Some day, fellas. Some day.
"We'll get it done." Gbasden sends out a terse reply.
Our rented Mule dropship swaps jumpships to one headed "our way". En route, we hire a few extra mechwarriors and assign two of them to Delta Lance. As the jumpship makes its final jump, our techs pull the mechs out of their boxes. The pilot puts us down in an isolated, unobserved location then informs us that he'll be back on November 7th. We better be there.
Well, time to get to work. We scuttle off to a pre-selected base location in the mountains. Alpha and Beta lance are tasked with sweeping the surrounding area for sensor stations and destroying them. Delta lance begins reconaissance operations to find the optimal route to the target, along with local force dispositions. About a week passes before we make contact with enemy units.
August 21st, 3029
Delta lance runs into what appears to be a unit of enemy trainees out on exercises. Two lances of light mechs with a single Phoenix Hawk, a couple of helicopters along for observation and a lance and a half of vehicles. To avoid revealing ourselves too early, we hold the air support - Delta can take care of this themselves. Probably.
Delta Lance is Gbasden in a Wolverine, Archinerd in a Dervish, Cylus Maxii and Xwraith Mk II in a Phoenix Hawk, as well as a pair of newbies in a Griffin 1N and Stinger 3G. The Griffin pilot informs us that she's picking up another lance of enemy mechs in-bound soon-ish. So we better wrap this up then make ourselves scarce.
The main threats in the enemy force are a Hunter light support tank (packing two LRM/15s) and a Saracen hover tank with its SRM launchers. The terrain is pretty open, which favors the enemy units a little bit. No problem though, gale-force winds are going to screw with projectile attacks, and from all the wobbling going on, this really does look like a training company.
Round 1:
Cylus Maxii almost takes a head shot from an LRM but manages to duck aside at the last moment (edge reroll!). He retaliates against a nearby Scorpion tank, burning through the right side armor with lasers, causing the crew to stop firing and put themselves out. Xwraith strips the armor off the Javelin's left torso with a large laser, while Gbasden works on the nearby Vedette. Despite the gale-force winds, Archinerd manages to score a few LRM hits on that Javelin as well, with a few missiles dinging the dome. Our Griffin whiffs her PPC shot against whatever she was shooting at but does kick the leg off an approaching Wasp.
Round 2:
The fight degenerates into a melee, although we manage to keep from being completely surrounded. Archinerd takes a break from LRMs, scoring a laser hit across the Hunter's tracks. Gbasden takes a few laser hits but keeps going, then dodges an enemy Wasp's kick, causing it to fall over. Our Griffin jumps off and nails the downed Wasp with the PPC, blowing off an arm. The enemy pilot knocks himself out trying to get up with just one arm and leg.
Round 3:
One of our mechwarriors takes another look at the sensor readings, and that Urbanmech trashcan to the east has an AC/20! Let's uh, stay clear. The high gravity makes it a bit difficult to jump around - Xwraith damages the internal leg structure in an awkward landing. Cylus Maxii burns through a Wasp's center torso, "lightly touching" the gyro with a large laser, but getting absolutely pounded by a "Fire Javelin", taking four medium laser hits. Both him and his target go down, although the Wasp pilot blacks out. Archinerd continues working on the damaged enemy Javelin, burning armor off the arm, but takes a medium laser to the back side. A salvo of weapons fire from the Javelin forces him to a knee.
Round 4:
Gbasden and Cylus Maxii retreat to the north, while Archinerd and Xwraith split to the south. The Griffin and Stinger cover the northwest. Gbasden burns the armor and most of the left arm off the Stinger harassing Cylus Maxii, who takes a shoulder hit from the Fire Javelin, before the Stinger saws the weakened arm off completely. Xwraith comes after the damaged Javelin, burning the right leg and left torso armor off. Physical attacks result in a *lot* of whiffs. Three mechs fall over, including the enemy Fire Javelin and Phoenix Hawk, and poor Cylus Maxii's PXH goes down again as well.
Round 5:
He's down an arm and on the ground but not out and comes chasing after a Stinger. We consolidate our position a little bit. The enemy Phoenix Hawk takes some time to get up and comes out much worse for wear. XWraith opens up on it as it's trying to get up and wrecks the left leg. "Sit back down!". The Stinger pounds the Hunter with lasers, and the vehicle finally stops moving as its tracks slip off. Cylus Maxii damages the target Stinger's leg severely with a kick as well.
