Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

[NickAragua]

The main advantage would be that FedCom has been willing to share their high tech toys with their friends, and is currently the biggest kid on the block.

FedCom may pay for it, with Comstar, most likely WE will have to pay for the privilege of activating the HPG.

That too.

[gbasden]

[] Go ahead and contact ComStar
[x] See if we can get FedCom interested in the HPG

[x] 1x 280 XL Engine
[] 11x Double heat sinks

Agreed.

[El Guapo]

I have the same question regarding what advantage we would have throwing in with the FedComs and the same concern about possibly pissing off ComStar. Out of a sense of caution I chose ComStar but I can be swayed.

FedCom may pay for it, with Comstar, most likely WE will have to pay for the privilege of activating the HPG.

These seem like good reasons to kick the tires on this with FedCom first, as long as we're confident that ComStar won't invade us when they find out about the HPG. They won't do that, right?

[$iljanus]

I have the same question regarding what advantage we would have throwing in with the FedComs and the same concern about possibly pissing off ComStar. Out of a sense of caution I chose ComStar but I can be swayed.

FedCom may pay for it, with Comstar, most likely WE will have to pay for the privilege of activating the HPG.

These seem like good reasons to kick the tires on this with FedCom first, as long as we're confident that ComStar won't invade us when they find out about the HPG. They won't do that, right?

Will FedCom provide protection against any fallout from going against Comstar Verizon?

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

XL Engine - 5
Double Heat Sinks - 4

Talk to FedCom - unanimous

Our jumpship hits up St. Ives and we run over in a dropship to pick up the XL engine. It's a nice engine. Our basic choice is to either put it on the BattleAxe or a Grasshopper (Hyena's or Cylus'). The BattleAxe will probably gain the most benefit from it - we'll be able to mount more heat sinks and/or guns on it (the mechwarrior reports having to volley fire the PPCs), but we can probably do something good with a Grasshopper too, especially the 5N, it could use a few more heat sinks, or we could even put the LRM rack back in.

[] BattleAxe (more room for heat sinks, and/or put back the LRM racks from the original design)
[] Grasshopper GHR-5N (more room for heat sinks and/or an LRM rack)

We've got a couple of mechwarriors that have lost their mechs in the last contract. Freyland, any preference for mechs? We're fresh out of Quickdraws unfortunately, but we do have a bunch of spare mechs in the 5/8/5 ("heavy recon") mobility bracket:

Wolverine (6M or 6R)
Griffin (1N or 1S)
Cronus (3M)
Ostroc (2M)

These are all basically close-up brawlers, except for the Griffin 1N, which is more of a long range sniper.

You can also move to a Shadow Hawk (2H or 2K), although the three jump jet thing is kind of a drag.

Alternately, if you want, you can go lighter and faster (Phoenix Hawk, Valkyrie, Spider, Jenner, Javelin, Ostscout).

Or, you can move to another lance, we've got plenty of spare Catapults, Crusaders.

Gbasden, I haven't settled on a replacement mechwarrior for you yet, but what kind of mech do you want to drive?

Madmarcus will be grabbing a spare Wolverine 6M, obviously.

---

An Annihilator ANH-1A comes up on the "used mech market". Did someone rip off the Wolf's Dragoons? Is someone in that organization skimming a few extra mechs off the top? Who knows, all I know is that it's 100 tons of pure firepower. It's... a little slow, even for an assault mech. And the armor isn't the best. But what it does have is four AC/10s (with ten shots for each) and four medium lasers, which is a whole lot of whoopass. It's a "steal" for "only" 8M C-Bills.

[] Buy it buy it buy it
[] ... maybe not

---

In other news, a Davion-flagged jumpship materializes at the nadir jump point and detaches a couple of heavy dropships, heading towards Dowles. But let's back up a little bit.

Scrub announces that she's getting married. It's supposed to be a pretty small affair - she's not really religious, and neither is the groom (a semi-retired Captain Ben Allred, formerly of the Armed Forces of the Federated Commonwealth). But the entire company attends anyway and nobody's going to let Scrub get away without having a huge shindig. We also send an invite to our old buddy Hawk. To attend the wedding and see the local sites you see, and maybe go hiking.

We've got a whole world of terrain to pick from, so Scrub and the groom pick a low hill overlooking our base. The weather cooperates for the most part, other than a summer storm coming through the day before.

Gbasden gets to officiate, with Zenn7 standing as the groom's party while Cujo stands on the bride's side. Everyone, including Scrub, thinks it's pretty weird to see her in a dress rather than uniform or a cooling suit, but, then again, it's not a very usual occasion. "We clean up pretty good." She states, beaming. "Thank you all for... " she rolls her eyes. "... browbeating me into having this party."

