December 31, 3034
The last day of the old year. A time for reflection, maybe sitting around a fireplace (or the ship's fusion plant if you don't have a fireplace). Time to think about what you'd do differently in the coming year, to hang up old regrets and look forward. Everyone's going to be deployed come the new year, but most of us get a couple of days off to chill out.
Unless you're Alpha-One, in which case you're sent to camp out outside an enemy air base to keep their aircraft from harassing operations elsewhere. The ground units guarding the airbase get all riled up and the aircraft scramble, and next thing you know, you've got a major furball. The defenders are a bunch of light units, but our job here is just to keep them occupied for a bit. And maybe shoot down the aircraft while we're at it. Gbasden calls in Alpha-Two to help out.
Alpha-One is Gbasden in the Warhammer, Isgrimnur in the Hatchetman, a grumbling El Guapo in the Rifleman ("come on, the comstar pulse is gonna be coming in like two hours, do I have to go?"), and Stefan in a Trebuchet 5J. Alpha-Two is a Blackjack, a Trebuchet 5S, a Vulcan 5T and a Firestarter. Alpha-One's kill-stealing CO joins us in his Shadow Hawk. Well, better a kill-stealer than a jackass that gets his mech blown up.
It's raining, so the place is a mud bath. Great. On the plus side, that means their tanks can't really move around too much. That's better.
Round 1:
A lone hovercraft comes out to greet us, while a pair of aircraft scramble. Hope they're coming back, otherwise, there's not much point to this exercise. It takes a laser from Stefan, but targeting is pretty difficult otherwise in this weather.
Round 2:
Bug mechs and Ostscouts come out to mess with us. Stefan and Gbasden immobilize the Condor, putting an end to its autocannon bursts, while El Guapo and Isgrimnur work on a Hetzer off to the north, blasting it with long-range autocannon fire and rattling the crew around. Gbasden takes a medium laser to the dome from an incoming Wasp, but armor holds and he manages to retain his grip on consciousness.
Round 3:
El Guapo gets to do what his mech is designed to do: shoot at aircraft. The Lightning goes in for a strafing run, nailing him with its nose-mounted AC/20, but takes two AC/10 bursts and a pair of medium laser shots. El Guapo's mech is more or less ok, other then a right torso armor breach, but the Lightning is obviously not doing so hot - sparks fly off the nose and wing as it zips away. Into the ground about 120 meters behind the Rifleman. Definitely better than the last time he shot down an aircraft!
Gbasden's not doing too hot, as he gets mobbed by a bunch of bug mechs and knocked over. At least his armor holds. Stefan does his best to keep the other guys off him, kicking an Ostscout in the left leg to strip armor, but we're going to need to take care of this ASAP.
Round 4:
We set up so the opfor is either going to have to not move or to relocate. They relocate, all around Isgrimnur's mech. Too bad all their weapons fire and kicks whiff. Isgrimnur doesn't do much better, but that's ok. El Guapo sees a Locust step on top of a building and unloads autocannon rounds on it at long range - the building collapses, sending the bug mech to the ground. Gbasden takes a shot from a returning Sabre aerospace fighter, damaging two actuators on the left arm, but not before landing a pair of solid PPC hits on the aircraft, causing severe damage to the engine and left wing. The aero jock can't control his fighter (it's hard with a busted avionics system and engine) and crashes down to the ground somewhere off in the distance.
Round 5:
The west flank is a bit of a mess. Isgrimnur walks in behind a Wasp as it harasses our CO, delivering a solid barrage of autocannon and laser fire to remove the bug mech's left torso and nearly take out the center. The hatchet then comes down through the right torso section and basically just rips the mech in half. Gbasden loses a small laser to a rear torso hit but splits fire between a Stinger and a Wasp, causing armor breaches and heatsink damage on the Wasp with a PPC, and shoulder actuator damage on the Stinger with a laser. An Ostscout tries to kick the CO in the Shadow Hawk and whiffs, winding up on the ground as well.
