grounded dropship)
[] Cluster bombs, for tank-hunting (and/or increased ability to damage the grounded dropship)
[] no bombs, for better anti-air capability
[x] Send in Alpha-Strike *and* Alpha-Command and see if we can take the dropship down as well as bail the corporate guys out

Looks like a good opportunity to bag a dropship. Also, not a good policy to abandon trainees. The survivors will hopefully learn and be better soldiers for it.

Have to think about what weapons package the air support should have. How much air cover does that dropship have...?

[NickAragua]

Have to think about what weapons package the air support should have. How much air cover does that dropship have...?

Two medium fighters have been reported in the area. The dropship itself is aerodyne, so it can't actually fire on air units from a landed position.

[El Guapo]

[] Leave the security patrol to get out or not on their own
[X] Send in Alpha-Strike, medium-heavy air support equipped with:
[] HE bombs, for mech-hunting (and/or increased ability to damage the grounded dropship)
[] Cluster bombs, for tank-hunting (and/or increased ability to damage the grounded dropship)
[] no bombs, for better anti-air capability
[X] Send in Alpha-Strike *and* Alpha-Command and see if we can take the dropship down as well as bail the corporate guys out

For fun and profit.

[$iljanus]

There seems to be a lot of armor so perhaps some cluster bombs would be in order?

[gbasden]

Agreed. Send in Alpha-Strike and Alpha-Command. As long as there aren't any gauss toting Atlas' around, at least.