After the festivities die down and the command staff gets over their hangovers, we get down to business. We show Hawk the HPG (from a safe distance), and he nods.

"I know a few intel people on New Avalon who might be interested in some ComStar walkie talkies." He says, rubbing his beard thoughtfully. "Lotta potential, but high risk."

"I'll bring my people in, take out the defences, disable any booby traps, then we ransack the place and blow it to hell and gone. Nobody will even know we were here. Well, except your group. You'll get a finder's share of the loot. Also, I promised to try to set you up with an Overlord a few years ago."

Scrub nods, recalling that conversation. "It's been a few years since then, but yeah."

"Well, I know for a fact that there's an Overlord coming out of the shipyards at Galax. You'll be at the top of the priority queue for buying it. It's not every day that a random merc outfit gets to buy one. It'll be a little pricey - you're probably looking at 470 million C-Bills or so. But it's still a once-in-a-lifetime chance."

Scrub smirks. "Of course, if we ever want an HPG, we'll have to get one built from scratch."

Hawk nods. "That's how it goes. Take a few days to think about it, I'm gonna go hiking with Rayhan [Gbasden-ret], maybe talk to him about grape farming. If you don't want to do this, no hard feelings, and nobody will know this conversation took place."

"Oh, and I know I said it before, but congratulations on getting married." Hawk says, with a broad smile. "Ben's a good guy, I'm sure your kids will make great mech jocks, too."

Scrub balks briefly. "Uh... not sure we're ready for that yet."

Hawk laughs. "Relax, just giving you a hard time. Anyway, let me know."

[] Take the deal: small amount of high tech loot; option to buy Overlord dropship for 470M; more expensive to build HPG later on if we want it;
[] Pass: nothing happens; ComStar option still open;

Our current budget, after all our shenanigans is ~4B C-Bills. The Overlord, well, we're a mech company. It'll be enable us to hold all of our mechs without having to constantly load and unload them onto the Jumbo. It also carries six aerospace fighters. It's a little light on cargo, but that's what the Jumbo is for. It's got significantly more armor than the Union and an incredible amount of firepower.

[Freyland]

What's the specs on the Cronos?

I vote we go with the Fed-Com offer.

[NickAragua]

1x large laser, 3x medium laser, 1x SRM/4 launcher. 5/8/5 speed, near max armor. 14 heat sinks - for heat management, you usually have to choose between firing the large laser (at longer ranges) and the three mediums at shorter ranges. Drazzil's Cronus has served him well so far.

[El Guapo]

Yeah, let's do the FedCom offer. Would be great to have an Overlord.

[gbasden]

[X] BattleAxe (more room for heat sinks, and/or put back the LRM racks from the original design)

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

Gbasden, I haven't settled on a replacement mechwarrior for you yet, but what kind of mech do you want to drive?

I'm open. One of those Wolverines or Griffins would be fine, as would a Catapult. I'm happy to drop into whatever role you need, though, from scout to heavy.

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

An Annihilator ANH-1A comes up on the "used mech market".

[X] Buy it buy it buy it

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

[X] Take the deal: small amount of high tech loot; option to buy Overlord dropship for 470M;

[Leraje]

[x] BattleAxe (more room for heat sinks, and/or put back the LRM racks from the original design)
[] Grasshopper GHR-5N (more room for heat sinks and/or an LRM rack)

[x] Buy it buy it buy it
[] ... maybe not

Source a 300XL engine for it; Rip out the AC10s; Up the armour to 18.5T; Stick a pair of Gauss Rifles with 4T of ammo and 2 LLs into it. Best ride ever! Or availability permitting PPCs/DHS instead of LLs.

[x] Take the deal: small amount of high tech loot; option to buy Overlord dropship for 470M; more expensive to build HPG later on if we want it;
[] Pass: nothing happens; ComStar option still open;

[AWS260]

[] BattleAxe (more room for heat sinks, and/or put back the LRM racks from the original design)
[x] Grasshopper GHR-5N (more room for heat sinks and/or an LRM rack)

[x] Buy it buy it buy it
[] ... maybe not

[x] Take the deal: small amount of high tech loot; option to buy Overlord dropship for 470M; more expensive to build HPG later on if we want it;
[] Pass: nothing happens; ComStar option still open;

[Hyena]

[] BattleAxe (more room for heat sinks, and/or put back the LRM racks from the original design)
[x] Grasshopper GHR-5N (more room for heat sinks and/or an LRM rack)

[x] Buy it buy it buy it
[] ... maybe not

[x] Take the deal: small amount of high tech loot; option to buy Overlord dropship for 470M; more expensive to build HPG later on if we want it;
[] Pass: nothing happens; ComStar option still open;

This.
This.
Aaaaaand this.