Round 6:
Alpha-Two arrives. Just in time, too, Gbasden's mech is starting to look a little beat up. Isgrimnur walks over and delivers a solid AC/10 burst to a nearby Stinger, breaking through the center torso armor and damaging the engine shielding. He takes a shot to the dome from a distant Vedette, but remains conscious. Gbasden inflicts heavy damage on an Ostscout, but takes a hip shot, damaging the actuator there. Despite the damage, he manages to stay upright. Isgrimnur helps finish off the Ostscout by putting a hatchet through its left leg, severing it above the knee.
Stefan sees an opportunity to bring a Locust to the ground as it climbs up a building for a better angle, knocking down the building with laser and point-blank LRM fire, then curbstomping the downed mech.
El Guapo blasts through the left-side armor of a Hetzer driving down the road towards him. Don't need an AC/20 burst to the face. The Blackjack finishes it off.
Round 7:
The attached CO legs a Stinger, which our Vulcan then finishes off. How's that for kill stealing? Isgrimnur blasts through a Wasp's center torso section with the AC/10 to ding the engine and gyro pretty hard. Once the mech is on the ground, it's easy to curb stomp through the center torso and remove it from consideration entirely. Gbasden gets revenge for all the actuator damage by reaching backwards and coring out another Wasp with the PPC.
With that, it looks like the light mech party is over, although our CO tells us we'll need to keep fire on the base for at least another fifty seconds.
Round 8:
Most of the Ronin guys retreat back into the cover of their base, their sortie having failed to dislodge us. We take the opportunity to pound one of the stationary turrets, reducing the building to rubble.
Round 9:
The jackass CO runs up to the base before we can stop him. Gbasden gets on the horn and tries to remind him that we're not here to blow the place up, just keep them busy, then fires a pair of PPC shots at another turret. Between his weapons fire and Stefan's LRMs, the building's lights go out. El Guapo and the Blackjack continue firing at the Hetzer to the north, with mixed success - inflicting some damage but failing to penetate the armor, although an autocannon burst from the Blackjack does neutralize one of the SRM launchers on the front of the tank (it's the SRM variant with five... well, now four SRM/6 launcher instead of the single AC/20).
Round 10:
Nope. That dumb bastard is going to get himself killed. Well, we'll run in after him a bit to cover, but in another half a minute, we're outta here.
El Guapo gets damn lucky. Having nearly emptied his right torso ammo bin, when an SRM salvo from the Hetzer nails him in the right torso, the ammo goes off. Luckily, it's not very much ammo, so the mech remains intact. The auto-ejection system goes off and saves him some nasty neural feedback, but still.
Gbasden, Isgrimnur and the Firestarter bring down a building on which a Locust perches as it comes out to take a bite out of us, forcing the little mech to the ground. A quick hatchet blow cuts off the right arm weapons mount, while our Firestarter crunches the light mech's foot actuator.
Round 11:
The Locust pilot knocks himself out trying to get up. Well, it's a little difficult - damaged leg actuator, cramped cockpit, heavy rain, no arms...
Stefan gets revenge for El Guapo's not-quite-destroyed mech by firing his last LRMs at the Hetzer, breaching the left side armor and devastating the interior.
Round 12:
I guess El Guapo used up all the luck, because Isgrimnur's runs out. As he moves his Hatchetman forward a bit to cover our retreating Trebuchet, he takes a laser to the head from a Locust, and the mech collapses. We take down another turret, then Gbasden gets on the horn and requests a cease-fire, as we've basically destroyed the airfield at this point.
After a few minutes, we hammer out terms with the Ronin (our position strengthened by the fact that if they even think about coming out of that base, we'll pick them apart, and could also easily level the place from range), and drag our destroyed and decapitated mechs back. Our search & rescue squad with the jaws of life are on the case and manage to stabilize Isgrimnur, although he's in critical condition and comatose, and looks "medium rare". When Dr. Minnie gets ahold of him, she simply frowns, then waves all non-medical personnel out of the bay.
----
While Alpha-One is getting shot up, back at base, two major events happen.