Round 6:
The Phoenix Hawk pilot and has had enough and bails out as the enemy's backup lance shows up to the east. The pilot of the Wasp that got gyroed earlier tries to get up but just can't do it, as the mech falls to the ground and basically shatters. The Wasp to the south tries to get up, but fails and the pilot blacks out again, this time probably for good.
Our Stinger jumps behind the Javelin, putting lasers through the rear right torso, destroying that section and blowing off an arm. Archinerd follows up with some lasers and SRMs, wrecking right leg actuators, forcing the mech to the ground. Gbasden strips the armor off the nearby Scorpion tank with lasers and a boot. Other than that, another frenzy of missed kicks with two of our mechs taking knees and one of theirs winding up on the ground.
Round 7:
Cylus Maxii takes some time to get up but manages not to damage his mech. The Javelin pilot somehow manages to stand up (although his other torso section comes off) and begins to beat a retreat. The mech is basically two legs attached to a center torso with a cockpit wobbling around. The bad part is that the fresh enemy lance is one turn away from the fight.
Gbasden immobilizes the enemy Saracen to the north, breaching its armor and damaging motive elements. The Griffin heavily damages the enemy Fire Javelin with a PPC, burning off two left arm actuators. Cylus Maxii continues getting plowed, losing a shoulder actuator and jump jets - as soon as he can, he's retreating.
Round 8:
There we go, that's the beat up Phoenix Hawk safe(r). Weapons fire is mostly whiffs, as there's a lot of jumping and confusion. However, our Stinger rips the treads off a Vedette with a boot, while Gbasden boots the right leg off an enemy Stinger, knocking the little mech to the ground. Xwraith kicks the enemy Fire Javelin, knocking it down as well.
Round 9:
The enemy Stinger knocks himself out trying to get up. Go figure. We take some unfortunate damage during firing while missing way too much, although Xwraith destroys the Fire Javelin's left arm, then kicks the leg out from under it, knocking it over. Archinerd fires off a salvo of LRMs at a Vedette, the vehicles machinegun taking a missile meant for a more important component.
Round 10:
Cylus Maxii walks off the field. As Xwraith jumps away, the enemy Fire Javelin repeatedly crunches his mech against the ground (presumably trying to get up) and knocks himself out. "Ok, you see that approaching trashcan with an AC/20 strapped on? Kill it." Gbasden tells Archinerd as he lasers a Vedette's tracks. Xwraith gets the drop on the enemy reinforcement lance, and suddenly that Stinger is not so fresh any more, having lost two jump jets from a rear laser attack, and a heat sink from a kick. Not to mention being face first in the dirt. Archinerd's mech loses the left arm to a Vedette's medium laser, which is not so hot. He does scores multiple hits on the Urbanmech and crack open the offending Vedette's armor with a medium laser though. Our Stinger pilot has finally had enough of that stupid little helicopter buzzing around and lasers the rotor.
Round 11:
An enemy Stinger pilot wakes up only to fail at getting up and blacks out again. The retreating Javelin decides to make a break for it with jump jets. Seeing as how it's a wobbling stick with two legs attached to it, the pilot loses balance and falls over, cracking the engine shielding and a jump jet. Two enemy mechs try to dogpile on Gbasden, who holds his ground, delivering a headshot to the approaching Firestarter with a large laser. Our Griffin capitalizes on the enemy mechwarriors momentary confusion, taking the head off with the PPC. Gbasden and Xwraith double team the "fresh" enemy Wasp, each kicking off a leg.
The Firestarter must have been the leader, because everyone else suddenly turns tail and runs, leaving the field to us. Our techs quickly salvage some mechs and tanks for armor, leaving the rest on the battlefield to avoid any Liao retribution. We also wind up with seven prisoners, who we will spend some time getting to know. Delta's mechs are in pretty bad shape, but most of them should be fixable thanks to spare parts from the salvaged Phoenix Hawk. We'll have to plot an alternate route to and from the target, this one is way too close to an enemy training facility.