[Zenn7]

[X] BattleAxe (more room for heat sinks, and/or put back the LRM racks from the original design)

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

An Annihilator ANH-1A comes up on the "used mech market".

[X] Buy it buy it buy it

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

[X] Take the deal: small amount of high tech loot; option to buy Overlord dropship for 470M;

We live in FedCom land, lets make our "neighbors" happy and get some good rewards. Realistically, we aren't likely to be something Comstar wants to deal with what with our small population any time soon. But an Overlord is something we've been wanting for a while! And more toys and such...

[Freyland]

Will go Cronus, please.

[$iljanus]

[X] BattleAxe (more room for heat sinks, and/or put back the LRM racks from the original design)
[] Grasshopper GHR-5N (more room for heat sinks and/or an LRM rack)

[x] Buy it buy it buy it
[] ... maybe not

[x] Take the deal: small amount of high tech loot; option to buy Overlord dropship for 470M; more expensive to build HPG later on if we want it;
[] Pass: nothing happens; ComStar option still open;

Since running our own HPG facility independent from ComStar would probably attract unwanted attention and going in with them would probably also attract unwanted attention down the line, I’m pretty happy that we’re looting it instead. And that dropship looks awfully pretty...

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

BattleAxe - Many
Grasshopper - 2

Annihilator - 8
No Annihilator - 3

FedCom deal - Unanimous

A couple of days later, we agree to Hawk's deal. Which is how, a month later, as we're carrying out repairs and refits and looking at contracts, we wind up with a small FedCom flotilla descending on the world. They don't actually need an Overlord and a Union's worth of mechs to disable a small cluster of turrets on a single building - the Overlord is ours (after we fork over 470 million C-Bills). Hawk's people are quick and efficient, but thorough. When we take a look at the place where the HPG was next month, it might as well be a collapsed parking lot. They took everything that wasn't nailed down (and most things that were, too), then collapsed the building place before filling the remains with dirt. The loot that's relevant to us isn't all that great, three Artemis IV fire control systems that were mounted on the turrets, and something Hawk calls a "Mech Mortar (8)". Which is exactly what it sounds like, a mortar that can be mounted on a BattleMech. The tech to make these never really went extinct, it's just that they kind of suck compared to LRMs - you're always firing indirectly, you're getting half the salvo size and less ammo per ton... the only time they're really useful is when you come up against an anti-missile system (which is incapable of targeting mortar rounds for some reason apparently) but just have to have indirect fire capability. We've seen exactly two mechs mounting it - both high-tech Phoenix Hawks during a contract in disputed FedCom/Combine territory. So, not exactly a common usage.

And also we get a stash of about five tons of ferro-fibrous armor. Well, at least that's useful.

Loot gained:
3x Artemis IV targeting system
1x Mech Mortar 8
5 tons Ferro Fibrous armor

Hawk tells us that he'll be undertaking a long-term assignment soon, and may need some mercenary help. He'll be in touch.

---

We spend some time looking at how to upgrade the BattleAxe. Switching the engine to an 280 XL opens up 8 tons of space, which gives us a few options.

We can simply add eight heat sinks. This will make the mech almost completely heat-neutral (unless the mechwarrior alpha strikes and jumps repeatedly). Unexciting, but an overall firepower improvement.

We can add an Artemis IV system to the SRM launcher, and seven heat sinks. Similar to the first option, but trading a slight bit of heat for a little more SRM punch.

The third option is to put the twin shoulder-mounted LRM/5 launchers back into their slots, along with the ton of ammo, and three heat sinks. The idea here would be to alternate firing one PPC and the two LRM launchers to manage heat so that the mech can output a little bit more firepower. This leaves heat management as an issue, but is still a major firepower improvement.

[] +8 heat sinks
[] +7 heat sinks, Artemis IV for the SRM launcher
[] +2x LRM/5 launchers, +1 ton LRM ammo, +3 heat sinks

---

We decide to buy the Annihilator. With the resurgence of Star League tech, if we can get a hold of some double heat sinks, we'll actually have the equipment to upgrade it to the 1G variant, which mounts three gauss rifles and an extended range PPC, or a 1X, which replaces the AC/10s with LBX versions. Either of the upgrades also install some serious additional armor. Practice runs lead us to put it into mothballs for now, as it's just not a very good mech as is.

Repairing the Phoenix Hawk LAM proves to be a nightmare. Our techs are pretty good at mechs, but the LAM's avionics system is spread through out its head and side torso sections, so they struggle reconnecting it in such a manner that transforming the mech doesn't cut the wiring and send it plummeting to the ground (which may or may not have happened during a test flight, but was only about five meters off the ground so AWS and the LAM are both ok). We'll keep working at it.