First, a Draconis Combine "expeditionary force" jumps into the system. As their dropships burn for the planet, they have a brief and terse exchange with the Ronin commanders. One Tai-sa (Colonel-equivalent) Matthew Suzuki informs the Ronin -
"You have stained the honor of your unit by disobeying the Kanrei's orders." (Gunji-no-Kanrei is the title held by Theodore Kurita, the de-facto ruler of the Draconis Combine. There's a whole back story about how he's basically running the place while his dad is being crazy and obsessive about the Wolf's Dragoons.) "The only way to redeem yourselves is to surrender and for you to commit Seppuku. I offer to serve as your second when we land."
The reply is that "No. We have the rebels and mercenary scum on the run, and will defeat them shortly."
Tai-sa Suzuki chuckles. "You do not seem to have a grasp on reality. This 'mercenary scum' has been beating your forces like little children. But if you refuse to surrender, we will make you. Mercenaries, Rasalhague forces, you may stand down. We will take care of these dishonorable traitors."
----
Meanwhile, Madmarcus smiles as his mech informs him via "bing" that the recovered data storage devices have been decrypted. Initial analysis indicates that these are mostly log entries and supply manifests made by one Nobuhito Okuta, a Draconis Combine logistics specialist who was stationed here in the early the early 2800s. Reading through all this stuff takes a little time, but, apparently, this fellow was present here during yet another Rasalhague uprising against their Kurita overlords. The rebels were doing pretty well, too, pushing the local garrison back to the southern regions, until a Sword of Light regiment came down hard and wiped the floor with them, then presided over the execution of a bunch of civilians to discourage further rebellion. I guess that worked out real well for them in the long term.
The main items of interest are the following sequences of entries:
May 12, 2804: Transferred shipment from supply post 3-3 to supply post 3-5 to avoid capture by rebels.
Manifest: 40 tons of Ferro-Fibrous Armor
8 large laser cooling jackets
30 tons of long-range missiles
25 tons of short-range missiles
14 tons of autocannon/5 ammunition
Technical readout for cooling jackets attached.
May 20, 2804: Transferred shipment from supply post 3-5 to 3-9 to avoid capture by rebels.
Manifest: 24 tons of Ferro-Fibrous Armor
7 large laser cooling jackets
22 tons of long-range missiles
18 tons of short-range missiles
12 tons of autocannon/5 ammunition
May 23, 2804: Transferred shipment from supply post 3-9 to 4-11 to avoid capture by rebels.
Manifest: 14 tons of Ferro-Fibrous Armor
7 large laser cooling jackets
14 tons of long-range missiles
6 tons of short-range missiles
11 tons of autocannon/5 ammunition
May 29, 2804: Transferred shipment from supply post 4-11 to 4-7 to avoid capture by rebels.
Manifest: 2 tons of Ferro-Fibrous Armor
5 large laser cooling jackets
5 tons of long-range missiles
2 tons of short-range missiles
4 tons of autocannon/5 ammunition
Personal Note: Rebel attack imminent. Tell my wife I said hello.
The ferro-fibrous armor is pretty awesome, it's light weight (although much bulkier), but there's not much of it. The main "cool" thing is the cooling jackets. Although these particular models are suitable only for large lasers, they'll decrease the generated heat by about 12.5% (-1 heat, to 7 instead of 8). Pulling up old planetary maps, Madmarcus is able to cross-reference those and work out where those supply depots are, although the only important one is the last one. Too bad the Dracs are landing almost on top of it.
They've made it pretty clear that we are not to interfere. Realistically speaking, they're probably going to clean those depots out after they whack the Ronin.
----
So, we need to make a couple of decisions.
Do we make a run on the supply depot and risk pissing off the landing Kurita forces? Or not?
If yes, do we do it ourselves? Quietly, without mechs? Loudly, with lots of mechs?
Do we ask the Rasalhague guys for help?
Someone also floats the idea of calling up the Ronin.
If no, do we keep the data to ourselves? Sell it to the Rasalhague guys?
It's a pretty complex situation, so I'm taking input in "free-form thought" form.