A couple of our aero jocks suggest mounting the three Artemis IV systems on our Lucifers. Apparently, we put too many double heat sinks on there, and could stand to remove a couple. It's not a bad idea, the Lucifers mount LRM/15s, which benefit pretty well from Artemis IV. We'll just have to buy up some compatible warheads, which shouldn't be a problem since the great houses are basically sticking Artemis IV on everything these days, even crappy conventional fighters.

---

For contract offers, only one really jumps out - the others have either low (30%) or outrageous (20%, exchange) salvage terms. The planetary governor of Evciler, a planet two jumps away from the northern FedCom/Rasalhague border, has expressed a desire to hire our outfit to "suppress what we believe to be Kurita-funded civil unrest". The planet is a pleasantly warm (or way too hot depending on who you ask) world of one hundred million people, focused mostly on raw materials extraction. The local forces are reasonably equipped but completely inexperienced militia, while the "rebels" are a mixture of second-rate off-world mercenaries and disgruntled local miners. If experience is any guide, any theoretical Kurita agents probably don't have to provide much incentive for the civil unrest. But, solving local and systemic governance problems isn't really our bag.

Nitty gritty details:
Green/C allied forces
Regular/F hostiles
Independent command
50% salvage rights
100% transport coverage (after a little negotiation)
6 months contract duration, 6 months travel time one way
60M estimated profit

Our job would be to spend the six months "defending strategic assets" and "suppressing civil unrest which our militia are unable to contain". The pay is a little low, but it's paying work and should be a good shakedown for our Overlord.

[] Take the contract
[] Pass, wait another month

---

The survey work proceeds apace. Our raw materials survey crew (with help from our dropships orbiting overhead) finally located the resource extraction operations that the Capellans were using to supply raw materials to their factories. We can repair that stuff and put it to work. The survey crews have also located several power plants and a "decomissioned" space port that's actually in pretty good shape. We don't have much use for it now, but at some point in the future, it'll be good to have dedicated facilities for dropships rather than just having them land on a field somewhere.

Let's pick one project to focus on.

Spoiler:

Construction costs and times include the construction of supporting infrastructure. Because we've got some built, these costs are less, but as we run out of facilities to repair and re-activate, they'll go up. Costs and times listed are estimates and may change slightly or drastically depending on how things actually go.

[] Open-Air Farming - Hydroponics are efficient, but there's a large group of people who don't enjoy eating beans and nuts for their protein. There's a significant amount of land (almost unlimited from our perspective, really), where we could set up "animal-based" protein production - we'll just have to import the "raw materials". 210k construction cost, 100k/year maintenance, 1 month "construction" time.

Repair "Tier II" Factory - Standard Armor This facility needs a little structural reinforcement, the power generator is out, there are no refined materials available to make the finished product, no raw materials available to make the refined materials, no place for the workers to live (and nothing other than money to make them want to live there in the first place), no food for the workers to eat, and nobody to sell all that stuff to anyway. But we can repair or rebuild what we need to get it going. We've got the option to go semi-automated to reduce staffing requirements, or go Capellan-style to reduce costs.

- [] Semi-Automated = 157M C-Bills, 21.9M/year maintenance
- [] Non-Automated = 105M C-Bills, 13.5M/year maintenance
3 months construction time

[] Reactivate Heat Sink Research Lab This facility looks like everything was shut down gracefully, the power got turned off, the doors locked and everybody left with the expectation of coming back the next day. So we could basically just turn it on and all the equipment will still work and the data will still be there. The main issue is that while we've got plenty of mech techs, we've got nobody with the necessary experience in either theoretical or experimental chemistry and high-energy physics. So until we can invite some folks over to work for us, this facility won't be of much use. 19k "construction" costs, 1.3M/year maintenance (projected based on current academic salaries and available workspace). 3 months construction time.

Repair "Tier II" Factory - Medium Laser Our survey crews have identified another Capellan factory. The structure is just about to collapse, but the equipment inside is intact and can be moved. What's it used for? Manufacturing medium lasers. At peak capacity, the survey crew estimates it would be able to pump out a thousand of the things per year. In addition to providing us with effectively unlimited replacement parts, we could expand or re-tool the assembly line for other types of laser weaponry (Binary Lasers, anyone? lol), or just crank it up and sell the surplus to manufacturers. The downside is that we'll need to set up a lot of support infrastructure, as the components required to make laser cannons are a little more complex than just refined metals. But we do have the option to activate this facility as well.
- [] Semi-Automated = 89M C-Bills, 37.9M/year maintenance
- [] Non-Automated = 60M C-Bills, 23.8M/year maintenance
3 months construction time

[] Activate Power Plants We've surveyed two full-scale fusion power plants that can be re-activated with the appropriate investment (i.e. we're not just flipping a switch). Activating these will mean we don't have to rely exclusively on local power generation for non-critical facilities, which will reduce overall construction and maintenance costs by about 5% (it's simpler to run and maintain wires than it is to maintain 40 different fusion generators). Costs 44.3M, 1M/year maintenance, 1 month construction time.

Current budget: 3.39B C-Bills
Current expenditures: 15.1M C-Bills / month

[Leraje]

[x] +8 heat sinks
[] +7 heat sinks, Artemis IV for the SRM launcher
[] +2x LRM/5 launchers, +1 ton LRM ammo, +3 heat sinks

[] Take the contract
[x] Pass, wait another month

[x] Open-Air Farming - Hydroponics are efficient, but there's a large group of people who don't enjoy eating beans and nuts for their protein. There's a significant amount of land (almost unlimited from our perspective, really), where we could set up "animal-based" protein production - we'll just have to import the "raw materials". 210k construction cost, 100k/year maintenance, 1 month "construction" time.

[gbasden]

[] +8 heat sinks
[X] +7 heat sinks, Artemis IV for the SRM launcher
[] +2x LRM/5 launchers, +1 ton LRM ammo, +3 heat sinks

---

[] Take the contract
[X] Pass, wait another month

---

[X] Activate Power Plants We've surveyed two full-scale fusion power plants that can be re-activated with the appropriate investment (i.e. we're not just flipping a switch). Activating these will mean we don't have to rely exclusively on local power generation for non-critical facilities, which will reduce overall construction and maintenance costs by about 5% (it's simpler to run and maintain wires than it is to maintain 40 different fusion generators). Costs 44.3M, 1M/year maintenance, 1 month construction time.

[$iljanus]

[] +8 heat sinks
[X] +7 heat sinks, Artemis IV for the SRM launcher
[] +2x LRM/5 launchers, +1 ton LRM ammo, +3 heat sinks

---

[] Take the contract
[X] Pass, wait another month

---

[X] Activate Power Plants We've surveyed two full-scale fusion power plants that can be re-activated with the appropriate investment (i.e. we're not just flipping a switch). Activating these will mean we don't have to rely exclusively on local power generation for non-critical facilities, which will reduce overall construction and maintenance costs by about 5% (it's simpler to run and maintain wires than it is to maintain 40 different fusion generators). Costs 44.3M, 1M/year maintenance, 1 month construction time.

Nice planet to visit and shoot things but I was underwhelmed by the payout.

A functional power grid will be useful for future expansion. I can keep eating soylent green for a little while longer.

[El Guapo]

[] +8 heat sinks
[X] +7 heat sinks, Artemis IV for the SRM launcher
[] +2x LRM/5 launchers, +1 ton LRM ammo, +3 heat sinks

---

[] Take the contract
[X] Pass, wait another month

---

[X] Activate Power Plants We've surveyed two full-scale fusion power plants that can be re-activated with the appropriate investment (i.e. we're not just flipping a switch). Activating these will mean we don't have to rely exclusively on local power generation for non-critical facilities, which will reduce overall construction and maintenance costs by about 5% (it's simpler to run and maintain wires than it is to maintain 40 different fusion generators). Costs 44.3M, 1M/year maintenance, 1 month construction time.

I agree with these decisions.

[Zenn7]

[] +8 heat sinks
[X] +7 heat sinks, Artemis IV for the SRM launcher
[] +2x LRM/5 launchers, +1 ton LRM ammo, +3 heat sinks

---

[] Take the contract
[X] Pass, wait another month

---

[X] Activate Power Plants We've surveyed two full-scale fusion power plants that can be re-activated with the appropriate investment (i.e. we're not just flipping a switch). Activating these will mean we don't have to rely exclusively on local power generation for non-critical facilities, which will reduce overall construction and maintenance costs by about 5% (it's simpler to run and maintain wires than it is to maintain 40 different fusion generators). Costs 44.3M, 1M/year maintenance, 1 month construction time.

Nice planet to visit and shoot things but I was underwhelmed by the payout.

A functional power grid will be useful for future expansion. I can keep eating soylent green for a little while longer.

Several of us should be fairly well of by now. We can always import some supplemental food if we get tired of the soylent green.

Speaking of which, anyone seen El Guapo lately? Haven't seen him since before supper...

[El Guapo]

Hey guys! Whatcha eatin'?

ALSO - since we don't have much use for the mortar on our mechs, can we put it on a blimp? I've taken the liberty of drawing up a few schematics...

[AWS260]

[] +8 heat sinks
[X] +7 heat sinks, Artemis IV for the SRM launcher
[] +2x LRM/5 launchers, +1 ton LRM ammo, +3 heat sinks

---

[] Take the contract
[X] Pass, wait another month

---

[X] Activate Power Plants We've surveyed two full-scale fusion power plants that can be re-activated with the appropriate investment (i.e. we're not just flipping a switch). Activating these will mean we don't have to rely exclusively on local power generation for non-critical facilities, which will reduce overall construction and maintenance costs by about 5% (it's simpler to run and maintain wires than it is to maintain 40 different fusion generators). Costs 44.3M, 1M/year maintenance, 1 month construction time.

Yes, yes, yes.

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

+8 heat sinks - 1
+7 heat sinks/artemis - everyone else

pass on contract - unanimous

power plants - unanimous

We decide to pass on the contract. The pay isn't that great, and nobody in the company is particularly interested in "civil unrest management".

The BattleAxe goes into the shop for an XL Engine + extra heat sink + Artemis refit, as do a pair of our Lucifer fighters (including one from Epsilon company that we never got around to upgrading with double heat sinks).

Repair work begins on the power plants. Between getting the required technical expertise in from the nearby St. Ives compact and FedCom space and actual construction work, it'll take a little more than the month we initially estimated. Understandable - in the words of one of the experts we bring in, "fixin' fusion plants ain't like dusting crops, boy". But the vast majority of the costs are for parts, not labor, so it's "only" a time overrun of 100%, not a cost overrun.

AWS continues practicing with the LAM, figuring out the basics of flying, if not of transforming yet. The aero jocks are pretty merciless in their teasing, but our mechwarrior perseveres.

Hyena, what do you want to improve:
[] gunnery from 3 to 2
[] piloting from 3 to 2

We've got three contract offers, of which one is a non-starter ("Exchange" salvage? pass.)

The first is from Hawk. He's asking for five mech lances (but as part of our business structure, we only do deployments in company-sized increments with aerospace and dropship support), so he'll be getting two companies and two aerospace squadrons. Anyway, we'll be working "on behalf of" the "Draconis Combine" to conduct a series of objective raids on industrial and commercial complexes on the Federated Commonwealth world of Errai (although if you ask the Draconis Combine, it belongs to them) over the course of five months. Further details will be provided once we sign the contract and NDA, but the expected opposition is a mixture of corporate, planetary and "unaffiliated" militia. We'll catch a ride on Hawk's jumpship and work alongside his units. His people will handle the "in person" interaction and spook stuff, we'll be the muscle.

Details:
100% transport coverage
40% salvage rights
liaison command
regular/d allies
regular/d estimated opposition
5 month contract duration
2.5 month travel time (one way)
180M estimated profit

The second offer is from a representative from the Taurian Concordat. They want us to conduct an objective raid to degrade raw material production on the planet Wrentham (owned by the Federated Commonwealth) in the Capellan march. Pretty straightforward. Our estimated force commitment is a batallion, which will fit perfectly in our Overlord. We'll be working alongside a Taurian liaison and minimal supporting forces. The defending forces are expected to be poorly equipped planetary and corporate militia.

Details:
100% transport coverage
50% salvage rights
liaison command
regular/d allies
regular/f estimated opposition
3 month contract duration
1.5 month travel time (one way)
91M estimated profit

We can comfortably do both and we'll be able to leave a token garrison on Dowles as well.

[] Take the Errai raid contract
[] Take the Wrentham raid contract
[] Pass, wait a month

[Hyena]

[] +8 heat sinks
[X] +7 heat sinks, Artemis IV for the SRM launcher
[] +2x LRM/5 launchers, +1 ton LRM ammo, +3 heat sinks

---

[] Take the contract
[X] Pass, wait another month

---

[X] Activate Power Plants We've surveyed two full-scale fusion power plants that can be re-activated with the appropriate investment (i.e. we're not just flipping a switch). Activating these will mean we don't have to rely exclusively on local power generation for non-critical facilities, which will reduce overall construction and maintenance costs by about 5% (it's simpler to run and maintain wires than it is to maintain 40 different fusion generators). Costs 44.3M, 1M/year maintenance, 1 month construction time.

Yes, yes, yes.

Yes.

[Hyena]

Hyena, what do you want to improve:
[X] gunnery from 3 to 2
[] piloting from 3 to 2

Be nice to fry things a bit better, but piloting is going to be my next upgrade for certain...

[Leraje]

[x] Take the Errai raid contract
[] Take the Wrentham raid contract
[] Pass, wait a month

Might as well keep building up the relationship.

[El Guapo]

[x] Take the Errai raid contract
[] Take the Wrentham raid contract
[] Pass, wait a month

Might as well keep building up the relationship.

Hawk is a FedCom guy, right? So we would be pretending to do raids on behalf of Kurita (but actually on behalf of Davion) against a Davion world (or at least, a world temporarily occupied by Davion) - is that right?

[Leraje]

[x] Take the Errai raid contract
[] Take the Wrentham raid contract
[] Pass, wait a month

Might as well keep building up the relationship.

Hawk is a FedCom guy, right? So we would be pretending to do raids on behalf of Kurita (but actually on behalf of Davion) against a Davion world (or at least, a world temporarily occupied by Davion) - is that right?

Yup.

[El Guapo]

[x] Take the Errai raid contract
[] Take the Wrentham raid contract
[] Pass, wait a month

Might as well keep building up the relationship.

Hawk is a FedCom guy, right? So we would be pretending to do raids on behalf of Kurita (but actually on behalf of Davion) against a Davion world (or at least, a world temporarily occupied by Davion) - is that right?

Yup.

Ok. I'm fine with that, then. But just to be clear, is FedCom's goal here to start a war or something?

[$iljanus]

[x] Take the Errai raid contract
[] Take the Wrentham raid contract
[] Pass, wait a month

Might as well keep building up the relationship.

Hawk is a FedCom guy, right? So we would be pretending to do raids on behalf of Kurita (but actually on behalf of Davion) against a Davion world (or at least, a world temporarily occupied by Davion) - is that right?

Yup.

We're not being set up as some kind of weird fall guy in a chess game between the major houses, are we?

Other than that, take the Errai contract.

[Zenn7]

[x] Take the Errai raid contract
[] Take the Wrentham raid contract
[] Pass, wait a month

Might as well keep building up the relationship.

Hawk is a FedCom guy, right? So we would be pretending to do raids on behalf of Kurita (but actually on behalf of Davion) against a Davion world (or at least, a world temporarily occupied by Davion) - is that right?

Yup.

Ok. I'm fine with that, then. But just to be clear, is FedCom's goal here to start a war or something?

Maybe I'm confusing this with my Battletech game (with the mod's where Nick wrote some of the news blurbs), but I thought there was already a war going on or heating up?

And I'm good with this one. Not so excited about the other one and hitting Fed Com? How much does it hurt our relationship with them if we hit them?

[NickAragua]

It's 3047, so it's been about seven years since the war of '39. Since then, there haven't been any major conflicts. Tensions are ratcheting up again, but right now international conflicts are all targeted cross-border raids and covert operations. Most of the work we have is for planetary militias, corporations and individuals.

As for taking the contract vs FedCom, "it's just business" as long as we keep it relatively civilized and don't commit any war crimes.

[Zenn7]

It's 3047, so it's been about seven years since the war of '39. Since then, there haven't been any major conflicts. Tensions are ratcheting up again, but right now international conflicts are all targeted cross-border raids and covert operations. Most of the work we have is for planetary militias, corporations and individuals.

As for taking the contract vs FedCom, "it's just business" as long as we keep it relatively civilized and don't commit any war crimes.

In that case, yeah, let's take the other contract too. Not making money sitting around, it's doesn't sound great, but it doesn't sound bad.

[gbasden]

[x] Take the Errai raid contract
[] Take the Wrentham raid contract
[] Pass, wait a month

Might as well keep building up the relationship.

This.

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Errai raid contract - 6
Wrentham - 2
pass - 1

We sign the contract and Hawk gets down to business.

The basic idea is that he's trying to track down a fairly extensive operation smuggling, in his words, "FedCom party favors", into the Draconis Combine. One of the source points is Errai. Apparently, legal approaches to the problem have not worked out - it seems that some evidence was either improperly gathered, or mysteriously disappeared; witnessed suddenly changed their minds, judges overseeing the prosecution of offending companies issued unfavorable rulings, etc.

Hawk chuckles. "Apparently, one of the witnesses I had lined up managed to trip and fall out of a window and break his neck. Another was really clumsy and slipped into about twenty bullets fired from a TK rifle." He shakes his head.

Our role will be to locate and destroy designated facilities. The local militia is not being informed of this (since they're probably in on the smuggling action), and we don't want to be identified, so we'll be getting some House Kurita paintjobs on our mechs and fake transponders for our dropships. We're to attempt to minimize collateral damage, since these are FedCom guys we'll be blowing up.

We'll be bringing two mech companies and aerospace support, which means the two Unions and the Seeker - the Overlord is a little too conspicuous for this particular operation. Hawk will be jumping in on his own, bringing some mechs and aerospace fighters as well. He also expects to be able to rustle up some tank support on the ground.

Scrub's on her honeymoon, so Zenn7 will be in charge for this operation. The BattleAxe isn't finished refitting (it'll take a few months), so we'll be leaving it behind for now. We'll also be consolidating mechwarriors from across a few different companies, pulling the most restless mechwarriors from the company in (we've got exactly 24 player-claimed mechwarriors!) on this mission. The other guys will get to hang out half a year or so for some R&R.

We're bringing the two Lucifers upgraded with Artemis IV-enabled LRM launchers, so that'll be... probably fairly unspecatacular to try, actually. Artemis IV is only a slight improvement on missile targeting, so it's only really worth it for larger racks. If we upgrade a Catapult with some kind of high tech toys and have room left over after maxing out the armor, bringing the LRM racks to 20s and adding more ammo, Artemis IV is something that we *may* consider. After CASE.

Nothing terribly interesting happens en route to Errai. We spend our time going over recon reports, doing VR combat sims.

Our approach to the planet is unchallenged until we start the atmospheric entry burn, at which point some enthusiastic local militia launch aerospace fighters to intercept. We can either stay together, which will enable us to easily repel any attacks but will virtually guarantee that they'll be able to track us to wherever we land (and ground forces will hound us once we get down there). Or, we can split up. It'll make the individual dropships harder to track, but the locals may get enthusiastic and attempt to attack one.

[] Keep together
[] Scatter

[Zenn7]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Errai raid contract - 6
Wrentham - 2
pass - 1

We sign the contract and Hawk gets down to business.

The basic idea is that he's trying to track down a fairly extensive operation smuggling, in his words, "FedCom party favors", into the Draconis Combine. One of the source points is Errai. Apparently, legal approaches to the problem have not worked out - it seems that some evidence was either improperly gathered, or mysteriously disappeared; witnessed suddenly changed their minds, judges overseeing the prosecution of offending companies issued unfavorable rulings, etc.

Hawk chuckles. "Apparently, one of the witnesses I had lined up managed to trip and fall out of a window and break his neck. Another was really clumsy and slipped into about twenty bullets fired from a TK rifle." He shakes his head.

Our role will be to locate and destroy designated facilities. The local militia is not being informed of this (since they're probably in on the smuggling action), and we don't want to be identified, so we'll be getting some House Kurita paintjobs on our mechs and fake transponders for our dropships. We're to attempt to minimize collateral damage, since these are FedCom guys we'll be blowing up.

We'll be bringing two mech companies and aerospace support, which means the two Unions and the Seeker - the Overlord is a little too conspicuous for this particular operation. Hawk will be jumping in on his own, bringing some mechs and aerospace fighters as well. He also expects to be able to rustle up some tank support on the ground.

Scrub's on her honeymoon, so Zenn7 will be in charge for this operation. The BattleAxe isn't finished refitting (it'll take a few months), so we'll be leaving it behind for now. We'll also be consolidating mechwarriors from across a few different companies, pulling the most restless mechwarriors from the company in (we've got exactly 24 player-claimed mechwarriors!) on this mission. The other guys will get to hang out half a year or so for some R&R.

We're bringing the two Lucifers upgraded with Artemis IV-enabled LRM launchers, so that'll be... probably fairly unspecatacular to try, actually. Artemis IV is only a slight improvement on missile targeting, so it's only really worth it for larger racks. If we upgrade a Catapult with some kind of high tech toys and have room left over after maxing out the armor, bringing the LRM racks to 20s and adding more ammo, Artemis IV is something that we *may* consider. After CASE.

Nothing terribly interesting happens en route to Errai. We spend our time going over recon reports, doing VR combat sims.

Our approach to the planet is unchallenged until we start the atmospheric entry burn, at which point some enthusiastic local militia launch aerospace fighters to intercept. We can either stay together, which will enable us to easily repel any attacks but will virtually guarantee that they'll be able to track us to wherever we land (and ground forces will hound us once we get down there). Or, we can split up. It'll make the individual dropships harder to track, but the locals may get enthusiastic and attempt to attack one.

[] Keep together
[] Scatter

Sending the locals back to the ground (in pieces/ashes) is not an option?

[NickAragua]

Sending the locals back to the ground (in pieces/ashes) is not an option?

Depends on if they attempt to engage our dropships.

[El Guapo]

Our approach to the planet is unchallenged until we start the atmospheric entry burn, at which point some enthusiastic local militia launch aerospace fighters to intercept. We can either stay together, which will enable us to easily repel any attacks but will virtually guarantee that they'll be able to track us to wherever we land (and ground forces will hound us once we get down there). Or, we can split up. It'll make the individual dropships harder to track, but the locals may get enthusiastic and attempt to attack one.

[X] Keep together
[] Scatter

Never split the party.

[AWS260]

[] Keep together
[X] Scatter